Publications: Overview
I have carried our research, written, published, and presented in a wide range of areas. My three books, described below, address three very different topics: (a) the nature of reality in physics and philosophy; (b) the relationship between the history of technology, mythical narratives, and indigenous knowledge transmission; and (c) accounts in the history of cartography and exploration, in relation to histoorical evidence of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.
My career has included a number of academic papers, looking at subjects ranging from the work of Leonardo da Vinci to cross-cultural philosophy. More recently, I have been busy as a book reviewer; this is a role that I particularly enjoy, as it compels to expand even further my areas of interest. I’ve reviewed books on the history of trains, Ptolemaic maps, Sir Walter Raleigh, and many other very varied subjects!
I also enjoy presenting, both to academic and lay audiences. As I’ve often pointed out, this is neither due to any desire for professional advancement nor as a response to an inherent narcicissm; rather, giving presentations forces one to be “on their game”, and give congent and engaging talks that can meet professional standards in terms of content and arguments. It’s a way of both bringing knowledge out, and at the same time, challenging oneself to think more deeply about the subject at hand. As with my publications, I challenge myself, too, by giving talks in a range of fields: Most recently, I’ve given a series of lectures on the history of cartography (a favorite subject of mine), a presentation on the technical drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, and (as part of my cross-cultural management work) a workshop on the reception of Chinese students at U.S. universities.
Publications: Books
Deciphering Reality
“In Deciphering Reality: Simulations, Tests, and Designs, Benjamin B. Olshin takes a problem-based approach to the question of the nature of reality. In a series of essays, the book examines the detection of computer simulations from the inside, wrestles with the problem of visual models of reality, explores Daoist conceptions of reality, and offers possible future directions for deciphering reality.
The ultimate goal of the book is to provide a more accessible approach, unlike highly complex philosophical works on metaphysics, which are inaccessible to non-academic readers, and overly abstract (and at times, highly speculative) popular works that offer a mélange of physics, philosophy, and consciousness.”
Lost Knowledge
“Lost Knowledge: The Concept of Vanished Technologies and Other Human Histories examines the idea of lost knowledge, reaching back to a period between myth and history. It investigates a peculiar idea found in a number of early texts: that there were civilizations with knowledge of sophisticated technologies, and that this knowledge was obscured or destroyed over time along with the civilization that had created it.
This book presents critical studies of a series of early Chinese, South Asian, and other texts that look at the idea of specific ‘lost’ technologies, such as mechanical flight and the transmission of images. There is also an examination of why concepts of a vanished ‘golden age’ were prevalent in so many cultures. Offering an engaging and investigative look at the propagation of history and myth in technology and culture, this book is sure to interest historians and readers from many backgrounds.”
The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps
“In the thirteenth century, Italian merchant and explorer Marco Polo traveled from Venice to the far reaches of Asia, a journey he chronicled in a narrative titled Il Milione, later known as The Travels of Marco Polo. While Polo’s writings would go on to inspire the likes of Christopher Columbus, scholars have long debated their veracity… Now, there’s new evidence for this historical puzzle: a very curious collection of fourteen little-known maps and related documents said to have belonged to the family of Marco Polo himself.
In The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps, historian of cartography Benjamin B. Olshin offers the first credible book-length analysis of these artifacts, charting their course from obscure origins in the private collection of Italian-American immigrant Marcian Rossi in the 1930s; to investigations of their authenticity by the Library of Congress, J. Edgar Hoover, and the FBI; to the work of the late cartographic scholar Leo Bagrow; to Olshin’s own efforts to track down and study the Rossi maps…
Olshin’s tale—stretching from the remote reaches of the northern Pacific to early Chinese legends—takes readers on a journey confounding yet fascinating, offering insights into Italian history, the age of exploration, and the wonders of cartography.”
Publications: Papers, Articles, Reviews, and Presentations
Publications — Recent Papers
”Indigenous Mapping: Cultural and Psychological Sources”, The Portolan: Journal of the Washington Map Society 114 (Fall 2022): 22-35.
”Holism as Idealism: The Zhuangzi and the Concept of the ‘Understanding of the Men of Ancient Times’”, Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies 47.1 (March 2021).
