Word: rationalists
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Some have suggested that Bok's refusal to divest makes hypocritical his constant calls for the teaching of ethics in universities. But others respond that the president's investment policies fit neatly into his character, which an associate once described as that of a "rationalist philosopher," and others have called just plain stubborn...
Most say Bok, a labor law scholar, typically handles a problem as he would a legal case. Colleagues like Ford Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus David Riesman '31 describe Bok as a "rationalist philosopher" who shows unusual concern for the structure and consistency of arguments...
...three have spent many years searching for unifying principles in the patterns of information that surround us. For Fredkin, the lifelong rationalist, the universe itself is the vast expression of many iterations of simple but powerful ordering rules. Wilson, filled since childhood with a love for the natural world, has investigated how communication permits the evolution of complex animal societies, bound together by the exchange of information. Boulding's deep religious convictions and pacifism have led him to find a way for nations to someday interact without violence, based on networks of shared values and mutual interests...
...18th century, however, Enlightenment scholars began to question the whole fabric of revealed religion. In the age of Newton, they believed that the Scriptures must be subjected to the same rigorous scientific scrutiny as the laws of nature; nothing could be taken on faith. One such self- confident rationalist was Thomas Jefferson. After leaving the White House, he wrote a biography of Jesus that kept many of the teachings but discarded numerous Gospel passages that, in his judgment, could not have been authentic. The true words, he said, were "imbedded as diamonds in dunghills...
...idea, he says, is to get people to consider how personalities affect a job. Says the decision-making rationalist: "I've picked up a lot of things on the people side, on the mechanics of manipulating people -- that's not the right word -- motivating people...