ABSTRACT
The author explores the slaying of the Minotaur by Theseus in Greek mythology as emblematic of his own complex personal intellectual journey to understand. He contributes to the reform of the professions - which variously appear in sociological work on professional groups like the Minotaur as half human, half beast. The author underlines the value of metaphors in illuminating the sociological enterprise. He then outlines the dualism associated with theoretical conceptualizations of the professions - as both being intensely human and bearing the characteristics of a beast. Professions are defined by neo-Weberian writers as a form of exclusionary social closure in the marketplace sanctioned by the state. The main benefit of a neo-Weberian approach is that it avoids, through the use of a definition centred on social closure, making unnecessarily positive assumptions of the taxonomic approach about the human face of the professions.
