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

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social science discipline? have as their ohject the por- tra al of man as a wliole heing. of man as an intellectuah cultural and social animal. Recognition of tliis fact that the social sciences and the humanities share common pur- poses is fundamental tn the idea of a Princeton education — the student who majors in one of the social science areas readih comes to understand that his education is incomplete if he ik)es not elect courses in the humanistic department.-. Also hasic to the Princeton idea is the helief that the student should have the opportunity to discover that his own special field of knowledge is related to other fields. As the late Professor Donald Stauffer wrote, he should have the chance to make the exciting discovery that all knowledge is related. The endeavor to fit all the parts of a course of study into a coherent whole is equally as im- portant as specialization within any given area. In the social sciences the Woodrow Wilson School, the first of a number of joint enterprises carried out by several depart- ments, offers an interdisciplinary approach to problems of public affairs which is designed to organize the pro- gram of upperclass vears into such a related pattern. There is also at Princeton a long tradition of public service, arising out of the conviction that the goal of education is not simpU the self-impro ement of the student. In Woodrow Wilsons words. We are not put into this world to sit still and know: we are put here to act. The social sciences, therefore, aim at giving the student the knowledge with which he can make his own appraisal of the great public issues of the da and thus become an active and not a passive citizen. And by virtue of their close concern with the larger questions of public Profes-,,,- K. II. Hariiivi.!! DepartmenI oj History I ' rofi --(iTi . .S. Carpenter. G. A. (iraham. Chairman. H. 1,. (!liil(ls. Department oj Politics Professors . El)enslein. A. T. MaM ' ii. Department of Politics. 23

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Professor R. D. Challfiier. Department at Hisforv SOCIAL SCIENCES By Richard Delo Challener, Ph.D. Assi. ' ilant Professor of History The social sciences, one of the three basic divisions ol the university curriculum, have as their purpose the studv o{ [he economic, political, and social aspects of human liehavior. Although individual social scientists concern themselves with a wide range of subjects and employ highly divergent methods — the political scientist in- terested in power relationships, the economist studying problems of production, exchange, and distribution, the historian concerned with the question of change over time — all would agree that they share a common interest in the studv of contemporary society and its historical back- ground. The true social science approach is two-dimen- sional: not only a concern for the broad expanse of the ]jresent-da world but also an attempt to put that world in perspective through an appreciation of what is remote ill time. It follows closely from that there is no sharp line of demarcation between the social sciences and the human- ities. The humanist, to be sure, is perhaps more con- cerned with the unique, and the social scientist is more interested in the [prediction and control of human activitv. But at the same time all of the humanistic and Professors J. R. Strayer. Chairman. J. P. Boyd. Department ol History Professors E. A. Belter. M. IhiV. L,-.-. W. F. Craven. R. R. Palmer. Deparl- ment oj History 22

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Profes! or D. G. Munro, Direi lor, ff ' oodrow Wilson School policy, the social sciences are in a unique position to con- tribute real meaning to the familiar phrase. Princeton in the Nation ' s Service. In the last analysis, then the basic aim of the social sciences is to contribute to the Princeton idea of a liberal education for life in a democratic society, an ideal which is founded upon the conviction that the most practical education is the liberal training which seeks to create independence of thought and judgment in the student. The social sciences, like the other dissiplines, are es- tablished upon the belief that a democratic society can never develop if the individuals composing it are merely specialists with no significant knowledge or beliefs held in common . . . Liberal education and the democratic ideal are related to each other in a thousand ways. It is not loo much to say that they stand and fall together. Professors G. Patterson, R. A. W. J. Baumol, Department Institutions Lester, Chairman. J. intr, oj Economics and Social Professor G. A. Craig, Department of History 24