FOM: preoccupation?

[Harvey Friedman]

Lou 9:42PM 3/9/98 asks:

>From a general intellectual point of view,
>isn't it odd to be more or less permanently preoccupied with the
>foundations of a subject [f.o.m.] to the point of loosing interest in the
>subject
>itself? (Just a, perhaps provocative, question. I guess division of
>labour is a possible answer, but this clearly presents difficulties
>if serious intellectual communication with the practitioners of the
>subject itself is endangered.)

Similarly, one may ask:

>From a general intellectual point of view, isn't it odd to be more or less
permanently preoccupied with the mathematics of science to the point of
loosing interest in the science itself? (Just a, perhaps provocative,
question. I guess division of labor is a possible answer, but this clearly
presents difficulties if serious intellectual communication with the
practitioners of science itself is endangered.)