On Specialization

Ten years ago
I asked a college professor
to give me the formulation
of those universal concepts
in the universal message
of universal universities
that would enable
the common man
to create
a universal economy.
And the college professor answered:
“That is not my subject.”
College professors
are specialists
who know more and more
about less and less
and if they keep on specializing
they will end
by knowing everything
about nothing.

A Negro student
had a father
who was a Baptist minister.
The Baptist minister
gave to his son
Baptist theology
but no science.
And the son
wanted to know science.
In the University of Pittsburgh
the Negro student
learned several sciences
without correlation.
And the Negro student
was complaining
about the University of Pittsburgh
for having failed
to give him
a correlated knowledge.

Henry Adams
went to four American universities
without acquiring
a correlated knowledge.
He went to England
and failed.
He went to France
and failed.
But in France,
looking at
the Cathedral of Chartres
and the Mont Saint Michel,
he realized
that one could have acquired
a correlated knowledge
in thirteenth century France.
And he wrote a book entitled
Mont Saint Michel
and Chartres,
now published
by the American Society of Architects.