“How to Talk about Physical Reality? Other Models, Other Questions”, The University of Cape Coast Journal of Philosophy and Culture 5.1 (March 2014): 25-66.
“A Look at Harmony and Unity as Common Principles in the Confucian System and the Bahá'í Faith”, Studies in Bahá'í Philosophy 2-3 (2013-2014): 73-100.
“A Revealing Reflection: The Case of the Chinese Emperor’s Mirror”, ICON: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology 18 (2012): 122-141.
“Sophistical Devices: Leonardo da Vinci’s Investigations of Perpetual Motion”, ICON: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology 15 (2009): 1-39.
“Lost Science: The Strange Case of Physics and Theosophy”, Symposion: A Journal of Russian Thought 14 (2009): 51-66.
“The Mystery of the ‘Marco Polo’ Maps: An Introduction to a Privately-Held Collection of Cartographic Materials Relating to the Polo Family”, Terrae Incognitae 39.1 (June 2007): 1-23.
“Cultural Heritage and the Curse of History”, Conference Proceedings — “When Creative Industries Crossover with Cities” Conference, Hong Kong (March 2007): 76-81.
“Reality Check: The Possible Detection of Simulated Environments through Observation of Selected Physical Phenomena”, The University of Cape Coast Journal of Philosophy and Culture 3.2 (July 2006): 86-108.
“The I Ching or ‘Book of Changes’: A Chinese Space-Time Model and a Philosophy of Divination”, The University of Cape Coast Journal of Philosophy and Culture 2.2 (July 2005): 17-39.
“Debating the Authentic: An Outsider’s View of West African Culture in Ghana”, The University of Cape Coast Journal of Philosophy and Culture 1.2 (July 2004): 1-20.
Publications — Encyclopedia Articles
“Legends and Myths of Chinese Exploration”, in Wilfred H. Bisson, ed., World History Encyclopedia, Era 4: Expanding Regional Civilizations, 300-1000 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011): 734-735.
“Zheng He’s Voyages”, in Alfred J. Andrea, ed., World History Encyclopedia, Era 5: Intensified Hemispheric Interactions, 1000-1500 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO / Greenwood, 2011): 321-323.
“Chinese Naval Technology”, in Alfred J. Andrea, ed., World History Encyclopedia, Era 5: Intensified Hemispheric Interactions, 1000-1500 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO / Greenwood, 2011): 845-846.
“Buddhist Cosmological Maps”, “Chinese Empirical Maps”, and “Fusang”, in David Buisseret, ed., The Oxford Companion to Exploration, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
Publications — Book Reviews
Review of Robert H.J. Peerlings and Frans Laurentius, Berlinghieri's Geography Unveiled, in The Portolan: Journal of the Washington Map Society 119 (Spring 2024): 59-60.
Review of David Gwyn, The Coming of the Railway: A New Global History, 1750-1850, in Terrae Incognitae 55.3 (December 2023): 307-308.
Review of Alida C. Metcalf, Mapping an Atlantic World, circa 1500, in The British Journal for the History of Science 56 (part 2).209 [June 2023]: 1-2, doi:10.1017/S0007087423000432.
Review of Paolo Chiesa, Marckalada: Quando l'America aveva un altro nome, in Terrae Incognitae 55.2 (July 2023): 206-207.
Review of Bérénice Bellina, Roger Blench, and Jean-Christophe Galipaud, eds., Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia: From the Past to the Present, in Terrae Incognitae 54.3 (October 2022): 297-298.
Review of John T. Drucker, Beyond Empire: The End of Britain's Colonial Encounter, in Terrae Incognitae 54.1 (March 2022): 92-94.
Review of Yossef Rapoport and Emilie Savage-Smith, Lost Maps of the Caliphs: Drawing the World in Eleventh-Century Cairo, in Terrae Incognitae 52.3 (November 2020): 320–321.
Review of Hyun Jin Kim, Frederik Juliaan Vervaet, and Selim Ferruh Adali, eds., Eurasian Empires in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Contact and Exchange between the Graeco-Roman World, Inner Asia, and China, in Terrae Incognitae 51.2 (July 2019): 283-284.
