THE FACULTY

IN reporting some of the interesting changes in course offerings by the various departments of the College under the new curriculum, I should like this month to turn to the Department of Philosophy. Both majors and non-majors have a wide variety of subjects to choose from among the twenty courses offered by the Department. In addition to the introductory course, Problems in Philosophy, which remains essentially the same in the new program, students may elect from among five courses in the history of philosophy, nine courses in the various systems of the discipline, four advanced seminars, and, with special permission, a course in research in philosophy.

Among the historical courses are Philosophy 10, Greek Philosophy, which gives primary consideration to the thought of Plato and Aristotle; Philosophy 11, Medieval Philosophy, which takes up the thinkers and movements of major significance in the period; and Philosophy 12, Modern Philosophy from the Renaissance through Kant. Both Philosophy 10 and 12 must be elected by regular majors in partial fulfillment of a requirement of three courses in the history of philosophy. Other historical courses are Philosophy 13, Nineteenth Century Philosophy, which considers important philosophers from Kant to the beginning of the twentieth century; and Philosophy 14, Twentieth-Century Philosophy. Philosophy 14 is a major feature of the new curriculum, and it combines lectures by visiting authorities, briefing talks by members of the staff on the subject of the lectures, and small precepts of twelve to fifteen students for informal discussion of the material.

Of particular importance to non-majors are the nine systematic courses, some of which may be elected without prerequisite. Philosophy 20, Logic and Language, is offered by Dr. Duggan who emphasizes that "the course is not a study of pure theoretical logic but an attempt to relate the principles of inductive and deductive logic to practical problems." Philosophy of Human Nature, Philosophy 25, taught by Professor Gramlich, considers such topics as the essential character of the self, the philosophical implications of depth psychology, the place of the individual in society, and the basis of human values. Philosophy 28, Ethics and Social Philosophy, is ' a systematic and critical consideration of representative answers to philosophical problems concerning values.

Philosophy 29, Symbolic Logic, uses the mathematical, as opposed to the linguistic, approach to logic. Taught by Professor Kemeny, chairman of the Mathematics Department, the course is a joint offering of the two departments. Philosophy 36, The Philosophy of Science, is also taught by Professor Kemeny. This course considers topics such as the scientific method, the relation of mathematics to science, and the relation of science to values.

The Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy 41, taught by Professor Scott-Craig, is an investigation of the nature of religion and of its place in human society and in the life of the self, with special attention given to the claims of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Other systematic courses offered by the Department are Philosophy of Art (45) and Philosophy of History (48). Philosophy 53, Political Theory, is offered in conjunction with the Government Department and is taught by Professor Arthur Wilson. This course is a second illustration of an increasing tendency in higher learning today to cut across the lines of the older disciplines.

PROFESSOR Arthur M. Wilson of the Government Department was awarded the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the American Historical Association on December 29, 1958, in Washington, D. C. Awarded biennially for the best book in the field of European history published during the two-year interim, the prize was given to Professor Wilson for his work Diderot: The Testing Years, published by the Oxford University Press in May 1957. The book is the first of two volumes which when completed will be a comprehensive account of the life of the French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot from 1713 to 1784.

In 1953 the unpublished manuscript of Professor Wilson's book was given a $1,000 prize by the Modern Language Associa- tion of America and promise of publication by the Oxford University Press. The book will appear in an Italian edition this August. Friends and former students of Professor Wilson will be interested to know that the Modern Language Association prize was also awarded on December 29, a day which seems to be lucky for him. Twenty years ago, again on December 29, his French Foreign Policy Underthe Administration of Cardinal Fleury won the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize which he has now won for the second time.

PAUL R. SHAFER, Associate Professor of Chemistry, has been awarded a faculty fellowship by the National Science Foundation for a year's study at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Shafer, a member of the faculty since 1952, will be on leave from the College starting in September. He plans to study the applications of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to problems in organic chemistry at the California Institute. Professor Shafer won a competitive chemistry scholarship as an undergraduate at Oberlin College, and was a research assistant for the U. S. Rubber Company on a predoctoral fellowship at Wisconsin.

ROBERT W. DECKER, Assistant Professor of Geology, is on an eighteen-month leave from the College to teach at the University of Indonesia in Bandung. He is instructing undergraduate and graduate students in structural geology and sedimentation. According to colleagues, Professor Decker went to Indonesia because he is interested in the geology and geophysics of a youthful and growing mountain belt. While there he plans to work with seismographs, studying gravity anomalies and mountain belting.

DURING the between-term holidays a large number of faculty members attended meetings of learned societies, such as the meetings of the Modern Language Association in New York and the American Historical Association in Washington, D. C. Among those professors reading papers at these meetings was Professor Henry B. Williams, whose paper on "The History of the Theatre" was presented to the American Educational Theatre Association meeting in Chicago. Professor of Spanish Francisco Ugarte read his own poem, "Romance del pedagogo," to members of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese meeting with the Modern Language Association in New York. "The Ballad of the Pedagogue" will be published in Hispania, the journal of the association.