Word: marglin
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When Wolcowitz took over the course three years ago, he and Marglin agreed to a schedule that permitted a week to present the radical view point Although this offer still gave radical thought less time than any other unit Marglin considered it a worthwhile start, three lectures and a set of readings. Previously, the optional radical sections had been the only outlet for radical thought. Then, as now, these classes had to devote most of their time to mainstream economics since the students had to take the coursewide final exam. Thus, the teachers were forced to squeeze in the radical...
Harvard's willingness to seek diversity among its students is one of its greatest assets, but Marglin and others charge that the University does not take the same attitude with regard to its faculty. Without a variety of viewpoints they say, a student lacks the tools to truly evaluate the material presented, synthesize it with his/her own experience, and formulate an educated opinion of where where the truth lies. In Marglin's words, "We do a poor job of teaching when we fail to expose people to more than one theory, even if all we want to do is eventually...
...clear the Soviet economy does not work "He points to the Soviet and Chinese economic systems as examples of radical economics failures in the real world. (Radical economics however, contend that Mars did not intend his theories to be applied to under developed nations). Although most radical economists. Marglin included dissociate themselves and then their theories from the repression to today's communism. Eckstein insists that the lessons from the real world are indicative of the fallibility of radical theories...
...advocating that the department give more consideration to radical thought. Marglin focuses much of his argument on intellectual honesty. A range of viewpoints is beneficial to the student's learning and he says, "You don't know the important assumptions from the trivial assumptions the way it's done [now]. You don't know why this assumption is made: whether it's just to keep things near and simple whether it really is a fundamentally distinctive point of view that has to do with a particular way of looking at the world...
...Marglin makes it clear he expects the status quo will continue unless students become vocal in demanding change, as they were in the late '60s, Meanwhile, he maintains his lonely outpost at the top of Littauer, surrounded by his mainstream colleagues There he waits for the political ride to shift, once again bringing his views into the center of debate. Maybe then, it students provide the impetus, he will no longer face isolation in the department Of the current situation, he says, "I think the real lonely are the students...