LETTERS
…the Magazine’s constant air of self-congratulation…

THE LOGICAL IMPERATIVE
I was impressed by Professor Abbott’s address (“The Zen of Education,” October/03). But he should not have so completely discounted the importance of acquiring foundational cognitive skills or the University’s role in that acquisition. In BiSciII, we took a short subcourse in logical thinking, which has been of tremendous practical value to me in every aspect of my life from evaluating lawyers and witnesses to arguing with my wife.

The year was 1946, and the year is relevant. We read (not about) Marx, Hitler, and Stalin as well as the great democrats. The message did not need to be articulated: the civilized man refutes bad speech, he does not suppress it. I wonder whether that message has been lost in today’s colleges where most faculty and students seem to march in ideological lockstep, and one reads of drowning out speech that diverges from the orthodox, and politically incorrect student publications being stolen and trashed.

Harry F. Brauer, PhB’47
Green Valley, Arizona

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