Universality Theory of Genius

The theory of universality of genius

The theory of universality (from Latin Universalis – universal, all-encompassing, global, relating to the whole, to the Universe) states that the distinctive and at the same time essential feature of genius is its universality, which consists in comprehensiveness, planetary, all-encompassing view of reality, extreme openness to the world, in imperative, permeating all forms of activity striving for completeness and integrity.
At the same time, genius, as “homo universalis” (universal man), is distinguished by the breadth and variety of interests, versatility, extraordinary erudition, depth of knowledge in various fields, diversity of talents and the ability to achieve outstanding results in various types of creativity.
This theory states that the genius possesses a unique combination of creative gifts and abilities, a special mental organization, reflecting the invariant structure of the Universe.
Thus, N.V. Goncharenko singled out the most important independent characteristics of universality:
1. “The quality of outlook and creativity, which is characterized by the ability to grasp the rhythm, harmony and breath of the universe, to comprehend, often the hidden regular connection of causes and effects, to determine the dominant direction in the development of science, art, spiritual life…”
2. The ability to various types of creativity, supplemented by the breadth of outlook and amount of knowledge.

The universal and holistic worldview of a genius

Universal worldview and attitude to the world consists in the perception of the universe as a self-sustaining, organic, living whole and in the understanding of things and events as manifestations, and explications of this whole. The universal genius sees in every phenomenon and fact the presence of the whole pressing over everything, and tries to bring them under the most universal, invariant and transversal laws of the structure and development of the world.
Genius has a holistic, systemic vision of the world, which implies the consideration of objects as integral objects and, at the same time, as parts of more complex wholes.
The universality of genius is manifested in its aspiration to the Infinite, the Eternal, the Universal, in the ability to cognitive and spiritual resonance with the Universe, in the ability to dissolve in the world and accommodate it in oneself, to comprehend its fundamental principles, to experience its rhythm, beauty and harmony.
Universality is an understanding of the world in which its objects, phenomena and events are correlated with the Whole, which acts as the generating essence, meaning-making and explanatory centre of the universal world.
Universality, as an explication of the Whole, is the most important dimension, the cornerstone semantic axis, the essential characteristic of genius, one of the four pillars, along with Freedom, Possibility and Interaction, on which the world of genius is built.
At the same time, it represents the generating centre of a special meaningful space that conditions, makes possible, gives meaning to, and determines the existence of genius. Otto Weininger wrote: “The infinity of the universe corresponds to the infinity in the genius’s own chest. His inner world includes chaos and cosmos. All particulars and all general, all diversity and all unity”.
The worldview of the universal genius is characterized by comprehensiveness, completeness, diversity, and the ultimate openness and total acceptance of the world. “I hold all views,” wrote Johan August Strindberg, “I profess all religions, I live in all epochs, and I have ceased to be myself. This state gives an indescribable feeling of happiness”

According to M. Epstein, today we can talk about the formation of an independent science – universics, the field of study and understanding of the universal. Universics is a consciousness of the world that reflects its properties as a whole, i.e. it is as universal as the Universe itself. The category “universal” denotes versatility, the inherent ability of a single phenomenon to turn to different sides.

Identifying the universal harmony of the world

The universe is built and functions according to the laws of beauty and creativity. The genius, comprehending its universal structures and ultimate meanings, revealing its most general and stable connections, intuitively grasping, experiencing and expressing its meanings and cosmic harmony, becomes commensurate with the creative universe, its living embodiment and messenger in the phenomenal worlds.
Genius is able to grasp not only the wholes in their entirety and connectedness but also to feel the essential deep structures, proportions, beauty and harmony of the whole.
Even Pythagoras, believing that harmony permeates the entire universe and is equally inherent in nature and art, wrote: “The same laws exist for musical harmonies and planets”. Genius has the ability to see the hidden harmony and beauty of things and is endowed with the gift of expressing it in his work. Leonardo da Vinci wrote: “The painter embodies in the form of proportion the same patterns lurking in nature, which in the form of the numerical law cognizes the scientist”.
Н. K. Gavryushin, analyzing the work of I. Kepler, M. Mersenne and A. Kircher, “who were united by a belief dating back to the Pythagoreans in the musical and mathematical harmony of the universe,” noted that they all devoted special works to the harmony of the universe and each considered it the basis of his worldview. In their works, they created a majestic picture of an aesthetically perfect, based on the musical-numerical harmony of the plastic cosmos, and also confirmed the idea of universal utility and practical applicability of their theories.
It is possible to distinguish a number of geniuses, characterized by a universal worldview and holistic vision of reality, who created masterpieces in their field: Plato, Johannes Kepler, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, Johann Sebastian Bach, Immanuel Kant, Georg Friedrich Hegel, Gottfried Leibniz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Dante Alighieri, Nicolaus Copernicus, Blaise Pascal, Walt Whitman, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jakob Böhme, Emanuel Swedenborg, Friedrich Schlegel, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, William Blake, who expressed the essence of the universal worldview in words:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

