Joseph Conrad once wrote that the writer's job is to do the highest possible justice to the visible universe. In order to penetrate and analyze the world of behavior and events, we reach beneath the surface of the visible universe and dip into the domain of the unseen. Psychologists influenced by Freud might say that if the President pursued Monica Lewinsky, it was because he is in an arrested adolescent state. Economists say that speculators in world money markets, noting fluctuations in the value of currencies generally, have been selling Canadian dollars in order to buy U.S. dollars. This, combined with the refusal of the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates and the persistence of the threat of Quebec separatism, keeps the Canadian dollar at an all-time low.
Sociologists say that the crime rate in the U.S. has fallen because incomes have risen.
Journalists live not only in the world of events, but in a world of ideas. An initial test of competence in their use is familiarity with their provenance. A second test is to understand their limits. A third test is to use them cautiously and thoughtfully. Intellectual eloquence, like all forms of competence, is the product of study and practice.