Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
In the context of government, what do we mean by the phrase “a learned man”?* I take it we can mean a variety of things. On the one hand, we can have in mind the specialist, the expert, the man with an intensive and specialized background in a particular field of knowledge. On the other hand, we can have in mind the man with general wisdom, with that feeling for the past and the future which enriches a sense for the present, and with that appreciation for wider loyalties which deepens patriotism to one's country and finds bonds between it and Western culture and links with the universal aspirations of mankind.
* This article was originally delivered as a speech to the Catholic Commission on Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, Washington, D. C, April 26, 1958.
1 Three Critical Years: 1904-05-06 (New York, 1957), p. 59.Google Scholar
2 Printed in The Review of Politics, XVIII (04, 1956), 170–177.Google Scholar
3 This letter was quoted by James Reston in the New York Times, 02 2, 1958.Google Scholar
4 “The Scientist as Priest and Savior,” The Christian Century, LXXV (03 26, 1958), 370.Google Scholar
5 Three Critical Years: 1904-05-06, p. 137.Google Scholar