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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington N.Z. Vol. 10, No. 9. June 25, 1947

[Introduction]

First I would like to make it quite clear that the purpose of this article is primarily provocative. It is addressed especially to students in the social science departments. It rests on two propositions:—
(1)That there is an evident lack of a general orientation in our various university courses, i.e., the various disciplines proceed their own segmented and esoteric ways irrespective of the need for a broader outlook on the part of students. (This more comprehensive viewpoint is little aided by the chance sampling of a few other Stage I subjects.)
(2)That most of our social science disciplines are insufficiently related to contemporary problems, but rather savour too much of "inert and lifeless facts." They are traditional bodies of knowledge rather than vehicles of content directed to the solution of pressing contemporary problems.

This far many readers will agree, though, of course, there will be a number still bound to those scholastic traditions, alternatively termed the "Arm-chair" or "Ivory Castle" modes of thought. With these I am not here concerned. In time the attenuated stench of that corpse will blow by completely. Meanwhile, however, the two accepted propositions await solution. It is my purpose in the rest of this article to suggest such a solution in the hope that it will arouse others, especially from the Philosophy Department, which I propose should be abolished.