October 08, 2016 Saturday
Bedtime Story
The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge - Written in 1939 when the world was on the brink of an impending disaster
To get an idea how quixotic and whimsical Flexner’s ideals of the
institute was, one only has to read his landmark 1939 essay:
“The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge”.
Here is the link to this essay.
In this 1939 essay he wrote:
“Throughout the whole history of science most of the really great
discoveries which have ultimately proved to be beneficial to mankind have been
made by men and women who were driven not by the desire to be useful but merely
the desire to satisfy their curiosity.”
He goes on to elaborate this point by citing the examples of James
Clerk Maxwell, Heinrich Hertz, Galileo, Bacon and Isaac Newton.
To Michael Faraday he devotes a whole page.
On mathematics, he speaks of Gauss, Group theory and non-Euclidean
which later on helped Einstein in the framework of his General theory of
Relativity.
In medicine, he dabbles on Paul Ehrlich, Robert Koch and Louis
Pasteur.
It was a phone call in the autumn of 1929 that did it.
The call was neither from the Rockefeller or the Carnegie
Foundations nor from the Rothschild family (who are bigger than both the
Rockefellers and Carnegie).
It was from the representatives of the Bamberger siblings, namely Mr.
Louis Bamberger and Mrs. Caroline Bamberger Fuld.
They wanted to know from him how a large sum of money could be put
into good use.
Just see what he had to say to them:
“At our interview, I informed them that my competency was limited
to the education field…
“…the time was ripe for the creation in America of an institute in
the field of general scholarship and science, resembling the Rockefeller
Institute in the field of Medicine – developed by my brother – not a graduate
school, training men in the known and to some extent in methods of research,
but an institute where everyone – faculty and members – took for granted what
was known and published, an in their individual ways, endeavored to advance the
frontiers of knowledge.”
Another person who was collaborating with Flexner for the
promotion, survival and nurturing of brains like his was the American
mathematician and topologist Oswald Veblen.
Veblen himself was in pursuit of building an exotic world class
research institute of mathematics with a top-notch, first-rate library.
It is also of great interest to me as a story narrator to provide
you the insight on how the Bamberger family came to such a fortune that
provided them the luxury of indulging in philanthropy to a totally exotic
cause.
(Mind you they were not funding for the poor and wretched of the
colonized and exploited India or Africa but pure abstract useless
non-productive thinking).
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or
login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Another great educator and teacher that I am aware of is Professor
Subhashish in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, he actually does and teaches real
mathematics and physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All
his books can be downloaded for free through this link.
For
entertainment may I suggest Kids Songs channel.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMX11Z5SJQ3kgwSsFJLRIcg
Oswald Veblen the topologist on October 2, 1933. Try to figure out the other guys for yourself.
Oswald Veblen the topologist on October 2, 1933. Try to figure out the other guys for yourself.
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