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Scholar and His Books by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout.

A scholar is a person who devotes themselves to scholarly pursuits, particularly to the study of an area in which they have developed expertise. A scholar may also be an academic, a person who works as a teacher or researcher at a university or other higher education institution. An academic usually holds an advanced degree.

Definitions

The term scholar is sometimes used with equivalent meaning to that of academic and describes in general those who attain mastery in a research discipline. However, it has wider application, with it also being used to describe those whose occupation was researched prior to organized higher education. In 1847, minister Emanuel Vogel Gerhart delivered an extensive address on the role of the scholar in society, writing:

Who is a scholar? the first reply that must be given is: He is a scholar whose whole inward intellectual and moral being has been symmetrically unfolded, disciplined and strengthened under the influence of truth. The different mental activities will always be exercised rightly when the proper equilibrium is preserved. No one faculty should be drawn out to the neglect of others. The whole inner man should be unfolded harmoniously.^[1]

Gerhart argued that a scholar can not be focused on a single discipline, contending that knowledge of multiple disciplines is necessary to put each into context and to inform the development of each:

[T]o be a scholar involves more than mere learning. He may know much about very many things and yet know little or nothing right. Knowledge without system or order is of no more service than useless lumber. A genuine scholar possesses something more: he penetrates and understands the principle and laws of the particular department of human knowledge with which he professes acquaintance. He imbibes the life of Science. To know only one thing as it ought to be known constitutes a man more of a scholar than to know many things simply by rote. The man of one idea may be an object of ridicule, yet if his one idea is apprehended in its proper life and power, he is of far more account than if he had collected a number of notions, all jumbled together in his mind confusedly. The knowledge of a scholar becomes a part of himself; and does not hang around his soul like a broad-cloth coat about his shoulders. Yielding himself to the plastic power of truth, as such, his mind is transfused and moulded by its energy and spirit.^[1]

A more recent examination outlined the following attributes commonly accorded to scholars as "described by many writers, with some slight variations in the definition":^[2]

The common themes are that a scholar is a person who has a high intellectual ability, is an independent thinker and an independent actor, has ideas that stand apart from others, is persistent in her quest for developing knowledge, is systematic, has unconditional integrity, has intellectual honesty, has some convictions, and stands alone to support these convictions.^[2]

Scholars may rely on the scholarly method or scholarship, a body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public. It is the methods that systemically advance the teaching, research, and practice of a given scholarly or academic field of study through rigorous inquiry. Scholarship is creative, can be documented, can be replicated or elaborated, and can be and is peer-reviewed through various methods.^[3]

Role of scholars in society

Scholars have generally been upheld as laudable figures engaged in work important to the advance of society. In Imperial China, in the period from 206 BC until AD 1912, the intellectuals were the Scholar-officials ("Scholar-gentlemen"), who were civil servants appointed by the Emperor of China to perform the tasks of daily governance. Such civil servants earned academic degrees by means of imperial examination, and also were skilled calligraphers, and knew Confucian philosophy. Historian Wing-Tsit Chan concludes that:

Generally speaking, the record of these scholar-gentlemen has been a worthy one. It was good enough to be praised and imitated in 18th century Europe. Nevertheless, it has given China a tremendous handicap in their transition from government by men to government by law, and personal considerations in Chinese government have been a curse.^[4]

In Joseon Korea (1392–1910), the intellectuals were the literati, who knew how to read and write, and had been designated, as the chungin (the "middle people"), in accordance with the Confucian system. Socially, they constituted the petite bourgeoisie, composed of scholar-bureaucrats (scholars, professionals, and technicians) who administered the dynastic rule of the Joseon dynasty.^[5]

In his 1847 address, Gerhart asserted that scholars have an obligation to constantly continue their studies so as to remain aware of new knowledge being generated,^[1] and to contribute their own insights to the body of knowledge available to all:

The progress of science involves momentous interests. It merits the attention of all sincere lovers of truth. Every one professing to be a scholar is under obligations to contribute towards the ever-progressive unfolding of its riches and power. Not content with what is well known in reference to a great variety of subjects —not content with the imperfect views that have been acquired of many others, all genuine scholars, availing themselves fully of previous efforts, should combine their energies to bring to view what has eluded the keen vision of those men of noble intellectual stature who have lived and died before them.^[1]

Many scholars are also professors engaged in the teaching of others. In a number of countries, the title "research professor" refers to a professor who is exclusively or mainly engaged in research, and who has few or no teaching obligations. For example, the title is used in this sense in the United Kingdom (where it is known as research professor at some universities and professorial research fellow at some other institutions) and in northern Europe. Research professor is usually the most senior rank of a research-focused career pathway in those countries, and regarded as equal to the ordinary full professor rank. Most often they are permanent employees, and the position is often held by particularly distinguished scholars; thus the position is often seen as more prestigious than an ordinary full professorship. The title is used in a somewhat similar sense in the United States, with the exception that research professors in the United States are often not permanent employees and often must fund their salary from external sources,^[6] which is usually not the case elsewhere.

Independent scholars

An independent scholar is anyone who conducts scholarly research outside universities and traditional academia. In the United States, a professional association exists for independent scholars: this association is the National Coalition of Independent Scholars. In Canada, the equivalent professional association is the Canadian Academy of Independent Scholars (in association with Simon Fraser University). Similar organizations exist around the world. Membership in a professional association generally entails a degree of post-secondary education and established research.^[7][8]

References

See also

• 
  Category:Scholars - The category of scholars, people who study a field


• 
  Scholarism (學民思潮) Hong Kong political movement


• Scholarship


• Scholasticism


• Autodidacticism


• Citizen science


• Scholasticism

External links

Look up scholar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• National Coalition of Independent Scholars