The mathematical specialist, for example, canget further faster into the great mathematicians than a readerwho is without his specialized training. With the help ofgreat books, specialized knowledge can radiate out into agenuine interfiltration of common learning and common life.

Both the cult of learning around Dante and the cult ofignorance around Newton are phenomena of the vicious spe-cialization of scholarship.

As Stringfellow Barr has said, the world israpidly dividing into technicians who cannot tell the differ-ence between a good poem and sentimental doggerel and "cul-tured" people who know nothing about electricity exceptthat you push a button when you want it. In a society thatis highly technological the sooner the citizens understandthe basic ideas of mathematics and natural science the better.

Some readers may feel that we have been too hard on themin insisting that the great works of science are a part of theconversation and that a man who has not read them has notacquired a liberal education.

When writing history, there are rules to be followed and evidence to be respected. But no two histories will be the same, whereas the essence of scientific experiments is that they can be endlessly replicated.

I mean the distinction between mathematicians who regard their centralaim as being to solve problems, and those who are more concerned with building andunderstanding theories.