Word: evens
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Moral philosophy is not widely discussed at Harvard, either in classes or out. But unfamiliar as President Pusey's subject was, the answer he supplied to his own question was even more surprising. Speaking of who it is that teaches the course in moral philosophy today, he said "Together perhaps--you, your teachers, all of us, with those who have been here before us--together perhaps we do. From the beginning this course set for itself aims which cannot be taught. But they can be learned, and it is my belief that as in an earlier day, so they continued...
...identified with the laboratory, for whom equations assume a greater importance than people; or the prep school socialites whose snobberies are merely confirmed and intensified during four years in Cambridge. These extremes, if they exist at all, are far outnumbered by students who do think about morality, and occasionally even worry over it, but whose thinking is sporadic and undirected and whose worries are easily pushed aside by more immediate problems, academic, social, or financial...
...persuaded in many areas: the scientific method is urged upon us, as is logic and rationality; democracy is often preached, and totalitarianism almost universally inveighed against; and in the humanities, standards of taste are handed down in a fashion that sometimes approaches coercion. Outside the classroom, some teachers feel even freer in pontificating on these and related questions, but there is almost no moral guidance or consideration of conduct, character, and duty...
Although the University is often referred to as a community of scholars, the force of the word community goes largely unnoticed. There is little sense of community outside the intellectual sphere at Harvard, even in the matter of generosity toward one's fellow students...
Discussion of careers among undergraduates is surprisingly limited, and decisions concerning them are in many cases not reached even by the end of senior year. With fellowships relatively easy to come by, and graduate school always available as a last resort, the decision can be postponed until "something comes up," and no decision at all is required. Vocational guidance counselors are clearly not the answer, but a liberal arts college should counterbalance its aims in general education by stimulating its students to reflect upon "their duty, and the reasons...