294 



SCIENCE 



its goal. The aesthetic education— the 

 word is not satisfactory, for it sliould 

 cnil)race more; }ct I would prefer it to 

 ethical and so emphasize beauty over 

 good; better is the Greek, Kalos, which 

 includes the good, the true, and the 

 beautiful— the aesthetic education is 

 the general education which Ilutch- 

 ins has expounded. It is the appropri- 

 ate nucleus of high school and col- 

 lege, although not universit}', train- 

 ing; the ver}' portion of the curriculum 

 which is being enriched with science 

 courses. 



This phase of education is confused 

 because its ends are so intangible and 

 the progress towards them so difficult 

 to evaluate. But it is incomparably 

 more important than vocational train- 

 ing for it shapes the man and so even- 

 tually the society. I hasten to add that 

 aesthetic education is not purveyed 

 only in college class rooms at so much 

 a course— it is acquired by steady ac- 

 cretion from family and other social 

 groups. What, then should this train- 

 ing for self include? 



I submit that it must deal with 

 values and with judgment, must help 

 to establish individual standards and 

 to display materials of worth. Let me 

 be more specific An ear tuned solely 

 to such strident rhythms as "Yankee 

 Doodle" will not at once respond to 

 Beethoven's softer cadences, melodic 

 though they be; nor will the magnifi- 

 cent panorama of celestial and animate 

 evolution have any appeal to the in- 

 telligence that has never soared from 

 a bookkeeper's desk. Man is the highest 

 animal only in the sense that he has 

 the possibility of a greater variety of 

 experience than have others, and the 

 "higher" type of man can savor ad- 

 ventures of the spirit to which the 

 lesser one is insensate. In this sense, 

 then, one may speak of establishing 

 standards of and a taste for the worthy 

 and good— a task of aesthetic educa- 

 tion. 



Besides implanting an urge for the 

 good, the true, and the beautiful, this 

 phase of education should offer exam- 

 ples of them and, even more, acquaint 

 the student with their sources in li- 

 brary, laboratory and museum, and en- 

 courage him to explore them. Facts 

 and ideas, no less than poems and pic- 

 tures, mav have their beautv. I shall 

 never forget the state of exaltation in 

 which I left the chemistr)' lecture room 

 after hearing, in the even slightly mo- 

 notonous voice of Julius Stieglitz, the 

 story of the brilliant logic and inspired 

 experimentation with which Emil 

 Fischer built and identified the un- 

 known but theoretically anticipated 

 kinds of sugar molecules. To one with- 

 out the requisite background, the lec- 

 ture would be a tedious mistake. The 

 painter finds much in a picture over- 

 looked by others, the chess-player alone 

 can rhapsodize over a scholarly mate, 

 the scientist can see in the starr\' sky 

 or the human body beauties invisible 

 even to the lover's eyes. Science, like 

 art, contains the beautiful and offers 

 ever more riches to him who pene- 

 trates its terrain from the frontier of 

 dilettante interest to the hinterland of 

 research advance. 



The avocational part of education 

 must include, besides the aesthetic, 

 still other elements which are of no less 

 importance to the individual and of 

 the gravest import to society. Tliese 

 have to do with truth and judgment, 

 are primarily at the intellectual level, 

 and are quite particularly related to 

 science. To the extent that man acts 

 rationally, he makes progress in the 

 battle with chaos, and he and his so- 

 ciety become more integrated and more 

 complex. Irrational behavior, directed 

 by emotion when intelligence is un- 

 informed or in abeyance, is sooner or 

 later retrogressive. 



What are some earmarks of intelli- 

 gent behavior? First, the absence of 

 superstition, the emancipation from 