Review of Steven B. Miles, Upriver Journeys: Diaspora and Empire in Southern China, 1570–1850, in Terrae Incognitae 51.1 (February 2019): 105-106.
Review of Sharon Kinoshita, ed., and trans., The Description of the World: Marco Polo, in Terrae Incognitae 50.2 (July 2018): 182-183.
Review of Piero Falchetta, Fra’ Mauro’s World Map: A History, in ISIS: Journal of the History of Science Society 105.4 (December 2014): 839.
Review of Christina H. Lee, ed., Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522-1657, in Terrae Incognitae 46.1 (April 2014): 55-56.
Review of Nicholas Popper, Walter Raleigh’s History of the World and the Historical Culture of the Late Renaissance, in ISIS: Journal of the History of Science Society 105.2 (June 2014): 429-430.
Review of Gerhard Wolf, Joseph Connors and Louis A. Waldman, eds., Colors Between Two Worlds: The Florentine Codex of Bernardino de Sahagún, in ISIS: Journal of the History of Science Society 105.1 (March 2014): 214-215.
Review of Harry B. Evans, Exploring the Kingdom of Saturn: Kircher’s Latium and Its Legacy, in ISIS: Journal of the History of Science Society 104.1 (March 2013): 163-164.
Review of Timothy W. Knowlton, Maya Creation Myths: Words and Worlds of the Chilam Balam and John M. Weeks, Frank Sachse, and Christian M. Prager, Maya Daykeeping: Three Calendars from Highland Guatemala, in ISIS: Journal of the History of Science Society 103.3 (September 2012): 567-568.
Review of Lev Berdnikov, trans., Nora Seligman Favorov, Jews in Service to the Tsar, in Symposion: A Journal of Russian Thought 16-17 (2011-2012): 69-70.
Review of William R. Shea, ed., Science and the Visual Image in the Enlightenment, in ICON: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology 17 (2011): 118-120.
Review of John Freely, Aladdin’s Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World, in Terrae Incognitae 42.1 (September 2010): 67-68.
Review of David Woodward, ed., The History of Cartography, Volume 3: Cartography in the European Renaissance, in ISIS: Journal of the History of Science Society 100.2 (June 2009): 396-398.
Review of Serafina Cuomo, Technology and Culture in Greek and Roman Antiquity, in ISIS: Journal of the History of Science Society 100.1 (March 2009): 149-150.
Review of Ana Simões, Maria Paula Diogo, and Ana Carneiro, Cidadão do Mundo: Uma Biografia Científica do Abade Correia da Serra, in ISIS: Journal of the History of Science Society 99.3 (September 2008): 628-629.
Selected Presentations
”Ancient Latitudes: Global Geographies in Classical Sources”, talk presented as part of the Department of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies ”Classics Colloquium”, Bryn Mawr College (23 February 2024).
”Early Mapping of Lands and Seas”, talk presented at the Department of Geography and the Environment, Villanova University (31 January 2024).
“Early Circular Maps: An Example of Perspectographic Imaging?”, talk presented to the Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics, Villanova University (16 November 2023).
”Leonardo da Vinci and the Deconstruction of Perpetual Motion”, talk presented to the Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics, Villanova University (19 October 2023).
”Overseas Chinese Students at U.S. Universities – Past, Present, and Future”, seminar created and delivered for Econsult Solutions, Inc. (3 March 2023).
”Harmony and Conflict: The Issues Behind China-US Relations”, talk presented at Germantown Academy (4 April 2023).
”Idealism and Love: Some Analysis and Reflections”, talk presented to the Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University / 國立臺灣師範大學 (21 October 2022).
”Indigenous Mapping: Cultural and Psychological Sources”, talk presented to the Washington Map Society (13 January 2022).
”A Philosophy of Reality: Simulated Universes and Their Problems” / ”Heimspeki veruleikans: Vandinn við hermialheima”, talk presented at the University of Iceland / Háskóla Íslands (23 September 2021).
”Art, the Mughals, and Jahangir’s Globe”, talk presented to the Chicago Map Society (18 March 2021).
”Against the Madness of Modernity: Towards a Philosophical Re-Interpretation of the Definitions of Development”, paper presented at the 25th Annual International Society for African Philosophy and Studies (ISAPS) conference, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, U.S.A. (9 - 10 July 2019).
