(1) The Organisation of Thought, Educational and Scientific (2) The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking: Essays and Addresses

Abstract

THESE two collections of essays and addresses by Prof. Whitehead and Prof. Keyser contain much matter of considerable interest to the large number of persons Who are at present occupying themselves with the consideration of the many difficult questions connected with educational reconstruction. Distinguished scientific, or literary, specialists are not always, perhaps not often, trustworthy guides in educational affairs. Their absorption in a special line of thought is apt to produce in them a bias in regard to the relative values of different branches of study, destructive of that keen sense of proportion which a sound educationist must possess. The specialist is apt to live in a sub-universe of his own, without troubling himself much about the social value of his study or its relations with other parts of the world” of thought and action. Even in the teaching of his own subject the specialist not infrequently finds it difficult sufficiently to distinguish between that instruction which is directed to special training” and that which is appropriate for forming part of a scheme of liberal education. However, when a specialist has sufficient breadth of mind to enable him to overcome the temptations incidental to his own occupation, he is frequently able to make contributions to educational thought which exhibit an insight greater than is possessed by many of those who approach the problem of education without those advantages which accrue from a profound study of some one department of knowledge.

(1) The Organisation of Thought, Educational and Scientific.

By Prof. A. N. Whitehead. Pp. vii + 228. (London: Williams and Norgate, 1917.) Price 6s. net.

(2) The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking: Essays and Addresses.

By Prof. Cassius J. Keyser. Pp. 314. (New York: Columbia University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1916.)