A comprehensive account of the methods of knowledge production throughout human history and across the globe. The idea that the world can be understood through patterns and the principles that govern them is one of the most important human insights—it may also be our greatest survival strategy. Our search for patterns and principles began 40,000 years ago, when striped patterns were engraved on mammoths' bones to keep track of the moon's phases. What routes did human knowledge take to grow from these humble beginnings through many detours and dead ends into modern understandings of nature and culture? In this work of unprecedented scope, Rens Bod removes the Western natural sciences from their often-central role to bring us the first global history of human knowledge. Having sketched the history of the humanities in his ground-breaking A New History of the Humanities, Bod now adopts a broader perspective, stepping beyond classical antiquity back to the Stone Age to answer the question: Where did our knowledge of the world today begin and how did it develop? Drawing on developments from all five continents of the inhabited world, World of Patterns offers startling connections. Focusing on a dozen fields—ranging from astronomy, philology, medicine, law, and mathematics to history, botany, and musicology—Bod examines to what degree their progressions can be considered interwoven and to what degree we can speak of global trends. In this pioneering work, Bod aims to fulfill what he sees as the historian's responsibility: to grant access to history's goldmine of ideas. Bod discusses how inoculation was invented in China rather than Europe; how many of the fundamental aspects of modern mathematics and astronomy were first discovered by the Indian Kerala school; and how the study of law provided fundamental models for astronomy and linguistics from Roman to Ottoman times. The book flies across continents and eras. The result is an enlightening symphony, a stirring chorus of human inquisitiveness extending through the ages.

The acclaimed science writer “curates a visually striking, riotously colorful photographic display…of physical patterns in the natural world” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Though at first glance the natural world may appear overwhelming in its diversity and complexity, there are regularities running through it, from the hexagons of a honeycomb to the spirals of a seashell and the branching veins of a leaf. Revealing the order at the foundation of the seemingly chaotic natural world, Patterns in Nature explores not only the math and science but also the beauty and artistry behind nature’s awe-inspiring designs. Unlike the patterns we create, natural patterns are formed spontaneously from the forces that act in the physical world. Very often the same types of pattern and form—such as spirals, stripes, branches, and fractals—recur in places that seem to have nothing in common, as when the markings of a zebra mimic the ripples in windblown sand. But many of these patterns can be described using the same mathematical and physical principles, giving a surprising unity to the kaleidoscope of the natural world. Richly illustrated with 250 color photographs and anchored by accessible and insightful chapters by esteemed science writer Philip Ball, Patterns in Nature reveals the organization at work in vast and ancient forests, powerful rivers, massing clouds, and coastlines carved out by the sea. By exploring similarities such as the branches of a tree and those of a river network, this spectacular visual tour conveys the wonder, beauty, and richness of natural pattern formation.

Patterns of World History offers a distinct framework for understanding the global past through the study of origins, interactions, and adaptations. Authors Peter von Sivers, Charles A. Desnoyers, and George Stow--each specialists in their respective fields--examine the full range of human ingenuity over time and space in a comprehensive, even-handed, and critical fashion. The book helps students to see and understand patterns through: ORIGINS - INTERACTIONS - ADAPTATIONS These key features show the O-I-A framework in action: * Seeing Patterns, a list of key questions at the beginning of each chapter, focuses students on the 3-5 over-arching patterns, which are revisited, considered, and synthesized at the end of the chapter in Thinking Through Patterns. * Each chapter includes a Patterns Up Close case study that brings into sharp relief the O-I-A pattern using a specific idea or thing that has developed in human history (and helped, in turn, develop human history), like the innovation of the Chinese writing system or religious syncretism in India. Each case study clearly shows how an innovation originated either in one geographical center or independently in several different centers. It demonstrates how, as people in the centers interacted with their neighbors, the neighbors adapted to--and in many cases were transformed by--the idea, object, or event. Adaptations include the entire spectrum of human responses, ranging from outright rejection to creative borrowing and, at times, forced acceptance. * Concept Maps at the end of each chapter use compelling graphical representations of ideas and information to help students remember and relate the big patterns of the chapter.

This collection of tiling patterns contains over 4,000 images combining the wonders of art and mathematics. It is catalogued according to the source, and indexed by the properties of each pattern.Admire the work in the Alhambra, some striking patterns by M C Escher, or the mathematical genius Kepler … all on one CD-ROM.The accompanying 32-page booklet describes the components of the system and the means of using the material to design your own patterns.System requirements: Any computer with an Internet browser and a CD-ROM drive.

In this text, Smith is interested not so much in drawing a general outline ofhe different world faiths through their "facts", as giving an insight intohe personal significance of these "facts" for the individuals who practiseheir respective faiths.

"Though fields such as art history, the history of philosophy, and intellectual history have been around for a long time, the author's interest is in the history of what scholars in all of these fields are doing in common. This book looks beyond the humanities to the practice of disciplined inquiry more generally, bringing together the history of the humanities and the sciences under the guise of a unified search for patterns"--