Word: socialism
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Semantics (defined as "the science of meanings") has been criticized principally because its theoreticians have made such sweeping claims for it as a social cureall, and because books about it are hard to read. Semanticist Chase makes his claims as sweeping as any, but his book is easy reading. "A brief grounding in semantics," he vouches, "besides making philosophy unreadable, makes unreadable most political speeches, classical economic theory, after-dinner oratory, diplomatic notes, newspaper editorials, treatises on pedagogics and education, expert financial comment, dissertations on money and credit . . . Great Thoughts from Great Thinkers in general...
...semantic illiteracy" of using such words as though they had an actual point of reference in the physical world, whereas in fact they are in the same category as the "souls" which savages give to trees, rivers and the like. And since language is the main instrument in regulating social relationships, the result of this word-witchery is to make men's actions also meaningless. Instead of giving souls to trees, modern man, avers Chase, personifies "national honor," "neutrality," "capital," "labor," "corporations." "It would surely be a rollicking sight," he hoots, "to see the Standard...
...attack on loose thinking parading as profundity, on hollow rhetoric offered as a guide to social action, on fakes, phonies, pomposities, stuffed shirts, pedants and wordmongers in general, The Tyranny of Words will to most readers make tonic good sense. But, as with most of Stuart Chase's writing, they are likely to be more impressed with his devastating diagnosis than with his cureall. Picturing present-day human communications as a telephone switchboard with all the wires crossed, Stuart Chase can only look hopefully toward a distant future when, through the rigorous application of semantics, the connection between minds...
Modern U. S. social workers play up environment, play down inheritance. But they still believe as strongly as Victorians in the therapeutic value of good reading. Last week New York's Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia issued an annotated list-of 277 books, grouped according to school grades, to be read in future by children whose misdeeds land them in the New York City Children's Court. Costing about $390, the full library contains 19 fairy stories, 81 adventure tales, 85 biographies of human and animal heroes, miscellaneous books on civics, history, hobbies, religion, etiquette. The list contains such...
...Prospectus of the British Labor Party" will be discussed by David E. Owen, assistant professor of History, in an address over Station WAAB at 7:30 o'clock tonight. The talk is sponsored by the Harvard Guardian, undergraduate publication of the Social Sciences...