Summer School Faculty profile: N.Y.U. Philosopher Sidney Hook

"For more than a generation Sidney Hook has expressed himself with admirable courage and candor on the fundamental questions of social philosophy. He stands for something very valuable in our cultural life."

So spoke Morton white of the Philosophy Department at Harvard upon the publication of hook's The Quest for Being in June.

Professor of Philosophy at New York University since 1939, Hook now finds himself at the Harvard Summer School-mainly to be close to a favorite summer retreat in Vermont. since graduating from CCNY in 1923 and teaching afterwards in New York public schools, Hook has not strayed for long from the big city.

He still speaks with a distinguishable Gotham accent; his words are well-chosen, seldom wasted. Out of the smoke of his junior-size cigars come quotable quotes, which only seldom strike one as cliches.

Although a New Yorker for most of his like, Hook travels often on lecture tours but hates to be on the road ("like a captain who hates the sea"). He says that New York offers no special stimulus to him: "I am stimulated wherever I go. A philosopher does not need special external surroundings, although because of my interest in social and political thought, New York interest me.

Primarily concerned with the cold war, communism, education, and (in his last book) problems of existence, Sidney Hook also runs a department at NYU. He has been chairman of the Philosophy Department since 1934.

"Many philosophy departments get over-represented in one point of view because they tend to employ their ablest students in one area," he remarked. But most departments, aside from those in Catholic schools, present various points of view. he says. "This is not chaotic, but stimulating. there is no greater tribute to a teacher than to have students give evidence of independent study. The first-rate philosopher doesn't look for disciples; but many of them are all too human in this respect."

The job for he teacher of undergraduates, then, is o be exciting and to inspire out-of-class study, according to Hook. And the best teachers are not necessarily those who know education. (For instance, Hook's teacher, John Dewey "violated his own rules.")

"The cardinal sin for tea hers," says one who knows the trade, "is boredom."