Re: scholar

On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:00:58 +0100, Don Aitken <don-aitken@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:35:42 +0200, Athel Cornish-Bowden
<athel_cb@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 2008-07-17 16:48:29 +0200, Fred Springer <fred.springer@xxxxxxxxxxxx> said:

iwasaki wrote:
The Concise Oxford Dictionary says "scholar" is "a specialist in a
particular branch of study, especially the humanities", and my
English-Japanese dictionary has a similar explanation, adding that
science people are called "scientist". Is it confusing or not common
to call science people "scholars"?

It is very uncommon. In fact, I can't ever recall seeing or hearing
such a usage. It tends to be applied to those who obtain their
knowledge from books and manuscripts, rather than studying the natural
world: historians, theologians and so on.

I think that is right. The word doesn't exclude scientists, but it is
not often used for them. On the other hand the adjective "scholarly"
can certainly be applied to a scientist who is considered careful and
accurate and who gives proper attention to work done by others.

The difficulty is that English, unlike most European languages, has no
equivalent to the German term "Wissenschaft", which, although often
translated as "science", includes areas like history and theology
which are not called sciences in English. So, when we need an
equivalent, we tend to use "scholarship", which isn't really very
suitable, since, although it can include science, that is not what
springs to mind when it is used.

And people who speak other European languages often use "science" and
"scientific" when "scholarship" or "scholarship" would be more appropriate.
It's not that English *lacks* a term, but rather that it has two where other
languages have one - "nauka" "weetenskap" etc.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
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