The More Things Change

Phone 202-737-3337 ... Manager Research Results Service: ... Director of Business Operations: Joseph H. ... CHANGE OF ADDRESS, should be sent to Sub-...
0 downloads 0 Views 146KB Size
EDITORIAL

INDUSTRIAL AVD ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY Editor: DAVID E. GUSHEE Editorial Head uarters 1155 Sixteenth%., N.W. Washington, D. C. 20036 Phone 202-737-3337 Assistant Editors: William L. Jenkins, D. H. Michael Bowen Manager Research Results Service: Stella Anderson Layout and Production: Joseph Jacobs, Director of Design Bacil Guiley, Production Manager Leroy Corcoran, Assistant Art Director Norman W. Favin (Design) Production-Easton, Pa. Associate Editor: Charlotte C. Sayre Editorial Assistant: Jane M. Andrews International Editorial Bureaus Frankfurt/Main, West Germany Grosse Bockenheimerstrasse 32 Donald J. Soisson London, W.C.2, England 27 John Adam St. Robin A. Johnson Tokyo, Japan 12 Iikura Kata-machi, Azabu Minato-ku Michael K. McAbee ADVISORY BOARD: S. George Bankoff, William C. Bauman, Floyd L. Culler, Merrell R. Fenske, Leo Friend, Howard L. Gerhart, Robert L. Hershey, Charles A. Kumins, Robert N. Maddox, Charles N. Satterfield, Warren C . Schreiner, Eric G. Schwartz, Thomas K. Sherwood, Joseph Stewart, Shen Wu Wan

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington, D. C. 20036 Director of Publications: Richard L. Kenyon Director of Business Operations: Joseph H. Kuney Publication Manager, Journals :David E. Gushee Executive Assistant to the Director of Publications : Rodney N. Hader Circulation Development Manager: Herbert C. Spencer Assistant to the Director of Publications: William Q. Hull Advertising Management REINHOLD PUBLISHING CORPORATION (For list of offices, see page 100)

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE: All communications to handling of subscriptions, including CHANGE OF ADDRESS, should be sent to Sub-

related

scription Service Department American Chemical Soclety, 1155 16th St., N.W.: Washington, D. C. 20036. Change of address notification should include both old and new addresses, with ZIP codes, and a mailine label from a recent issue. Allow four weeks for chLnge to become effective. SUBSCRIPTIOS RATES, ISDL‘STRIAL AND ENGINEERIIZG CHELIISTRY, 1968 7968 SUBSCRIP TION Portage er Year RA TES Canada 1 2 3 PUAS Foreign year years years Amcrican Chemical Society Mcmbers $1.00 $1.50 $4.00 $6.00 88.00 Nonmembers $1.00 $1.50 85.00 87.00 89.00

4

The More Things Change ... f a scholar probes deeply into a small section of the subject,

Ihe is fairly certain to mistrust, as superficial, the man who ranges more widely. The latter, in turn, will think the specialist “ * * *

lacking in vision or what is called reach. By knowing ever more about ever less, he will seem to risk becoming quite ignorant. Those who are mathematically inclined see others as in retreat from rigor. The others think those who manipulate symbols impractical. The statisticians believe those who prove points deductively to be dangerously intuitive. But, by their colleagues, those who are controlled by numbers are often thought unduly cautious or even dull. . . . . “But we must remind ourselves that specialization is a scientific convenience, not a scientific virtue. I t allows, among other things, the use of a wider spectrum of talent. . . .Specialization also permits an indispensable division of scientific labor and allows for the development of subcultures of scholarship in which participants are known to each other, communicate readily, and from cooperation, competition, criticism, and scholarly recrimination deepen their knowledge of their own subject matter. .” What scientist, do you suppose, said that? Surprisingly enough, it was not a scientist but John Kenneth Galbraith, an economist. The science he was talking about is economics, but the thoughts, even the words, have a familiar ring. So also does this little tidbit, also from his book T h e N e w Industrial State: “ I t is exceedingly fortunate for the psychic health of the profession that inadequacy lies so uniformly in others. The situation in the other social sciences is said to be equally satisfactory.’ ’ Galbraith has even more to say: “The world to its discredit does not divide neatly along the lines that separate the specialists. These lines were drawn in the first instance by deans, department chairmen, or academic committees. They were meant to provide guidance in appointing professors, establishing courses, and supporting research. Excellent though the architects were, they cannot be credited with a uniquely valid view of the segments into which society naturally divides itself. And if they could there would still be danger that the specialist, in concentrating on his specialty, would deny himself knowledge that could only be had from outside. , , ” These thoughts, so relevant to our world of chemical technology, are intriguing by virtue of the similarity of social scientists’ problems to our own, as well as the similarity of the human characteristics displayed. But they are also relevant to those who are distressed about the Final Report on the Goals of Engineering Education, with which we are all now familiar. Galbraith says, from his world, that any specialty field must always be redressing the balance between specialization and generalization, between the penetrating view and the broad view. I n one way, it is comforting to learn that our problems are not unique. O n the other hand, it is not so comforting to realize that the economists haven’t solved theirs, and, in fact, most of them don’t even recognize them. I

VOL. 6 0

NO. 5

MAY 1968

3