RIGHT THOUGHTS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21250, 22 October 1940, Page 8

RIGHT THOUGHTS

OUR BEST WEAPONS OPINION OF SAVANTS That modern civilisation can be preserved only by a recognition of the “ supreme worth and moral responsibility of the individual human person,” was declared today to be one of the great convictions arrived at by the 500 thinkers who assembled at New York as a Conference of Science, Philosophy and Religion in a first attempt to unify and clarify democratic thought, states the Christian Science Monitor. Enlarging upon this conclusion, a group of five professors, theologians and physicists who assessed the conference results for the press declared that the individual’s ” supreme worth ” meant that he had rights which no state had given him and which no state could take away; and that his “ moral responsibility ” meant that he had duties and reSDonsibilities as well as rights and privileges. The 500 leaders in the fields of natural science, philosophy and religion who met at their own expense and contributed their best thought in the effort to strengthen democratic thinking were in general agreement that any process of unifying their divergent opinions would take at least two years. Ideas, Not Thanks The task, however, was viewed as eminently worthwhile, for it was declared that ideas today are weapons, that for instance the French and Belgians were routed as much by thoughts as they were by tanks, and that whereas nefarious ideas are being broadcast from Russia, Germany and Italy to a great extent, democracy can equally be defended by right ideas.

Summing the conference results for the press were the Rev. Dr. Louis Finkelstein, President of the Jewish

Theological Seminary and originator of the conference; the Rev. Gerard C. Walsh, professor of history at Fordham University; Lawrence K.

Frank, vice-president of the Josiah Mach Foundation; Gerald B. Pelham, president of the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto, and C. P. Haskins, research physicist of Union College. A greater toleration for the ideas of others was seen as already a product of the parley, to which Dr. Albert Einstein contributed a paper. Theologians, it was said, recognised the right of natural science to regard as truth in its own field only that which could be verified experimentally, while the natural scientists in turn were willing to recognise the right of the theologians to seek conclusions in a field transcending experimentation. The conference, it was said, would meet again- as a whole in 1941 and in 1942, while intermediate assemblies would be held from time to time at convenient localities. What the final unity of democratic thinking would consist of, was not foreshadowed. but it was suggested that it. might consist of a “ consensus ” or formulation of conclusions on which all might agree. Other members of the conference said that the final unity might rather be one of attitude, a recognition of common “ loyalty to democracy ” obtained by bringing not thought but thinkers together. Committee Named “ The extent to which the conference succeeded in meeting its aims,” the final joint statement said, ” must be judged in relation to the magnitude of the problems confronting it. The departmentalisation of human knowledge has been proceeding for more than a century. Its integration, with the most valiant efforts, will take more than a meeting of three days. The value of the conference will become clearer when the proI ccedings arc published in full.”

Lyman Bryson, professor of education, Teachers College, Columbia University; Robert J. Havighurst, the General Education Board; Harold D. Lasswell, professor political science, Washington School of Psychiatry: Robert M. Maciver. professor of philosophy. Columbia University; Filmer S. C. Northrup, professor of philosophy. Yale University; Harlow Shapley, director of the Harvard Observatory, and Luther A. Weigle, dean of the Yale Divinity School.