Higher education has become a worldwide phenomenon where students now travel internationally to pursue courses and careers, not simply as a global enterprise, but as a network of worldwide interconnections. The Origins of Higher Learning: Knowledge networks and the early development of universities is an account of the first globalisation that has led us to this point, telling of how humankind first developed centres of higher learning across the vast landmass from the Atlantic to the China Sea. This book opens a much-needed debate on the origins of higher learning, exploring how, why and where humankind first began to take a sustained interest in questions that went beyond daily survival. Showing how these concerns became institutionalised and how knowledge came to be transferred from place to place, this book explores important aspects of the forerunners of globalisation. It is a narrative which covers much of Asia, North Africa and Europe, many parts of which were little known beyond their own boundaries. Spanning from the earliest civilisations to the end of the European Middle Ages, around 700 years ago, here the authors set out crucial findings for future research and investigation. This book shows how interconnections across continents are nothing new and that in reality, humankind has been interdependent for a much longer period than is widely recognised. It is a book which challenges existing accounts of the origins of higher learning in Europe and will be of interest to all those who wish to know more about the world of academia.

本書は、知の起源を西洋のみに求める従来の史観を覆し、ユーラシア全土を貫く壮大な知識の連鎖を活写した一冊です。単なる生存を超えて真理を求めた人類の根源的な情熱を浮き彫りにする筆致は、まるで知性の開拓記を紐解くような高揚感を与えてくれます。国境を越えた思想の伝播が、いかに現代のグローバル社会の礎となったかを突きつける、圧巻の知の冒険譚と言えるでしょう。 映像化作品では、書物の深遠な洞察が視覚的な叙事詩として再構築されています。テキストならではの緻密な論考が、映像では文明の交錯や歴史的建築の美という躍動感あふれる形へと昇華され、知の熱量をより直感的に伝えています。活字で思索を深め、映像でそのスケール感を体感するという相互作用こそが、本作を味わい尽くす醍醐味なのです。