the ivory tower

     The academy---the set of all of the college professors of the planet--is often referred to as "the ivory tower". This is meant as a criticism of academic life and academics, meaning college professors. Many people think that academics live in an ivory tower, apart from reality and any practical concerns of everyday life. When an academic does research on any subject, whether it is technology, science, or philosophy, the paper that he or she writes will be presented to a set of fellow academics, or professors. They will have read the paper beforehand, and will be ready with questions after hearing the author talk about his or her research. Any practical experiment has to be explained in such a way that other similarly qualified people can replicate it, expecting the same results. Any other research is open to seemingly endless dispute and discussion. There is no academic "pope", with the authority to end discussion when it begins to seem fruitless. One academic is as good as another, for most purposes, and some discussions have continued for generations. What good does it do? Aside form practical results, such as the computer you're using to read this, perhaps the idea that the truth is not a reachable "goal" is that important--that there can't really be an end to any human search for knowledge and understanding because humans are not omniscient, and never will be.