Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/1996/06/05/letters_to_the_editor.php
Wednesday, June 5, 1996
More On Mirollo
To The Editor:
Columbia Professor James Mirollo's letter is a marvelous thing, and you deserve great praise for bringing him into the conversation. His is indeed an Erasmian serenity of spirit and sweet reason.
I wonder, however, about his trouble with the word 'paradigm.' I regard a paradigm as a testable hypothesis. To the extent that it 'covers the facts' it remains valid. When facts are introduced that the paradigm cannot cover, then it must be adjusted or exchanged for another one.
Professor Mirollo uses the word in a denigratory way, as rigid and wrong. I see no justification for that. As a matter of fact we live every moment of our lives as according to testable paradigms.
And, on the Columbia student and faculty protestors. Their supposed disagreements did not take the form of sweet discourse, but the bullying tactics of (pseudo) hunger strikes and building invasion.
And, according to reports, and sad to say, Columbia, while resisting on important points, has also promised more ethnic studies courses, more 'minority' teachers, etc., etc.
Professor Jeffrey Hart
Lyme, NH
Her Spell on Them Remains...
To The Editor:
Obviously I am displeased with the 'covert' expansion of Dartmouth College. We have lost much of what made the College great. Grand illusions of a great university, where non-teaching eggheads thrive, can only lead to the demise of the remaining traditions that held alumni together in loyalty to Dartmouth.
Jacob Mosser '37
Kennebunkport, ME
Stained Glass
To The Editor:
Tom Russo's Through Colored Glasses is right on. Gently put, it gets through to the heart of the problem. We all know that few if any minority groups are interested in equality.
Their goal is preferential treatment. Special status is as addictive as heroin. Once it is attained, most persons will do anything, including trampling on the rights of others, to retain it.
Bo Bartley '48
Newark, DE