Passages with Solved Precis “Science has all along been a vital factor in the development of human civilization”. Perhaps, no other branch or human thought could produce such an ‘impressive’ and ‘shaping’ influence on man’s social, moral, economic and cultural life as science did. “Conquest of man’s sheer ignorance was the first achievement of science”, said Bertrand Russell. “Man trained and educated by the Great Teacher-Science” said Tagore, “Occupied his place...

Passages with Solved Precis Most people would agree that, although our age far surpassed all previous ages in knowledge there has been no correlative increase in wisdom. But agreement ceases as soon as we attempt to define ‘wisdom’ and consider means of promoting it. I want to ask first what wisdom is, and then what can be done to teach it. There are, I think, several factors that contribute to wisdom....

Passages with Solved Precis The construction of Utopias used to be despised as the foolish refuge of those who could not face the real world. But in our time, social change has been so rapid, and so largely inspired by Utopian aspirations, that it is more necessary than it used to be to consider the wisdom or wisdom of dominant aspirations. Marx, though he made fun of Utopians, was himself one...

Passages with Solved Precis There have been three kinds of ignorance. There is the ignorance of the stupid who are stupid because they do not know. There is the ignorance of the clever who select what they should know and so miss the truth. There is yet a third kind of ignorance which believes that the truth has been found’ and requires no further effort to know. The large mass of...

Passages with Solved Precis “It has been said that poetry imparts pleasure. This has often aroused controversy. Plato banished poets from his ideal commonwealth because in their desire to please, they overlooked the requirements of morality: “They give us to understand that many evil lives are happy and many righteous men unhappy; and that wrongdoing, if it be understood, is profitable, while, honest dealing is beneficial to one’s neighbour, but damaging...

Passages with Solved Precis There is in the mind of the average theatre-goer a prejudice against tragedy. “When I want to go to the theatre I want to see something cheerful. There is enough pain and tragedy in ordinary life, without showing it to us on the stage.” If he does not use this well tried formula, he will complain of a tragic play that it is “morbid” and “depressing”, so...

Passages with Solved Precis The necessity of planning for the economic development of an underdeveloped country is almost completely accepted by all thinking persons these days. The difference in opinion arises, however, with respect to the pattern that planning should take. The overwhelming prestige enjoyed by the Soviet Union as the first pioneer in the field of total planning in modern times gives a distorted perspective to thinking about ‘planning’ in...

Passages with Solved Precis The habit of reading is one of the greatest resources of mankind; and we enjoy reading books that belong to us much more than, if they are borrowed. A borrowed book is like a guest in the house; it must be treated with punctiliousness, with a certain considerate formality. You must see that it sustains no damage; it must not suffer while under your roof. You cannot...