Knowledge is not enough.

It is my privilege as President of the American College of Chest Physicians to greet you tonight and commend you for the splendid achievements of the Missouri Chapter of the College. Furthermore, I am grateful for the opportunity of being with you-my personal friends-at this dinner culminating a day of scientific discussion. I will discuss most briefly some of the indeterminate factors I consider essential to the continued growth and progress of the science of medicine to the attainment of the ever-receding goal-health and happiness for man. I have become conscious, increasingly and progressively, throughout the years of the Inadequacy of present-day methods of education to prepare our young men for the present and future problems of life. I will talk to you tonight on the subject, " Knowledge Is Not Enough ". Let me interpret the word, " knowledge " as acquaintance, or clear perception of, facts, in contradistinction to wisdom which is the ability to judge soundly or deal sagaciously with facts (knowledge) in an endeavor to relate them to life and conduct. Intelligence may be defined as mental acuteness. It is pertinent to add that the posession of Intelligence and knowledge alone do not constitute wisdom. We attain knowledge from thoughts of other men; wisdom dwells in heads whose minds are attentive to their own. A man may possess wisdom without knowing many things, nor even knowing them thoroughly, but possessing ability in choosing what conduces the most certainly to our true happiness and eternal glory. Tennyson has said, " Knowledge is earthly of the mind, but wisdom, heavenly of the soul ". It should be the ideal of the universities to serve up what may be termed " solid knowledge "-meaning present-day facts, combined with efforts to promote individual thinking and to stress the objective of education is to contribute to life itself-not to selfish egotism and goal, alone. It is not the business of a university to serve gobbets of prepared essays to the end the pupil will absorb facts in a parrot-like fashion. The pupil must be taught that life is enduring and permanent and that knowledge with wisdom may be gained from history, inculcatIng in his mind the future lies before him, stressing that present knowledge, alone, is not enough. It is In such a manner true physicians may be taught to subordinate self for the future. When did all this confusion start? …