Oppenheimer Urges 'Open World' With Knowledge Available to All

J. Robert Oppenheimer '26 told a capacity Sanders Theatre audience yesterday that the world we live in today is an "open world" where it is "not wrong for anyone to know anything" and in which everyone should strive to learn as much as he can.

He stated that knowledge is not the property of a small class of people, but, because of American technology, increased leisure hours, and improved methods of communication, such knowledge is now open to all who will make the effort.

Unless our learning falls into great disorder or unless we come under the dominance of some "terrible political tyranny," the American opportunity must soon be available throughout the world, not merely in several select countries.

The physicist-philosopher, currently director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and one-time head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, gave his address as the first of eight William James Lectures on "The Hope of Order" in which he will concern himself with "our predicament in the twentieth century and the resources available for coping with it."

Sanders Filled by 4:10 p.m.

President Pusey introduced Oppenheimer as one of America's leading scholars and as a man who has made a tremendous contribution to the welfare of his country. The crowd which filled Sanders Theatre to its 1500-man limit 20 minutes before the speech, gave the lecturer a full minute's ovation both as he rose to speak and after his talk was over, one hour later.

One of Oppenheimer's most important points, made in relation to the paradox of knowledge, was the imbalance between "the intimate, familiar and old form of human knowledge" and that which is new, which is known either well by the few or vaguely by the many. He related this to the imbalance between what is "common knowledge" and "the enormous richness and beauty of information which is hoarded by just a few small groups."

Problems of Knowing

In his opening remarks, Oppenheimer said that "there is a great deal to know, and we don't know very much of it." Later, he put particular emphasis on the nature of knowledge, and the way in which, by its very nature, it limits our ultimate comprehension of anything we wish to know.

"Knowledge involves the knower in a completely decisive way," he told his audience. Man, by choosing a particular path to some kind of knowledge, immediately excludes certain parts of the very knowledge for which he is seeking.

More Knowledge, More Questions

Thus, "the potential that may be known is very much greater than whatever is known," he emphasized. Oppenheimer also stressed the widening scope of our knowledge and the increase in problems and questions which it brings. There are many inquires posed today which would have had no meaning a few decades ago.

As our total scope of knowledge increases, the problem of man's willingness and capacity to broaden himself in relation to these increases is of major importance. Oppenheimer pointed out that most learning processes of a scholastic nature tend to slow down greatly after one's formal education is over, and often it is only the shock of an A-bomb explosion, for instance, which makes one aware of the tremendous changes in our modern physics.

Meaning of Words

In attempting to catch up on developments in various areas of learning, one may be tempted to pick up a survey of some field, but even here there is the problem of word meanings. For a word which once had one connotation may have acquired--in the context of a particular field or with the passing of time--an entirely different shading. Oppenheimer later defined objectivity as a qualitative observation which measures the degree to which people can talk about something and be sure of the words they are using.