Princeton University - Bric A Brac Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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Professors W. F. Craven, R. L. Powell, Department of History Professors P. J. Strayer, O. Morgenstern, De- partment af Economics and Social Instit Professor G. A. Craig, Department of History Professor S. E. Howard, Department of Economics and Social Institutions 5, . f e if AM. . ' ff 7 sf'-N: 1-5 Qi' -fs- Professor L. V. Chandler, Department of Economics and Social Institutions or forming any ideas about what is desirable or un' desira-ble, we employ and We need value premises in making scientihc observations of facts and in analyzing their casual interrelation. Chaos does not organize itself utions by evading them. 24 into any cosmos. We need viewpoints and they presume valuations. A 'disinterested social science' is, from this viewpoint, pure nonsense. lt never existed, and it will never exist. We can strive to make our thinking rational in spite of this, but only by facing the valuations, not From the study of society the student may properly obtain convictions and, conceivably, even aspirations to participate in social decisions. In Whitehead's phrase, knowledge does not keep any better than ish, and in a democratic society positive commitment and action are legitimate ends for the educated man.

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Professor E. H. Harbison, Professor D. G. Munro, Director, Woodrow Wilson School Department of History Professors W. J. Baumol, F. F. Stephan, A. W. Sametz, Department of Economics and Social Institutions pari-ties between our professed aspirations and the impact of contemporary behavior. To this extent, at least, the social scientist may double as social reformer. He may well ask, Knowledge for what? This does not imply the substitution -of exhortation for scientific methods in the study of society. Nor does it in any sense constitute a retrogression. In fact the great advances in social science from Plato and Aristotle, Freud and Marx, to the present have stemmed primarily from concern with social reform. Therefore, as Gunnar Myrdal emphasizes, quite apart from drawing any policy conclusions from social research Professor A. Isely, Department of History Professor C. E. Black, Department of History Professor G. A. Graham, Chairman, Department of Politics

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NATURAL SCIENCES By Eric Malcolm Rodgers, M.A. Associate Professor of Physics Bending over his retort amid coils of wire with flashing sparks, the great scientist works on his mysterious theory . . . Gloomy bearded savant, heedless . . . shambles out to a belated meal . . . shattering explosion . . . This is the ustage scientist of the movies and cheap notion. We shall always have such artificial stage types, where there is a lack of understanding. Many of them are no longer acceptable. Two world wars have swept the ustage American from the European theater, replacing him by a thoughtful, important person. The stage Frenchman simply won't hold water any longer. But the stage scientist is still with us, an amusing joke for the audience, a nice job for the character actor, and a stricture on modern civilization. Can Prince-ton help to remove that slur? All over the civilized world we meet the same coils of wire and that same antique retort like a glass comma- automatic machines now turn them out 'by the hundred to maintain outworn tradition. Picturefmagazines wait till they catch a scientist with open mouth or with trailing beard, then print a picture with 'khuman interest. The contrast of this tradition with real. scientists is appalling. It :brings real scientists against prejudice and misunderf standing. Business heads dislike their own scientific experts, military distrust theirs, some educational heads regard them as queer and inferior, and the general public does not even recognize them or their work. Isn't this last an insulting lie? Surely the general public knows and respects science and scientists. No: What they think they know and claim to respect are sham shadows of their own imagination or myths of tradition-stage scientists and stage science. The real scientist is neither a gloomy dreamer nor an eilicient formulafmonger. He has 'his 'hair cut as of-ten Professor E. M. Rogers, Department of Physics Professor A. K. Parpart, Chairman, Department of Biology Professor A. G. Shenstone, Chairman, Department of Physics Chairman, D9Pf1flme'1f Uf Geology Professor H. H. Hess, Professors E. G. Butler, G. Fankhauser, Department of Biology