professionalizing sub specie scientiae

"In the nineteenth-century colleges the study of society belonged to the benign amateurs who were not intimidated by cosmic questions or their own ignorance. The narrow competence and specialization of the economists, historians, political scientists, and others who took their places deflected the classroom from advocacy and conspicuous moral judgment to a style that bore the approved description -- 'scientific,' a style that was objective, cautious, and wary of judgment."

-- Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636, Frederick Rudolf, 1977, p. 156.