Word: utilitarian
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...Situation. Businessmen in general are cagey about new ideas. Twenty-five years ago they squinted dubiously at advertising. Advertising men pugnaciously proved their utility. Now he is a stupid salesman who does not use advertising. To teach a similar lesson scientists are using similar utilitarian appeals. Rarely does a researcher give a talk without a lateral exposition on how useful to business his discovery can be made...
...present turn at best only hypothetical. It may be that more students are now concentrating in Economics than in English or any of the sciences because the propensities of the modern Harvard mind tend toward the pursual of a path midway between the strictly academic and the purely utilitarian; a second explanation might attribute the change to the added equipment and personnel of the Business School suggesting possibilities for the incipient graduate. In the latter case a ground training in the principles of Economics would probably prove of more value than a steeping in the Classics, English, or Chemistry...
...which has never before assembled. Last week, the University of Cincinnati toyed with the idea of giving a course in "mopology," threatened to be the year's first exploiter of unferreted educational byways. Mopology is destined for janitors. It will not teach lilting songs to rhythmic moppers, nor utilitarian philosophy for long janitorial hours. Mopology will strenuously, scientifically stress the importance of clean corners, dustless desks, and the danger of overheating due to too much coal in the furnace...
...faculty, like John Branner and Dr. David Starr Jordan (since 1916 president-emeritus), were surrounded and succeeded by run-of-the-mill instructors. Classics receded before technical subjects to the point where, for example, courses in art are now open only to students requiring such knowledge as the utilitarian equipment of a teaching career...
...fulfilled, but in most curious fashion. It has probably happened, as the Baron suggested it might, out of a kind of vanity. Whatever the impetus, it is a fact that learning is desirable at Harvard, and yet that curiously enough, fewer men have leisure than ever before. Still the utilitarian character of the country remains, but still, as Mr. Benn says, its taint has not infected the Harvard curriculum...