Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2011
The concept of a profession as a social institution is a rather nebulous one. It is sometimes used to refer to any clearly defined vocational group. More traditionally it refers to a “learned profession,” the classic examples of which are divinity, medicine, and the law. The Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (Vol. XII, p. 478) defines a profession, in this sense, as “a vocation founded upon prolonged and specialized intellectual training which enables a particular service to be rendered.” It is this meaning of the term that is here intended.
1 Cleveland, Harlan, Mangone, Gerard J., and Adams, John Clarke, The Overseas Americans, New York, 1960.Google Scholar
2 SirNicolson, Harold, Diplomacy, London, Oxford University Press, 1950, ch. 5.Google Scholar
3 The tendency is not confined to the United States. See ibid., pp. 12–14.
4 Cleveland, Mangone, and Adams, op.cit., Part IV.
5 Northrop, F. S. C., Philosophical Anthropology and Practical Politics, New York, 1960Google Scholar, and The Meeting of East and West, New York, 1946.