Word: moralisms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...answered the question with a qualified no, saying Harvard imperils its academic independence in taking up arms for moral or political causes...
...emotion (some even go so far to claim that this is what humanizes us, offers us a vision of what's truly meaningful and purposeful in life). Of course, emotion produces negative results too--but what is the function of education if not to combine reason and insight and moral awareness in the proctorship of human affairs? Education teaches us to distinguish a reasoned argument of artifice and greed from one of true merit...
Throughout his contorted argument, Bok assumes a trade-off between academic freedom and moral freedom. He creates the "real administrative burdens" by his resistance to change and all his apologetic propoganda. Finally he is left with the one remaining issue that rings of truth: real financial losses. And despite his disclaimer, university corporations are individuals under the law. His financial ethic is one of private greed, not public responsibility...
These are questions one hopes Bok will address in his next letters, which will deal with specific moral issues...
President Bok stated in his letter that the way a university "addresses these questions and the answers that it gives are inescapably a part of the moral education that it imparts to its students." Last April, Bok chose to stride across the Yard and zoom away in a car to avoid talking to students without the protection of a podium. The "moral education" Bok gave to Harvard students then was to evade those with whom one disagrees. And his letter teaches students to rationalize denying the moral consequences of their actions...