ACADEMIC RESPONSIBILITY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 20 June 1932, Page 2

ACADEMIC RESPONSIBILITY

THE NEW WORLD OUTLOOK

Speaking at the Colston Research Society’s dinner at Bristol University, Sir Josiah Stamp said that the present state of the world and the economic depression, so far from requiring less aid from academic life and outlook, were becoming increasingly dependent upon them. The various diagnoses of the present situation showed up certain char, acteristic and particular factors upon which different people places the greatest stress. Prominent among them were: (1) The breakdown of laissez faire with the problem of collective control and the preservation of personal liberty and initiative; (2) the fact that the real limits of society to-day were economic, while we were still confining them within political borders; (3) that we were applying methods and canons of 'government belong to 18th-century to 20th-century life; (4) that science and production were out-running the other factors of society, particularly that in America, at the moment, of moral endurance; (5) the antithesis between plenty and scarcity was more marked to. day than ever; (6) the problem of keeping the advantages of the rhythm of trade and its cycle within bounds; (7) the suggestion that, whatever people might do, "fate” would prevail and no kind of economic guidance or thought in advance was of any avail. Sir Josiah said that under every one of those heads intellectual toil of thought in a nonpolitical atmosphere was of the greatest necessity. The academic life should provide a detached but very realistic examination of particular problems; it should also give a background of historical and philosophical thought which would make for stability and character. He said that the whole fabric of materialistic society, now that it was under such particular stress, was dependent for its survival upon certain immaterial and moral characteristics grit, mental poise and intrinsic belief in the superiority of intellectual solutions over mere drifting—a persistent appeal to realism, and the application of scientific methods to a continually widening area of human experience. Those things could not be detached from the turmoil of business life, but the contribution of the university was more greatly needed than ever. The breakdown of purely empirical business experience and democratic appeal was apparent on every hand and every university ought to aim at being not only a steady influence in its own centre, but also a contributor to the new world outlook.