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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 17, No. 20. October 8, 1953

The Higher Standards—Truth

The Higher Standards—Truth

Dr. Currie made it clear that the University had other functions to skilled mechanics of professional perform, beside turning out the skilled mechanics of professional society. Intellectual training was good, but a course had to be steered between liberal chaos and obscurantism. The element of scepticism is necessary—to question everything that is presented to you, for this is the means by which truth is gained and the essence of scholarship, its primary objective, is to get at truth.

The University must train the mind towards questioning, and yet seek to restrain the students from the chaos of too great a liberalism. The public knows that students lash out at any aspect of society they think to be unfair, but Dr. Currie pointed out that in his opinion the Universities are the best bulwarks of democracy. He quoted the saying, "If a student is a Socialist before the age of twenty-one, then he has no heart. If he is a still a Socialist after twenty-eight, then he has no head." The University must inculcate the critical faculty and teach the student to set aside prejudices in his search for truth and evaluation of knowledge. But Dr. Currie warned his listeners that scientists, though perhaps brilliant in their own field, were only as knowledgeable as other men outside their laboratory. Hence, their opinions on subjects not necessarily connected with their own research should not be accepted uncritically.