ABSTRACT
The great transitions in the state of mankind, both the first and the second, may be identified primarily with changes in the state of human knowledge, involving therefore a learning process. Even in civilized societies the bulk of knowledge which is acquired is what might be called folk knowledge, in the sense that it is acquired either in the family or in the face-to-face group rather than in formal education or in schools. It is highly characteristic of civilized societies that they are divided sharply into two classes: those who possess school knowledge, which is transmitted in books and libraries and by professional teachers, and those who possess only the folk knowledge. Just as agriculture paved the way for the development of writing and civilization, so the slow growth of knowledge in the course of civilization paves the way for the second transition and the rise of science. The rise of science might be described as a mutation in scholarship.
