Teamwork in Otology
Abstract
TEAMWORK IN OTOLOGY PROF. DR. EELCO HUlZlNGA I n the last few years specialists, of which the otologist is a typical example. have often been slandered with sayings like: lLaspecialist is a man who knows more and more about less and less.â Indeed, owing to the enormous progress of science the knowledge of the individual becomes relatively smaller and smaller. This is a great danger for thus it may happen that you cannot see the wood for the trees. No one has brought this so sharply to the fore as the Spanish philosopher O r t e g a y G a s s e t , who even spoke of lâthe barbarity of specialismâ. Still it seems to me that O r t e g a is wrong, when he expresses himself SO strongly on the mentality of the specialist. Having pointed out that formerly humanity could be simply divided into learned and ignorant people, he draws attention to the fact that the specialist can hardly be incorporated with either group. â H e is not a learned man, for he is entirely ignorant of everything not pertaining to his special province; neither is he an ignorant