These geniuses can be considered universal by their ultimate openness and openness to the whole, by the correlation of their thoughts, experiences and all aspirations with the Universe, and by the scale, cultural and historical power and universal significance of their creations.

Genius as the unity of the universal and the individual

Universalism is understood as the ability to express “the infinite in the finite”, “the eternal in the instantaneous”, “the universal in the individual”, the ability to accommodate the world in all its boundlessness, multifacetedness and multivalence, to create an adequate copy of it, a complex but harmonious recursive model. “The thought of the universe and its harmony – wrote F. Schlegel – is everything to me. … The lawfully organized exchange between individuality and universality constitutes the true pulse of the higher life.”
Н. Berdyaev, expressing the idea of man as a microcosm, embedded in ancient philosophy, wrote: “Personality is a microcosm, the whole universe. Only personality can contain the universal content, to be a potential universe in the individual form … Personality is not a part and can not be a part in relation to any whole, even if it is a huge whole, the whole world … But the personality is not part of the universe, the universe is part of the personality, its qualities”.
The author, in fact, expresses a view of the relationship between the part and the whole, which in modern science is called the holographic, fractal or recursive approach.
The part and the whole assume and penetrate each other, and are repeatedly reflected in each other, enriching and qualitatively changing with each act and depth of recursive nesting.
In this case, genius is understood as a creator who, through successive recursive cycles, rolled the existing universe into a multidimensional point, by gigantic accumulative efforts, absorbed it into himself, deeply experienced its content and created his own original life universe.
In the Eastern tradition, man is also understood as a microcosm, which is dissolved and subordinated to the all-pervading, infinite beginning of the world – Tao, which represents the path, flow, breath and rhythm of the universe. Genius in Eastern culture is a sage who dissolves in the Tao, follows the Way, captures the rhythm of the universe, gives all things the right to be what they really are, lives and creates in unity with the cosmos.
Genius is distinguished by a remarkable balance between universality and originality, between the eternal, enduring problems it raises and the originality of their expression, “universal” and unique originality and otherness.
The highest dialectic of universality consists in the fact that the number and variety of facets of the mental structure of the personality increase the degree of originality and uniqueness of individuality, which is the brighter, the more it accommodates the universal (S.L. Rubinstein).
Geniuses who were characterized by universality and originality,” wrote M. Csikszentmihalyi, “found themselves within the integral flow of thought and action.

The universal internal structure of genius

The universal genius, reflecting and accommodating the Universe, creates an internal universal structure, a kind of functional spiritual organ, a magical prism through which the genius transmits the inner luminescence and semantic streams of the world. which the genius, as if through a prism, transmits the luminescence of the primordial essences.
In this case, the picture of the world constituted by genius and its isomorphic internal generating matrix are characterized by multileveledness and multifacetedness, flexible structure and dynamic hierarchy.
Such a universal structure was possessed by I.S. Bach, who freely processed already existing melodies and, passing them through himself, created ingenious works. “With the right of genius,” wrote S.A. Morozov, “Sebastian Bach took other people’s music and freely processed it to create his organ concertos. Bach’s creativity was based on the internal structure he grasped and constructed, which reflected the deep, universal laws of the world structure and represented a functional organ, a generating matrix and, at the same time, a creative method integrating a system of universal creative techniques.
His works were based on a structural principle – a symmetrical concentric form, in which polyphonic (horizontal) and harmonic (vertical) balanced each other, and the dramatic scope and freedom of form, organized by the dominant idea of deep inner concentration.
К. F. Emmanuel wrote that nothing but masterpieces came out from under the pen of Johann Sebastian Bach.
His works, like precious stones in Indra’s necklace, reflected perfect universes. Each of his creations carried, expressed, highlighted and united around a majestic spirit, the central meaning of the whole. According to I. Forkel, Bach’s work was characterized by the unity and diversity of style, the organicity and completeness of the whole, polyphony, the free sounding of voices and the relaxed change of their dominance, the permeation of the musical fabric with counterpoints, the lightness, fluidity and purity of melody, as well as “the pervasive life of the musical fabric, as a result of which it sometimes seems to the performer and listener as if the sounds have become living beings”.
Mozart, who has been called a genius of form, had a unique ability to grasp and produce an auditory whole in which general contours and sovereign details are fused together, an organic, living, breathing integrity characterized by the balance of horizontal and vertical, melody and harmony.
T. Adorno wrote that in Mozart’s works, the melodic elements of his music, strive to remain independent, separate, remaining bound by a perfect whole. “His form,” T. Adorno wrote, “is a proportion tending in different directions, not an ordering. At the same time, the “organic” principle of formation leads to the development of forms that are mutually enriched, interpenetrate each other without dissolving.

