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| One danger for academics is academic elitism, which is (roughly) the view that only someone who has engaged in ] has anything worthwhile to say on any given topic, while all others are ]s. It is possible to value serious scholarship without being an academic elitist, of course. | One danger for academics is '''academic elitism''', which is (roughly) the view that only someone who has engaged in ] has anything worthwhile to say on any given topic, while all others are ]s. It is possible to value serious scholarship without being an academic elitist, of course. | ||
| In fields that have no non-academic counterpart, academic elitism is common because it actually is the case that there aren't very many people with anything worthwhile to say on the topic, other than the academics. The problem starts when scholarship blurs with the application of scholarship, such as in business or mathematics, or with technology in the case of physics and engineering. In such cases academic elitism arises when those in pursuit of scholarly knowledge deride the pursuit of application. | In fields that have no non-academic counterpart, academic elitism is common because it actually is the case that there aren't very many people with anything worthwhile to say on the topic, other than the academics. The problem starts when scholarship blurs with the application of scholarship, such as in business or mathematics, or with technology in the case of physics and engineering. In such cases academic elitism arises when those in pursuit of scholarly knowledge deride the pursuit of application. | ||
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| "ivory tower" academics are too far removed from reality to have anything | "ivory tower" academics are too far removed from reality to have anything | ||
| possibly useful to say about practical matters. Circle squaring and angle trisecting remain perennially favorite activities with this crowd. | possibly useful to say about practical matters. Circle squaring and angle trisecting remain perennially favorite activities with this crowd. | ||
Revision as of 03:34, 10 September 2002
One danger for academics is academic elitism, which is (roughly) the view that only someone who has engaged in serious scholarship has anything worthwhile to say on any given topic, while all others are cranks. It is possible to value serious scholarship without being an academic elitist, of course.
In fields that have no non-academic counterpart, academic elitism is common because it actually is the case that there aren't very many people with anything worthwhile to say on the topic, other than the academics. The problem starts when scholarship blurs with the application of scholarship, such as in business or mathematics, or with technology in the case of physics and engineering. In such cases academic elitism arises when those in pursuit of scholarly knowledge deride the pursuit of application.
Academic elitism is closely related to anti-intellectualism, the belief that "ivory tower" academics are too far removed from reality to have anything possibly useful to say about practical matters. Circle squaring and angle trisecting remain perennially favorite activities with this crowd.