The Expert as Historical

Abstract

ociety rises to its challenges, abates its fears, and calms its nerveswith expertise. At moments of great stress it may also use experts*to transcribe its protests and inspire its revolutions. New knowledgeor new ways of putting the old, whether forbidden or pubhc, sacredor secular, are the province of the expert, who "sees combinationswe do not see," and by his vocation, as we presently define it, helpsto translate them into action. He pronounces anathemas and justifications that serve us but are beyond our skill. Experts are reveredor reviled; but they have been indispensable in history.The expert as policy counsellor has been available to societiesfrom earhest times, wearing among other transitory costumes thoseof magician, tax collector, confessor, constitution-writer, strategist,and economic planner. The form has changed with convenience,values on the scale of knowledge, morale, and culture; but thefunction has stayed rather constant. If not always enlisted as a guideto salvation or the millenium, the expert has at least been the confidant of dark secrets or the pathfinder toward some ancillary truth.This role seems httle abridged even in a "scientific age" when anexpert may be implored not to "take sides" but to remain the neutral judge of contingencies. The expert proposes, he does not dispose; but we must assume that his neutrality is a discretionary one.