Universality and versatility of genius talents

The theory of universality states that genius is distinguished by a unique alloy of creative talents, and a peculiar mental organization, which reflects the universal invariant structure of the universe.
The basis of universality, believes N. V. Goncharenko, is an organic fusion, an indissoluble unity of the highest intelligence, intuitive insight, richness of feelings and willful purposefulness. “Stimulating each other, they give that special, qualitatively unique fusion of creative abilities of the individual, as a consequence of which the depth of thought, universality of vision of the objective world, extraordinary acuity of perception of its diversity is achieved”.
Completeness and completeness of this structure determines the interaction, interpenetration and mutual reinforcement of various abilities, traits and properties of personality. Thus, R. Arnheim (1988) wrote: “Genius is a self-consistent, well-organized whole”.
In turn, the concept of “universal genius” means that many spheres of creativity are available to a given individual.
The universality of genius is manifested in the extraordinary erudition, breadth of his horizons, diversity of interests and hobbies, versatility of talent and ability to achieve outstanding results in a variety of activities. At the same time, the comprehensiveness, and versatility of genius is understood as the projection of personality into different areas of being and thinking.
Taking into account such criteria of creative personality as diversity of interests, integrity and productivity it is possible to distinguish the following types of “universal man”:
1. Erudite, encyclopedist – a person characterized by diversity and depth of knowledge.
2. Polymath, universal man or Renaissance man – possessing extensive knowledge and diverse talents manifested in various subject areas.
3. Universal genius – characterized by breadth of interests, and diverse gifts, leading to creative accomplishments of high cultural and historical significance.

1. Erudite, encyclopedist

Erudite is a person with extensive and profound knowledge, a versatile person whose experience covers a significant number of different fields.
Erudition and extensive and deep knowledge in various fields radically expand the creative horizons and possibilities of a person, but do not necessarily lead to genius, for the formation of which a prerequisite is creative power and exceptional productivity.
Erudition is not an obligatory attribute of genius, but only one of its conditions, especially in the era of narrow professionalism and specialized skills and mastery.

2. Polymath or Universal Man (homo universalis)

1. Polymath (from Greek polys – many, and mathein – to learn) – a person who has studied a lot and knows a lot, possessing deep knowledge and skills in several fields. The very etymology of the word polymath implies training not only in knowledge but also in skill and mastery.
The concept of polymath implies the possession of not only intellectual but also social, artistic and physical abilities. This is the case with polymaths-artists who show talent in various performing arts (Rolf Harris, Barbra Streisand, Robert Anthony Rodriguez, Hugh Laurie, Alicia Keys, Woody Allen) and polymaths-athletes who demonstrate excellence in various sports (Howard Baker, George Alan Thomas, Roman Schebrle, Brian Clay, Bo Jackson, and Clara Hughes).
Polymath does not necessarily imply “genius” in the classical sense.
2. A universal man (from Latin homo universalis) is a person who not only possesses extensive knowledge, but also a wide variety of abilities, which allows him to achieve high results in a wide variety of subject areas. In addition, he is distinguished by a harmonious combination of different knowledge and skills, which allows him to adapt to different conditions and tasks, to be productively successful in various activities.
Renaissance man – is the embodiment of the fundamental principles of Renaissance humanism, affirming the creative power and limitless potential of human development. The meaning of this principle is expressed in the words of one of the first geniuses of the Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472): “Man can do anything if he wants to.”
Universalism of personality implies a fruitful combination of different or several humanities and natural sciences or their directions, demonstration of high achievements in science, art, state and social activity at the same time.
The peculiarity, originality and degree of correlation of the universal man with genius can be revealed by means of the following essential characteristics:
1. The versatility of talent, the number of spheres of application of creative forces.
2. Multilevel, variety and completeness of spheres of creative activity.
– Philosophy
– Science
– Art
– Social sphere
– Sphere of management and practice.
– Self-development, moral self-improvement
As a rule, genius is most productive in one, dominant in his life activity sphere, demonstrating successes and achievements in other areas of culture.
3. The magnitude and significance of the contribution to culture and development of mankind. It is this essential criterion that transforms and transforms a universal man into a universal genius.

