Page Two SCARLET 8 BLACK student Newspaper oi Grinnell College I202 Park Street Grimm“ Collego Grinnell, low soil: A weekly newspaper published each Friday or ms college yenr by the crinnsn Commtttee on Slu- gerit r‘pbnfiations Sldeprescnthldor notional Idvei. sng y ntionai a ucatioxlnl verrisin Servrces, ””5"“ “" sou Lexington Ave. New York New ork iooii. c. glnk Secon‘d class postage paid at drtnnell town. Sub» hm 5., scripton nn. ssoo per school your limit into I" subscriptions. patron ”7 ,, MANAGING am ausiuass MANAGER cmCULA'rmN mmocn STAFF WRITERS _ 0P8 parry Ancona , Nell Fischer _ Stephen Warm , , urnre Stroll'l Mnrxhl Eerkcy, Gordon Christensen, dill-ms, Anne Flrrer, manic sentry, inck cocnsnoner, Andy runes, navia itantrnan. Adrienne Lernrnons, Molly Mccnire, site Mllle'r, pnul Nnchmnn, .letl srncchter, Ger-Id Swnnson, Ann rattei, Anne rnylor. rlioroolurttnns All" oemnnrdt, oon Becker, Leln Ssororrl. nick 'rrcurnann Editorials . . . l The Editor is on vacation Ihis week. Summer re-runs are ‘ on page four. IIII|Illl||||||llll|Illll|II|||Ill||ll||||l||||l||||ll|||l||||I||||ll|||ll|||ll|||||||||ll|||ll||||ll||||lI|||II||||l|||lll|||ll|||ll||ll PHILOSOPHERS NOT PARTISAIIS By PAUL JONES Quite obviously. it would be a mistake to call anyone a partl- Ian at Grinnell; if there is a place in lowa where there is a great or diversity oi opinion and ieelings than Grinnell, nobody has discovered it But not being a partisan does not imply that one is necessarily a philosopher. I don’t mean a philosopher, however, the usual man-inrthesstreet concept, but rather one who has a phil- osophizing spirit; one who does not have opinions for the sake of opinions, or helieis tor the sake of belief, or revolutions for the sake of revolutions, but rather one who has a willingness to look at a problem as reasonably as possible, one who has a passion [or the truth, whatever it may be. Prolessor George Eastman, in a recent letter, put it this way: It strikes me that a genuine philosopher is one who MUST take all knowledge as his province —- —must become iamiliar with the conceptual frameworks and operational terminology of the sciences, economic, soc-anthropology, the tine-arts, law, history, political science, literature. There is the danger of shallow dilletantism, but this is a hazard worth risking in order to acquire it total view of a problem ~ a sense of an inclusive context — perception of generalizations that explain large numbers of particulars. Philosophy, I think, represents one or the few strongholds against the excessive fragmenta- tion and specialization or our age. it remains, in other words, one of the low meta-disciplines, one capable or remaining ABOVE social, cultural, economic, and academic, vested in- Ierests. Not every student at Grinnell obviously has this type oi passion tor the truth; but the unfortunate thing is that veiyjew have any- thing close to it, even many students who call themselves ‘philos- ophy majors’. A great deal oi the cause, of course, can be found in the edu- cational process which calls for a cognizance of historical data rather than a development of immediate, creative processes of thinking But at the same time, it seems clear to me that stu- dents, particularly at Grinnell, should be concerned with the lock of direction of most of the educational process here, We are trained to be good teachers, yes, but to be creative thinkers, no. Evidently, however, there is not a lack of diilering ideas on campus; there are rarely two people who think the same way about anything. So, no, we are not partisans to any one, large principle of society fostered on us from an external source. But neither are we philosophers about the principles which we sup- posedly seek, or the rules which we supposedly think lair or un- fair. There are too many who are now willing at this point in time to say that such and such a rule or way ot tile is good or bad; but to look objectively at the causes of such beliels, the conse- quences ol such beliels, the components oi such belieis, is out of the question for Grinnell’s intelligentsia. As William James put it in ‘The Moral Philosopher and the Moral LiTe’: ‘Ollr society en- courages us not to be philosophers but partisans.’ The shame at it is that even though Grinnell has iew partisans in James' sense, I also hill low philosophers in any sense. SCARLET AND BLACK Friday, October I3. I96! _—_z GSM ISSUES VIETNAM PETITION The members of the Vietnam Committee of the GSM, after weeks oi discussions and meet- Ings have drawn up the tol- lowing petition, which they en< courage their fellow students, teachers, and college adminis- trators to careiully consider, and, it in substantial agreement with, to sign. This petition will be circulated on the Grinnell College campus 1mm October 15, to October 29. At the end of this period, copies or the petition will be sent to President Johnson, influential Senators and Congressmen, as well as the leading potential Republican candidates for pres- ident. The members oi the Vietnam Committee of the GSM believe not only that the Grinnell COL lege community should make its views widely known on this subject, but that these views can and will have substantial influence on the upcoming nom- ination and election of presi. dential and congressional can- didates This petition is one means, though certainly not the only means, oi having the Grin- nell College community’s views on the war in Vietnam made public, which the Vietnam Com- mittee oi the GSM wholeheart- edly supports. PETITION ON THE WAR IN VIETNAM "We, the undersigned, mem- bers of the Grinnell College community, do not support the Johnson Administration’s policy in Vietnam. we believe that the War in Vietnam is immoral in its useless destruction lives, and detrimental nation's vital domestic policlel and its image as a freedom and peace loving country. Wq support the tollowing alternaljvd to our nation’s policy in Viet- ham: 1. Cessation of United States bombing in North and South Vietnamr 2, Declaration of a unilateral cease lire by the United States, 3. United States acceptance or the tact that the National Liberation Front has sub stantial support in South vteo. ham and must thereiore play a role in any meaninglul her gotiatinns. We believe that these con. ditions would lead to a favor. able atmosphere for negotlSa tions, an end to the war in Vietnam, and the eventual withr drawal of all foreign troops, THE POOH REGRETFIILLY, FRETFULLY EXPLAINS By DON WINNEY After last week‘s sick article and alter several friends ask- Ing me about my health and sex life, i thought this week I would assure everyone that both are fine—except I might need a date next weekend. I would like to consider here not the demerits of what ! Cunningham Drug — At Your Service — * CHECKS CASl'lEIl FREE or EREE hEiii’ER‘l’ 7* CHARGE ACCQUNTS (TO YOU OR YOUR PARENTS) * IlISCOUNTS 0N DORM PARTY SUPPLIES * IOWA'S IOWEST CIGARETTE PRICES * COMPLETE PRESCRIPTION SERVICE i‘JlAL‘:236~3|51 GR‘lNNELL's BUSIEST onus STORE 'DRUG 927 warn a‘vs deem last week was a noblq lailure but its essential literary, problem which Is also a social problem at Grinnell. That is, how does one express the horror—not just the cute, or musing absurdity ot hypocrisy, but the sheer horror—oi incomt petent medical service in the town of Grinnell? How does and arouse his readers not particu. larly to spasms oi laughter but to plain disgust at that service ~and to a consideration oi the distasteful implications? Well there are many ways. One may write some kind or polemic, a melodrama per haps, or a Kaika-esque contes- sion, or perhaps a gruesome iactual study in Capote style at numerous cases limping around canlpusiall oi which would probably leave the reader al- ready beset with such problems as gradepoint and open dorms with an understanding it not in- , lliilererlt frown. One may try to elicit this shock through satire which it not done properly can make the author look as sick as the article, and one may always throw in a little sex which con< {uses some because they look‘ for sexual implications in eye erything. Or one may simply do noth} ing, thinking the problem—lit- erary and social—is not that important to upset people—pan- ticuiarly the administratiom- because no one else has writ- ten about what many have oi- ten said, and after all, one I! really not a good enough write! tor that kind at thing, and what good will it do because nothing will be done anyway And one may not want to think about it because one has been lucky or wants to target or likes to woo ry about great issues like open dorms. In other words, strong inten- tions may make lousy art, But being neither an artist nor an English major, in this particu- lar case I’ll take the intentions.