On Tue, 2 Dec 2003, joanna bujes wrote:
> Sure, I've run across a handful of exceptional scholars. But it is also
> the case that academics influence hundreds of students each semester.
> For a lot of people, college is their last real chance to catch
> intellectual, critical fire. So, I think it's important to reach out to
> them.
>
> The division of higher education from social concerns is a crime against
> the social good and a crime against critical thinking. I'm not arguing
> for a program of pragmatism here; I'm arguing against the age-old
> distinction between the "higher" and "lower" faculties and the
> celebration of the former at the expense of the latter.
>
> Joanna
>
I'm not arguing for the Priority of the Ivory Tower. I'm just saying there's a place for scientific research and critical inquiry in our society, just like there is a need for political activism. However, the two social needs should not be conflated. As a prof, I am not a political activist, and I would be doing a bad job if all I did in my classes was recruit students for political activity. There are important things to learn that do not entail political mobilization (e.g., what are the effective sampling procedures to ensure high external validity? When are the assumptions of a regression model violated?)
Miles