THE UNIVERSITY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 355, 12 April 1946, Page 5

THE UNIVERSITY

Sir,-In your issue of March 15 you published a letter from Bertha Bogle advocating a super-University for selected graduates "who desire to find truth not only for its own sake, but for the sake of humanity." This is a worthy cultural

ideal and I have no intention of condemning it, but I doubt whether this truth can be discovered within the cloistered walls of a University by those qualified simply in academic philosophy. I am myself a graduate of the University of New Zealand, but have had my education extended by four years of the more down-to-earth philosophy of the Services, I say I have had my education extended advisedly, for, of necessity, I have gained a broader knowledge of my fellow men-a crude method of learning psychology perhaps, but an effective one, Your correspondent’s proposals would seem a little less Utopian to me if she had made some effort to ensure that those graduates picked to set us on the path of progress had a little more knowledge than that culled simply from books, A philosophy that takes little account of people is largely pedantry. However, in the final analysis I do not think there is any magic panacea for the world’s ills to be discovered by a select band of experts. The remedy (for both the individual and the world) is that advocated by most psychologists from Christ downwards-think less of the Self and become big enough to see beyond your own narrow circle, The problem is one of application, not discovery, As a result, our greatest modern problem is to decide how to effect this change in people-if it is possible at all. I do not intend to argue the pros and cons of this fundamental problem, but all the intellectual wrangling in the world, and all the "true universities of libraries of books" will not solve it. In other words, our best brains must not cloister themselves with others of their own kindthey must find out about people for themselves. In the past they have talked too facilely about philosophies and "isms" and too little about people. We label people as Americans, Englishmen, Russians, Communists, Reactionaries. The group has taken the place of the individual. It has been sometimes charged that the community takes too

little notice of its intellectuals (i.e., University). True. But at the same the intellectuals have taken too litt notice of the community.

F.A.

P.

(Wellington). |