Scientists, Humanists Meet Here To Honor Bridgman and Frank

Away from the noise of the House Party weekend, over 300 scientists and humanists gathered in the Faculty Club and Burr Hall to honor P.W. Bridgman '04, Higgins University Emeritus, and Philipp Frank, former lecturer in Physics, both eminent philosophers of science.

The visitors, attending a conference called "Science and the Modern World View--Toward a Common Understanding of the Sciences and the Humanities," left no doubt that they had come to honor Bridgman and Frank when the two men received standing ovations after their speeches in Burr Hall.

But most of the time there was only the quiet give-and-take among scholars. At Burr, the visitors assembled to hear speeches and discuss them.

At each of the three sessions, there were three half-hour talks, first by a scientist, then a philosopher, and finally a philosopher of science, or one of the other brands of humanists or scientists who were present. An hour of discussion followed the speeches.

Besides Frank and Bridgman, speakers were Giogio de Santillana and Henry Guerlac, science historians; Harcourt Brown of M.I.T.; J. Robert Oppenheimer '26 of the Institute for Advanced Study; Jerome S. Bruner, professor of Psychology; Charles Morris of the University of Chicago; and Howard Mumford Jones, professor of English.

Among the notable discussants were Perry Miller, professor of American Literature; W. V. Quine, professor of Philosophy; Susanne K. Langer of Connecticut; Lewis Mumford; Sidney Hook of N.Y.U.; Ernest Nagel of Columbia; I. I. Rabi, Nobel-prize winning physicist of Columbia; Detlev W. Bronk, president of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research; John E. Burchard, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, co-sponsor of the conference.