On Mar 8, 2007, at 9:40 AM, Elizabeth Gassin wrote:
Someone may have already answered this (we're on break, so I am
going through days of posts right now), but in other languages, the
word for "scholar" and "scientist" are the same (i.e., Russian...
and German, too, if I am not mistaken).
A scholar is a broadly well-informed person. A scientist is one
who, one expects, is well-informed in one or perhaps two related
sciences. When a scientist is well and broadly informed (not
necessarily expert) in-- literature, history, music, etc., etc. then
he/she is a scholar. Einstein was a scholar as is, for example,
Dawkins although he is not of the same stature. Sadly, nowadays we
live in the age of specializations (both in the arts and the
sciences) where most specialists do not see the wood from the
trees. This state of affairs is doing untold damage to our
civilizations.
Once I complimented a well-known psychologist colleague by calling
him a scholar. He bristled and said 'I am not a scholar, I am a
scientist!) Therein lies many of our social problems. (Just a few
days after we went to war in Afghanistan a class of graduate students
were fully aware of the news, but could not say where is Afghanistan.)
Peter
Peter Harzem, B.Sc.(Lond.), Ph.D.(Wales)
Hudson Professor Emeritus
Department of Psychology
Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849-5214
USA
Phone: +334 844-6482
Fax: +334 844-4447
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Personal E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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