The Near-Professions

Abstract

The dividing line between the near-professions, the subject of this chapter, and the would-be professions, which are considered in Chapter Five, must be, to some extent, a matter of opinion and prejudice. For practical purposes, a near-profession is one which seems likely to achieve full status before the end of the present century and a would-be profession is one in which the aspirations of its members seem unlikely to be realised in the foreseeable future. The principal examples of the first category are taken to be teaching, psychology, philosophy and sociology, and of the second, advertising, journalism, economics and management. It is worth recording at this point that all eight of these trades, vocations or occupations are among the leading jargon producers of our time, and all for the same reason; they are trying desperately hard to be recognised as a branch of science, knowing in their hearts that this is something they can never become. They long to play in the same league as the physicists, chemists, biologists and metallurgists and to have a professional language comparable to:

Aluminium is the most important alloying addition to magnesium, and it is added in quantities up to about 11 per cent. As with most other alloys, the magnesium alloys may be classified into those which are cast and those which are wrought. The casting alloys are of two types. The first contains magnesium with 2 per cent of manganese and the second type contains 8 to 10 per cent aluminium with 0.5 per cent zinc and 0.25 per cent manganese. The latter alloys in particular possess good mechanical properties, which may be further improved by heat-treatment.¹