September 24, 1934
The chairman of the philosophy department, Dr. Moritz Geiger, spoke at Fall Convocation of the dangers of rising anti-intellectualism. Tracing modern anti-intellectualism to France at the turn of the 20th century, the exiled German philosopher declared that anti-intellectual “dynamism and activism” threatened the very idea of education. “The intellectual wants clearness, discussion and consciousness,” he claimed, adding that “colleges must take their stand on the side of clearness, not on the side of confused ideals.” Education, he concluded, “for objectivity and education of the critical mind…will show their importance to the student later in life when he has forgotten many of the facts he has learned.”
The New York Times