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Encyclopedic knowledge


The concept of encyclopedic knowledge was once attributed to exceptionally well-read or knowledgeable persons such as Plato, Aristotle, Hildegard von Bingen, Leonardo da Vinci, Immanuel Kant, or G.W.F. Hegel. Professor Tom Rockmore described Hegel, for example, as a polymath and "a modern Aristotle, perhaps the last person to know everything of value that was known during his lifetime." Such persons are generally described as such based on their deep cognitive grasp of multiple and diverse fields of inquiry—an intellectually exceptional subset of philosophers who might also be differentiated from the multi-talented, the genius, or the "Renaissance man."

It is no longer considered realistic, or feasible, for any one person to be truthfully described as having encyclopedic knowledge. The concept has been subsumed into the discourses on the production of knowledge and artificial intelligence. Instead, we are now preoccupied with knowledge bases distributed as software or web services.

The idea of encyclopedic knowledge has made many appearances in popular culture and literature. In 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced his fictional master sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, who applied his keen deductive acumen and prodigious range of knowledge to solve his cases. Encyclopedia Brown is a series of books by Donald J. Sobol featuring the adventures of boy detective Leroy Brown, nicknamed "Encyclopedia" for his intelligence and range of knowledge that was first published in 1963. One of the most celebrated is the fictional Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the late Douglas Adams which began its evolution through numerous mediums as a British radio program in 1978. In 2004, NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs published The Know-It-All, about his experience reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from start to finish.


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