Word: crowther
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...Crowther of the "Manchester Guardian" introduced the crippling effects of specialization on present-day society as the thesis of his lecture in Hunt Hall. It is particularly interesting to find this distinguished visitor thinking in terms similar to those of President Conant...
...Crowther, in proposing an antidote for the centripetal force of specialization which he finds driving inward to dictatorship, believes that "philosophic journalism" offers a possible solution. By philosophic journalism he means a great deal more than informed writing; he demands, above all, breadth of understanding, fertility of mind, and coordination of walled-in ideas. In a word, he required more intellectual leaders capable of sweeping in jumbled, fragmentary bits of knowledge and transforming them into coherent and useful entities...
This attitude toward great scientists is of comparatively recent birth. Hitherto the study of scientists has been directed primarily toward the facts of their discoveries, Mr. Crowther pointed out, and it has not touched upon why such a discovery was made in one place and at one time rather than at any other time and place, or what effect such a discovery had on current thought...
...Crowther attributed the experimental attitude shown by Americans toward science to the fact that Americans are generally more scientific-minded than English, and added that science was given much more room in American papers than abroad...
...Crowther was interested in the projected broadcasting of scientific lectures from Harvard, but added that "one must not expect too much until the technique of broadcasting lectures has been worked out." He feels that the public is more likely to understand a well written newspaper article, which one may read over and over, than a lecture over the radio where the listener can neither see the lecturer nor have him repeat baffling phrases...