>The decline of polymathy, then, suggests a broader crisis. For Burke, it is a crisis of too much information. The seventeenth century was a “golden age of poly

>The decline of polymathy, then, suggests a broader crisis. For Burke, it is a crisis of too much information. The seventeenth century was a “golden age of polymaths”, as explorers found new regions, the scientific method flourished, and the postal service and the proliferation of journals allowed scholars to trade ideas. But those same forces led to “information overload”. I believe it's not just information overload, it's also the amount of entertainment in conjunction with incentives and overall people's education. I also venture to say there may be other variables at play like eating habits, some of which are known to provoke (mental) illnesses, etc. It's a tough problem to solve.