An excerpt from The Retrieval of Ethics.(BOOK FORUM)(Excerpt)

ACADEMIC SPECIALIZATION MAKES CLEAREST SENSE IN THOSE FIELDS WHERE THE POINT OF research is the efficient and reliable production of discrete bits of information that can be grasped and put to use by others without recapitulation of the arduous research by which the findings were first substantiated. In such fields, specialization can serve the cause of efficiency, vastly increasing the number and the reliability of findings available to all practitioners. Medical research is a clear case of a field in which specialization is eminently desirable. This is not to deny that thinking about the working of the human body can be rewarding in its own right, quite apart from its practical …