Table 1. Famous polymath geniuses

Geniuses Philosophy, Religion   Science  Art  Social sphere  Manage-
ment
and
 practice
1. Cicero
(106-43 B.C.) 
philosopher  jurist,
linguist 
stylist politician
orator
statesman
2. Archimedes
(c.287-c.212
BC) 
mathematician
physicist,
astronomer,
inventor
 engineer
3. Zhuge Liang
(181-234)
 astrologer,
scientist, inventor
military leader, 
statesman,
engineer
4. Abbas ibn Firnas
(810-887)
  chemist, inventor,
physician
poet,
musician
philanthropist engineer,
technologist,
aviator
5. Nagarjuna
(ca. 150-250)  , 
philosopher physician,
chemist
writer  monk
6. Al-Biruni
(973-1048) 
philosopher  mathematician,
physicist, anthropologist, astronomer,
historian,
philologist,
pharmacologist
 teacher traveller
7. Omar Khayyam
(1048-1131)
philosopher astronomer, mathematician poet tsarist
8. Shen Ko
(1031-1095)
mathematician, astronomer, meteorologist, geologist,
zoologist,
botanist, pharmacologist,
cartographer,
inventor
poet,
musician
diplomat,
general,
minister,
finance, minister,
engineer
9. Nicholas of Cusa
(1401-1464) 
 philosopher, theologian  jurist,
mathematician
Catholic
cardinal
10. Leon Battista Alberti
(1404-1472)
philosopher  mathematician,
inventor,
cryptographer
 architect, painter, poet, sculptor, musician, writer Catholic
priest
11. Akbar
the Great
(1542-1605)
theologian    inventor writer, architect, artist ruler,
military
comman-der,
armorer,
blacksmith,
engineer
12. Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642) 
philosopher mathematician,
physicist,
astronomer
13.  Robert Hooke
(1635-1703)  
philosopher physicist,
biologist,
chemist
 architect
14. Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790) 
physicist,
geographer,
political scientist,
inventor
 writer, musician, journalist public
figure, politician, publisher
 diplomat,
statesman
statesman
figure
15.   Albert
the Great
(1206-1280)  
philosopher, theologian, chemist,
botanist,
astronomer, geographer,
zoologist,
mineralogist 
episkopos
16. Maria Gaetana Agnesei
(1718-1799)   
philosopher, theologian, linguist,
mathematician,
logician
philanthro-pist
17. Roger Bacon (1220-1292)  philosopher  optician,
linguist,
alchemist, astronomer, mathematician
18. Voltaire
(1694-1778)  
philosopher writer,
poet
 publicist, right-wing entrepre-
neur
19. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann
(1776-1822) 
writer, playwright, composer, musician,
painter
20. Thomas Jung
(1773 -1829) .
optician, mechanic, physiologist, linguist,
theorist
of music,
Egyptologist
21. Ruger Josip Boszkowicz
(1711 -1787)  
philosopher, theologian physicist,
astronomer, mathemati-
cian
 monk  diplomat
22. Alexander Humboldt
(1769-1859)  
physicist,
meteorologist, geographer,
botanist,
zoologist
traveler
23. Herbert
Spencer
(1820-1903)  
philosopher sociologist,
psychologist,
biologist,
anthropologist, economist, political scientist
24. Dmitri Mendeleev
(1834-1907)  public-
,
chemist,
physicist,
metrologist, economist, technologist,
geologist,
meteorologist
public
social
activist,
educator
instrument-
construction worker,
air
swimmer
25.  Alexander Borodin
(1833-1887)  
chemist composer  professor
26. Rabindranath Tagore
(1861-1941)   
philosopher poet, playwright, painter, composer, musician public-
social
activist
 traveler
27.  Vladimir Vernadsky
(1863-1945)   
philosopher geologist,
crystal
count,
mineralogist,
geochemist,
biologist
public-
social
activist
 president
Academy
sciences
28. Alexander Chizhevsky
(1897 – 1964)   
philosopher cosmobiolo-gist,
heliobiologist,
biophysicist
poet,
artist
29. Albert Schweitzer
(1875-1965)    
philosopher,
theologian,
physician musician, fighter for
peace, philanthro-pist, missionary
30. Pavel Florensky
(1882-1937)  
philosopher, theologian mathematician,
inventor 
priest  engineer
-electrician
31. Jean Cocteau
(1889-1963) 
writer,
poet, painter, artist, director, screenwriter
 sports manager
32. Umberto Eco
(1932 – 2016)  
philosopher semiotician,
historian  
writer critic professor

