Darrin McMahon, “Deconstructing Genius” (Open Agenda, 2021)
New Books in Science, Technology, and Society
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Are the Best Poets Just Have It?
Debate over whether genius is innate, or can it be taught goes back to the ancient world. The romans had this idea of agenum - your inherent talent as opposed to what's acquired through learning and training. And in the christian tradition, for a long time, there was a notion that saints revealed wisdom to peopler. So you get enlightenment rationalists who begin to be very sceptical of earlier notions of divine infusion. John locke crystallizes many people sot of tweak and eighteenth century.
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