Plymouth State University - Conning Tower Yearbook (Plymouth, NH)

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Another error of the nineteenth century might be called the mathematician’s fallacy: Given infinite time, all kinds of worlds will result. In harmony with this theory is the remark that man is a cosmic accident. There may be accidents for our limited vision, but they are not cosmic, because they occur in the cosmos. A universe that did not contain any higher principles than those necessary to produce a sand pile would never produce animals. In a cosmos that did not harmonize with mind there could emerge no being with self-consciousness. The exposure of these fallacies has given a much wider opportunity for logical conclusions. Consider the argument by presuppositions. This means that if anything is given, or experienced, whatever is logically necessary to make the condition possible is true. You are familiar with this logical process from Kant's examination of man’s moral nature. Man does have a conscience, and if his analysis is without flaw, then his conclusion is valid: “It is morally necessary to presuppose the existence of God.” The problem of genesis, of man’s origin, does not enter. Important problems for careful thinking are to be found in the realm of values. If values, such as truth, beauty, goodness, freedom, justice, arc of utmost importance for man, then they must have a meaning in the universe as a whole. The universe will be better understood in the twentieth century than it was in the nineteenth. Harry Preble Swett 19

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Harry Preble Swett To the Graduate of the Secondary Curriculum The final aim of man's intelligence is to understand the universe of which we arc a part. In the nineteenth century many intellectual leaders thought they had reached solutions, which already do not appear so satisfactory. There were often interesting cases of the fallacy which Bacon called the Idol of the Theater. By this he meant that “many principles and axioms” are used in such a way as to cause errors. One of these was the evolutionary fallacy which is a misuse of the concept of origins. This fallacy has been given different names: the fallacy of genesis, reductionism, the nothing-but explanation, the explanation of the higher by the lower, or of a complex structure by a less complex. An illustration of this kind of thinking would be the statement that man is nothing but an animal with a higher intelligence. This illustration of the fallacy of genesis is an example, also, of another of Bacon’s idols, which he called the Idol of the Market-place. By this fallacy “the ill and unfit choice of words” “leads men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies.” The error in this thinking violates the first law of thought, the law of identity or consistency. The term man is not used identically in both cases. A man is not an animal with some additions. A man is a man. Emergent evolution, which explains the lower by the higher, has helped to clarify this thinking. 18

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MARIAN MORRILL COLLINS Laconia, N. H. Speedball (1) (2) (3) (4); Volleyball (1) (2) (3) (4); Varsity Basketball (1) (2) (3) (4); Basketball Leader (3); President Athletic Association (2); Representative (1) (2) (3); Solicitor (I); Associate Justice (4); Senior Glee Club (1) (2) (3) (4); Pan-Athenaeum (2) (3); Editor-in-Chief of Yearbook (4). A good sport, a good friend, Merry brown eyes. Bring one end — Marian. HELEN MAUDE LEE General Medfield, Mass. Speedball (1) (2) (3); Volleyball (1); Baseball (1) (2); Bowling (2) (3); Badminton (2) (3) (4); Math Club (2). Helen is one of our Out-of-Staters, but we think that during her four years here she has found that New Hampshire has many charms. OLIVE HARRIET MARSHALL Nashua, N. H. Speedball (1) (2) (3) (4); Basketball (1) (2) (3); Junior Glee Club (1); Math Club (2); Social Club Council (3); Baseball (1) (2); Class Vice-President (}) (4); Photograph Committee for Yearbook (4). She’s witty, sociable, full of fun; With knack for getting all work done.” 20