Saturday, July 08, 2023
A Senescent Elite Mumbling in Greek and Latin
Jessica Riskin, "A Poisonous Legacy," The New York Review of Books (June 22, 2023):
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While Leland [Stanford] personifies the American success story, [David Starr] Jordan typifies a certain heroic image of science that became powerful in tandem with that story. This new science defined itself by its separateness from all other modes of understanding—by its reductionism, instrumentalism, utilitarianism, and pragmatism. It had no time for Greek or Latin, literature or history, speculations or interpretations, or any idea without immediate industrial and economic application. It had little time for books: "Study nature not books" was one of Jordan's mottoes.Hat tip: Jim K.
[....]
Jordan's mode of science and Leland's mode of business were twin expressions of an aspiring industrial class that envisioned itself elbowing aside a senescent elite mumbling in Greek and Latin.
