The time outlooks of the scholar-scientist and of the practical men of affairs who surround the world of science tend to be different. The former works in a long, leisurely world in which the hands of the clock crawl slowly over a vast dial; to him, the precise penetration of the unknown seems to grand an enterprise to be hurried, and one simply works ahead within study walls relatively sound-proofed agains the clamorous urgencies of the world outside. In this time-universe of the scholar0scientist certain supporting assumptions have grown up such as "impersonal objectivity," aloofness from the strife of rival values," and the self-justifying goodness of "new knowledge" about anything, big or little.... The practical man of affairs, on the other hand, works by a small time-dial over which the second-hand of immediacy hurries incessantly. "Never mind the long past and the infinite future," insists the clattering little monitor, "but do this, fix this—now, before tomorrow morning." It has been taken for granted, in general, that there is no need to synchronize the two time-worlds of the scholar-scientist and of the practical man. Immediate relevance has not bee regarded as so important as ultimate relevance; and, in the burgeoning nineteenth-century world which viewed all time as moving within the Master System of Progress, there was seemingly large justification for this optimistic tolerance.

from Knowledge for What? (1939) by Robert Lynd