by Jon Lackman | 20 June 2006 | Uncategorized
Wick Sloane writes in Inside Higher Ed: “My heroes of the century past are Jonas Salk and Norman Borlaug. Borlaug’s work still feeds millions by putting more grains of wheat on shorter stalks. The rest of us aren’t creating human conditions that can accept these advances at enough scale. What, with our metaphors, would transform a humanist into a Salk or a Borlaug? Why do we shirk such an impact? For the scientists, it seems, the analysis is a building block toward the shape of the universe or a cure or clean water. I despair. At a humanities conference, I put this to a newly tenured Ivy League art historian. ‘Well, your question presumes that utility of knowledge is a value,’ he said. Almost enough to make me regret Salk’s efforts.”
