The winding path of philology. Notes on J. Turner’s Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities

Abstract

This article is an outcome of a critical reading of a recently published book Philology. The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities. Its author, James Turner, an American historian, outlines the origins and history of modern humanities. He shows that for many centuries philology was regarded as the pillar of the multi-layered humanities but lost its privileged status when individual branches started to acquire an independent status as distinct scholarly disciplines. Turner contests the widespread view that “information overload” was directly responsible for this course of development in the area of modern humanities. He argues that Renaissance scholars faced similar problems but solved tchem differently by applying technologies that helped to manage the fl ood of information. Thus, hyperspecialization, characteristic for modern humanities, is merely a cramping fi lter, which constrains knowledge rather than organizes it.