Human Knowledge

Multidisciplinarity is one of the salient features of contemporary science. This seems to be congruent with the globalization process as the globalized world will need a "global" science that is able to integrate and to unite various fields in order to solve fundamental problems. It may be said that, in some sense, the History & Mathematics almanac is "genetically" interdisciplinary as it was initially designed as a means to contribute to the construction of a bridge be-tween the humanities, social, natural, and mathematical sciences (see the Introduction to its first Russian issue [Гринин, Коротаев, Малков 2006: 4–11]). That time this very combination of words – History and Mathematics – might have looked a bit artificial. However, it gradually becomes habitual; what is more, it becomes to be recognized as quite an organic and important scientific phenomenon. This appears to be supported by the point that the recent two years have evidenced the publication of eight issues of the History & Mathematics almanac in Russian and two issues in English.  Various conferences in this direction are held now quite regularly, and, what is especially promising, they bring together representatives of very diverse fields of human knowledge. One of the most recent conferences of this kind was held in December 2009 in the Institute of History and Archaeology (Ekaterinburg, Russia). The conference has confirmed the existence of a critical mass of researchers within the world science that apply mathematical and quantitative methods to the study of history. Against this background the current discussions on the establishment of the Mathematical History academic journal do not appear coincidental.