From THE THEORY OF THE LIBERAL COLLEGE by Alexander Meiklejohn

-摘自《通识学院的理论》亚历山大·米克尔约翰（罗选民译）

It has become an axiom with us that the genuine student labors within his own field. And if the student ventures forth to examine the relations of his field to the surrounding country he very easily becomes a popularizer, a litterateur, a speculator, and worst of all, unscientific. Now I do not object to a man’s minding his own intellectual business if he chooses to do so, but when a man minds his own business because he does not know any other business, because he has no knowledge whatever of the relationships which justify his business and make it worth while, then I think one may say that though such a man minds his own affairs he does not know them, he does not understand them. Such a man, from the point of view of the demands of a liberal education, differs in no essential respect from the tradesman who does not understand his trade or the professional man who merely practices his profession. Just as truly as they, he is shut up within a special interest; just as truly as they, he is making no intellectual attempt to understand his experience in its unity. And the pity of it is that more and more the chairs in our colleges are occupied by men who have only this special interest, this specialized information, and it is through them that we attempt to give our boys a liberal education, which the teachers themselves have not achieved.

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真正的学者只在自己的领域之内从事研究，这目前已经成为一个普遍接受的道理。如果一位学者冒险去探索自己领域与周围领域的关系，他很容易成为知识普及工作者、文人、思辨者，或者最不好的结果是变得与科学研究背道而驰。现在如果有人选择只关注自己的业务领域我并不反对，但如果一个人这样做是因为他不懂其他业务相关领域的知识，或是因为他不了解使他的业务变得有理据、有意义的任何相关领域的知识，那我们就可以说虽然此人很专注于自己的业务，但他并不通晓，并不理解它们。这样的人，从今天所要求的“通识教育”的角度看，与不懂自己买卖的买卖人和只从事自己专业的职业人士没有本质区别。他与他们一样将自己封闭于狭窄的个人兴趣之内，而从来不花脑力从整体上理解自己的经验。遗憾的是，我们大学里越来越多的席位都被这些仅有特定兴趣，掌握专业化知识的人占据。我们正是通过他们对孩子们进行通识教育，而他们自己都尚未称得上是通才。