”Indigenous Mapping: Culture Creates Cartography”, paper given at the 27th International Conference on the History of Cartography (ICHC), Belo Horizonte, Brazil (8 - 14 July 2017).
”Design Thinking: Myth, Meaning, and Making”, presentation given at the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) 2016 conference, Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A. (3 November 2016).
”The ‘Marco Polo’ Maps: Methods and Analysis”, presentation given at the conference entitled “Facts or Fictions: Debating the Mysteries of Early Modern Science and Cartography — A Celebration of the 500th Anniversary of Waldseemüller's 1516 Carta Marina”, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. (6 - 7 October 2016).
”Design for Social Responsibility: A Natural Education Model”, University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, U.K. (8 March 2016).
”Marco Polo and Maps: The Question of Evidence”, Oxford Seminars in Cartography / Oxford University, Oxford, U.K. (3 March 2016).
”Peace in the Mind: Science, Knowledge, and the Creation of a Peaceful Society”, paper given at the Sixth Advanced International Colloquium on Building the Scientific Mind, São Raimundo Nonato & Serra da Capivara, Piauí, Brazil (August 2015).
”Harmony and Unity: Common Principles in Confucianism and the Bahá'í Faith”, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. (24 November 2013).
”Harmonious Interaction: Process, Practice, and a Sustainable Society”, paper given at the Fifth Advanced International Colloquium on Building the Scientific Mind, Lembang, Indonesia (28 May 2013).
”A Look at the ‘Marco Polo’ Maps: Curiosities and Questions”, presentation given at the New York Public Library for the New York Map Society, New York, New York, U.S.A. (12 May 2012).
”Technological Progress and Sustainability: A Look at the History and Future of Human Societies”, paper given at the Fourth Advanced International Colloquium on Building the Scientific Mind, Stellenbosch, South Africa (7 March 2011).
”Chinese vs. American: Cultures of Work and Home”, presentation given at Temple University, Human Resource Management Program, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. (30 September 2009).
”Looking for New Ways of Making Sense of the Universe and the Place of Humans in It: Foundational and Non-Foundational Thought”, paper given at the Third Advanced International Colloquium on Building the Scientific Mind, Cairo, Egypt (12 May 2009).
”Some Daoist and Neo-Confucian Views on Physical Reality and Possible Modern Counterparts”, paper given at the Asian Studies Development Program, National Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. (12 March 2009).
”Cross-Cultural Journeys through East and West: Some Truths and Falsehoods”, presentation to management and human resources study group, Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey, U.S.A. (4 February 2009).
”Speculations and Discoveries: Brazil and the Other Side of the Globe at the End of the 15th Century”, paper given as part of the “Maps and Society” lectures, Eighteenth Series (2008-2009), The Warburg Institute, University of London (22 January 2009).
”The Historian of Technology as Prognosticator and Policy-Maker: Talking Intelligently about the Rise and Fall of High-Tech Civilizations”, paper given at the Society for the History of Technology, Fiftieth Anniversary Annual Meeting, Lisbon, Portugal (12 October 2008).
Selected Podcasts
“Benjamin B. Olshin, A Philosopher's Journey”, on BackPocketLifeStories, hosted by Joe Brin & Julia Meyer Gross (8 February 2022), https://www.buzzsprout.com/1785077/10036850-benjamin-b-olshin-a-philosopher-s-journey
“Time and Eternity”, on The Rooster Crows LPCC Podcast, hosted by Stephen Milton (6 May 2021), https://roostercrowslpcc.podbean.com/e/time-and-eternity-1620311403
“Lost Technologies and Deciphering Reality with Dr. Benjamin B. Olshin”, on Classical Wisdom, hosted by Anya Leonard (31 March 2021), https://classicalwisdom.com/audio-library/lost-technologies-and-deciphering-reality
"Atlantis: Plato, Myth, and History", on 90 Second Narratives, hosted by Sky Michael Johnston (22 June 2020), https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/90-second-narratives/atlantis-plato-myth-and-gVKhcENLozZ
Getting In Touch
We’re always happy to answer questions concerning our research, publications, artwork, and other projects. Please get in touch, as well, if you are interested in talking with us about our consulting services.