Purpose of a discipline is intrinsic

No academic subject is driven solely to ‘serve the public’, whether it be science, humanities, or art.

One blog post by Weixiang Sun discussed writing textbooks on polymer physics. I am quoting from memory, failing to retrieve the exact text, ‘introduction of a textbook is not somewhere to affirm the value of the subject, which is not necessary as well. There is no need to mention some elusive medical applications’.