Rabi Seeks Integration Of Sciences, Humanities

Current pleas for a return to the humanities are symptoms of ignorance and an "anti-rational attitude which has been the curse of our century," I. I. Rabi, Nobel Prize winner and Morris Loeb Lecturer, declared last night in Sanders Theatre.

The wisdom so necessary in our ago can never be reached if "the sciences and the humanities remain separate and even warring disciplines," the Columbia professor of physics warned. Our present educational system, even in our great universities, succeeds only in mixing ingredients and hoping that "through some mysterious alchemy, the result will be a man, educated, well-rounded and wise. Most often, however, these ingredients do not blend," he asserted.

Stressing the role of the humanities in the education of a well-rounded man, he called the naive claim that the humanities are the only sources of values "a symptom of our failure in the present age to achieve a unity and balance of knowledge which is imbued with wisdom."

Understanding Language

While scientists are usually capable of understanding the language of the philosopher, the historian, and even the art critic, "the non-scientist cannot listen to the scientist with pleasure and understanding," he said. "But despite its universal outlook and its unifying principle, its splendid tradition, science seems no longer communicable to the great majority of educated laymen," he observed.

"To his colleagues in the university," the physicist said, "the scientist tends to seem more a man from another planet, a creature uttering profound but incomprehensible truths, or a technician scattering antibiotics with one hand and atomic bombs with the other.

Hybrid Vigor

"Wisdom can achieve a hybrid vigor by crossing the scientist and the humanist through a more extensive and intensive interaction within the faculty," he suggested. "Why should not the professor of physics to expected to refresh himself every seven years with a sabbatical by taking a course in aesthetics or comparative literature or in the Greek drama?" he asked.

"And why shouldn't the professor of medieval philosophy or the professor of ancient history take a course in modern physics," he declared.

Rabi was introduced by President Pusey, who praised him as both a scientist and a humanitarian. This was the first time a Morris Loeb Lecture has concerned a non-technical topic.