In this era of rapid social and technological change leading to
increasing life complexity and psychological displacement,both positive
and negative effects amogn persons in Western society call for a
balance in wich there are both specialists and generalists.
Specialists are necessary in order to allow society as a whole to
properly and usefully assimilate the masses of new infomation and
knowledge,that have come out from research and have been widely
disseminated through mass global media.As the head of Pharmacology at
my university once said (and I paraphrase) :"I can only research what I
do because there are so many who have come before me to whom I can turn
for basic knowledge.It is because of each of the narrowly focussed
individuals at each step that a full and true understanding of the
complexities of life can be had.Each person can only hold enough
knowledg to add one small rung to the ladder,but together we can climb
to the moon."This illustrates the point that our societies level of
knowledge and technology is at a stage in which there simply must be
specilists in order for our society to take advantage of the infomation
available to us.
Simply put,without specilists,our society would find itself bogged down
in the Sargasso sea of infomation overload.While it was fine for early
physicists to learn and understand the few laws and ideals that existed
during their times,now,no one individual can possibly digest and
assimilate all of the knowledge in any given area.
On the other hand.Over specialization means narrow focii in which
people can lose the larger picture.No one can hope to understand the
human body by only inspecting one’s own toe-nails.What we learn from a
narrow focus maybe internally logically coherent but may be irrelevant
or fallacious whithin the framwork of a broader perspective.Futher,if
we inspect only our toe-nails,we may conclude that whole body is hard
and white .Useful conclusions and thus perhaps useful inventions must
come by sharing among specialists.Simply throwing out various
discoveries means we have a pile of of useless discoveries,it is only
when once can make with them a mosaic that we can see that many form a
picture.
Not only may over-specilaization be dangerous in terms of truth,purity
and cohesion of knowledge,but it can also serve to drown moral
oruniversal issues.Generalists and only gerneralists can see a broad
enough picture to realize and introduce to the world the problems of
the environment.With specialization,each person foccuses on their
research and their goals.Thus ,industrialization ,expansion,and new
technologies are driven ahead.Meanwhile no individual can see the
wholistic view of our global existence in which true advancement may
mean stifling individual specialists for the greater good of all.
Finally,over-specialization in a people’s daily lives and jobs has
meant personal and psychological compartmentalization.People are forced
into pigeon holes early in life (at least by university)and must
consciously attempt to consume external forms of stimuli and
information in order not to be lost in their small and isolated
universe.Not only does this make for narrowly focussed and generally
poorly-educated individuals,but it guaratees a sense of loss of
community,often followed by a feeling of psychological displacement and
personal dissatisfaction.
Without generalists,society beomes inward-looking and eventually
inefficient.Without a socirty that recognizes the importance of
broad-mindness and fora a for sharing generalities,individuals become
isolated.Thus,while our form of society necessitastes
specialists,generalists are equally important.Specialists drive us
forward in a series of thrust while generalists make sure we are still
on the jousting field and know what the stakes are.
