Why We Still Need Masters & Apprentices

We may consider master-apprentice relationships a relic of an outdated medieval system of education, a system which couldn't possibly offer much to the 21st century mind. However, transferring the rich tacit knowledge of our best intellectuals and most competent societal actors is not an easy task. The scholastic social technology of the master/apprentice relationship solved many of the difficulties of knowledge transfer via face-to-face communication of ideas over extended periods of time and the requirement of students to write up and articulate the ideas of the master. Scholasticism was a medieval school of thought emphasizing careful distinctions, dialectical reasoning, and explicit disputation. Because of its rigor, scholastic methodology was eventually applied to many different schools of thought: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholasticism *********************** Samo Burja is a sociologist and the founder of Bismarck Analysis, a firm that analyzes institutions from governments to companies. His research focuses on the causes of societal decay and flourishing. He writes on history, epistemology and strategy. More from Samo Burja: https://twitter.com/SamoBurja https://brief.bismarckanalysis.com http://samoburja.com