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Monday, 2 January 2012

The professorial intellect


William James

I suspect this quote from William James is at least as true today as when he wrote it. It may also be a far more pernicious problem than we are usually prepared to admit, because I think James, whether he knew it or not was foretelling the death of academia. 

Whatever universe a professor believes in must at any rate be a universe that lends itself to lengthy discourse. A universe definable in two sentences is something for which the professorial intellect has no use. No faith in anything of that cheap kind!
William James – Pragmatism 
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2 comments:

  1. Sam Vega2 January 2012 at 18:55

    Have no fear for the professors. They saw this one coming, and invented the concept of the "multiverse".

    ReplyDelete
  2. A K Haart3 January 2012 at 12:19

    SV - and climate models.

    ReplyDelete

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