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Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet

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Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet
Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

In this delightful, well-written, and fully documented 276-page (of text) book, with 25 pages of notes, you will discover a wonderful, fully absorbing, history book that, in my mind, completely and satisfactorily answers the question the authors set out to answer: How does history help us understand the vast changes we are now experiencing in the landscape of knowledge? Further, what are the pivotal points of institutional change and cultural transformation from the classical period to the present?

With Reinventing Knowledge you must enjoy an intellectual challenge, it is true, but if you are interested in the key institutions (i.e., the library, the monastery, the university, the republic of letters, the disciplines, and the laboratory) that have shaped and channeled knowledge in the West, this is certainly a book that will both dazzle and exhilarate your senses.

Because of my background in speech communication, I was particularly drawn to the early section in which they explain the public arenas of democratic Athens where competitive speech and writing took center stage, but were considered an inferior path to truth. There was, then, a shift to knowledge as written then, in another shift, to libraries that could produce Homer's epics as well as the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible -- which made knowledge portable. In yet another shift, monasteries arose as key knowledge institutions to not just preserve written culture of the ancient past but create new frameworks for understanding as well.

It was with the creation of universities that knowledge was again embraced and there was an emphasis on performance, use of the spoken word, and the questioning of texts. This is how the authors proceed through the book, and it makes for fascinating reading.

This ambitious book surveys the history of knowledge from ancient times to the present. More than just a historical catalogue of events and institutions, this book sets forth an argument that institutions of knowledge have changed, adapted, and evolved over the centuries, and that "knowledge has been fundamentally reinvented fully six times in the history of the West" (Book at p. 253). In setting forth their argument, the authors discuss and examine six institutions of knowledge: the library, the monastery, the university, the Republic of Letters, the disciplines, and the laboratory. The authors take an interdisciplinary approach -- using history, philosophy, biography, and sociology -- to examine those six institutions of knowledge. Each chapter on the six institutions of knowledge could be the subject of a separate book, so the reader should not expect a complete and comprehensive discussion of each of the six institutions.

Although the book is extremely ambitious in its breadth and scope, it is generally written in a fairly readable style that is accessible to the general public and non-experts. But, it is not for casual reading and requires some thought and attention from the reader to follow the book's argument. As an intellectual history, this book is interesting, informative, and thought-provoking. Although it is a good survey and worthwhile introduction to institutions of knowledge, this book should not be read as the definitive book on the subject.

The idea that knowledge is created and transmitted by different institutions is a good one and this book addresses the topic well. There is a lot of detail about each of the historical stages. Where the book falls down is that it written is so un-engaging a manner. It is downright tedious and boring in parts where details are too many and written in a dry, scholarly style, rather than a more accessible manner for the lay reader.

While it is clear that knowledge has been growing at an increasing rate, the importance of this growth on culture has been largely ignored and so we have no understanding about where we go from the present day in terms of knowledge generation, use in the population and how that will impact societies.

I wanted a book written by academic historians that would be accessible to an amateur, and this was exactly what a I got. Full of a lot of ideas and concepts that were new to me, and yet still very readable.

Edit of 29 August 2008: Am adding a couple of images to help clarify the importance of actually understanding new ways of creating, sharing, and leveraging knowledge. YES, the Internet has led to an order of magnitude or more knowledge creation and sharing but NO, it has not led to a dramatic change in the definition of knowledge or the role played by knowledge.

With a tip of the hat to SALON and book reviewer Laura Miller, whose review can be found at the URL in the comment, I want to add this book to those I recommend for the growing body of citizens who are truly skeptical of the Internet as a panacea, and suspicious of Google and other "snake oil" vendors.

Use the "see inside the book" feature just under the book cover above to examine details provided by the publisher.

Bottom line: we are entering a period when the "wealth of networks" may reinvent knowledge, but having read and reviewed The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals And Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World only to be stunned at the end with its discussion of how many non-human primates are learning 500-1000 human words in sign language, I am now convinced, from a system of systems perspective, that the next big leap in reinventing knowledge will be not the emergence of smart mobs, armies of davids, the power of us, but rather, when Pierre Tielhard de Chardin's noosphere becomes a reality, and all living things have co-equal standing "in communion" with one another.

The nicest thing I can say about this book, other than to recommend it, is to link to other books that support the thesis the book presents: the Internet is NOT the big leap forward.

See also:

In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations
Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway
The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It
The Age of Missing Information
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
The Biodiversity Crisis: Losing What Counts (American Museum of Natural History Books)
The First Idea: How Symbols, Language, And Intelligence Evolved From Our Primate Ancestors To Modern Humans