There is, worldwide, a blatant tendency to produce “experts”. In principle, it is natural that all areas should be deepened and that more and more detailed studies should be made available to the average student. However, the question remains: What about the whole? What about the connection between different areas of knowledge? I say and think about two things. First, in Carpeaux’s monumental História da literatura ocidental, a work that the more I analyze it, the more I find it valuable: in it, which could never be classified as “superficial,” more than twenty centuries of culture are magnificently concatenated. The student sees the impossible link shining before him and conquers, in relatively few pages, a vision that allows him to move through the most diverse currents of thought. A work of this kind is the opposite of the current intellectual trend. Secondly, I think about the students. Multiple interests, diversified study does not usually make careers: he who becomes an “expert” grows. By becoming an “expert”, the student flirts with the possibility of knowing one area and ignoring all the others, ignoring, as well, the real applicability of the knowledge itself. Well done! Which is worth more, or what is the point of studying? It seems to me that the main distinction between modern intellectuals lies in the answers.
The Modern Trend of Producing “Experts”