 

A separate sphere of perfection and application of creative efforts of genius, an independent world of culture, is the personality itself, the inner world of the creator. Geniuses who paid exclusive attention to their moral self-improvement, self-creation and self-development include Confucius, Buddha, Marcus Aurelius, Albert Schweitzer, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Pavel Florensky, Mahatma Gandhi, Nikolai Roerich.
At the same time, there are geniuses – saints, whose own life, personality, and inner world were their main masterpieces, their work.
N. Berdyaev wrote about Seraphim of Sarov: “The saint creates himself, another, more perfect in himself being. Genius creates great works and does great things in the world. Only the creation of the self saves. The creativity of great values can be destroyed. St. Seraphim created nothing but himself, and by this only transformed the world”.
In turn, P.A. Florensky wrote about the Apostle Paul: “To die to the world means a great mystery… Yes, one can remain among people and do together with them the works of life, but to be dead to the world and direct the activities of his body, being no longer in it, but from the outside, from the high world”.

3. Universal genius

A universal genius is an outstanding person who combines the features of a polymath and a universal man, who in his work productively embodied his universal vision of the world, made a highly significant, often revolutionary contribution to the culture, history and development of mankind.

Such universal geniuses include Imhotep, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Zhang Heng, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Avicenna, Ibn Khaldun, Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, Goethe, Lomonosov, Roerich.

Table 2. List of universal geniuses

Geniuses  Philosophy, religion  Science  Art  Social sphere  Manage-ment
and practice
1. Imhotep
(2650-2611 B.C.)
 high priest physician,
scientist
 architect vizier,
high
dignitary
2. Aristotle
(384-322 B.C.),
philosopher, metaphysician biologist,
zoologist,
logician,
theorist of literature
and theater,
political scientist
educator, teacher
3. Pythagoras
(c. 580-490 B.C.)    creator of a religious-philosophical school.
philosopher mathemat-ician researcher of musical
of musical harmony
4. Zhang Heng
(78-139)
philosopher, thinker, encyclop- historian,
mathema-tician,
inventor,
geographer, cartographer, astronomer.
geographer,
geographer, cartographer, astronomer, seismologist,
poet,
painter, sculptor,
statesman
5. Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519)
philosopher anatomist, astronomer,
biologist,
geologist,
physicist, inventor.
painter, sculptor, architect,  writer, humanist engineer
6. Michelangelo
(1475-1564)
thinker architect, sculptor, painter,
poet,
writer
7. Avicenna
(980-1037)
philosopher astronomer,
chemist, geologist, logician,
physicist, psychologist paleontologist
logician, mathemati-cian,
 poet pedagogue
8. Ibn Khaldun
(1332-1406)
philosopher, theologian, sociologist, historian, historio-
graph, demographer, economist, linguist, political
scientist
diplomat,
statesman
9. Rene Descartes
(1596-1650)
philosopher mathematician, physicist,
physiologist
10. Blaise Pascal
(1623-1662)
philosopher, theologian mathematician,
physicist
constructor
11. Gottfried Leibniz
(1646-1716)
philosopher, theologian physicist,
logician, mathemat-ician,
historian, bibliographer
12. Johann Wolfgang Goethe
(1749 – 1832)
statesman
philosopher scientist, naturalist-
torturer
 poet,
writer, playwright,
diplomat,
statesman
13. Mikhail Lomonosov
(1711-1765)
philosopher chemist, physicist, mineralogist, historian, astronomer, philologist,
geographer,
 writer,
poet,
rhetorician, professor, academi-cian,
instrument maker
metallur-gist
14. Nicholas Roerich
(1874-1947)
philosopher, mystic archaeologist artist, writer,
poet
founder of internati-onal
of  cultural movements, educator
traveller