Word: moralisms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...second proposition is that decisions made on moral grounds will endanger the independence of the University. This argument, repeated in each of the letters, is a textbook example of circular reasoning. He writes in his first letter...
...last general argument is that moral decisions will cost money that could otherwise have been spent for academic purposes. But President Bok cannot honestly expect moral choices always to be completely painless. The health of this institution depends on much more than its liquidity. Bok rhetorically asks at the conclusion of his last letter "whether much will truly be lost by the reluctance of academic institutions to exert collective pressure." He, of course, does not believe the price of some amorality would be too high. After all, Harvard only contributes a small amount to the profits of these corporations...
President Bok himself maintains that "the way in which a university addresses these questions and the answers that it gives are inescapably part of the moral education it imparts to students." If what he says is true, then the President's real message to the students of Harvard is that small acts of daring are, at times like this, futile. When he tells us that we are "naive" and "must all be linked in indirect and innumerable ways to the wrongs of the world--through the goods we buy, the taxes we pay, the services we use, the investments...
Hope Wigglesworth, director of development and alumnae affairs at Radcliffe, agrees that Radcliffe's financial separation from Harvard gives it freedom to address moral issues in its own way. "We feel very strongly about the accountability of our money," she maintains...
Meanwhile, President Bok released the first of his series of letters discussing "moral and ethical considerations" of the University's investments. In this letter, Bok said that when a university takes a stand on a moral or political issue, it endangers its intellectual freedom. Critics of the letters charged Bok with evading moral responsibilities...