Daily Academentia –
I sat through a morning’s worth of pre-submission Masters presentations on the history and philosophy of science. The presentations were mostly for the purpose of students receiving last minute feedback from multiple academic staff – in addition to their individual supervisors – for a well-rounded thesis. Or at least this is how I read the event. I feel that having a massive feedback session roughly a month before hand-in is a bit perilous, not least because if any significant changes are to be made, the only practical choice is to apply for an extension. Other reasons include that students receive all their feedback in front of each other, and not all of it is necessarily encouraging.
One of the staff, when commenting on a student’s work said, among other things, “since we have an issue such as over-population, I wish we could continue the world with all the good people intact, and invent some way to make all the unsound and backwards people vanish (sic).”
While discussing this statement with a friend – mostly about how, what essentially is, “bad people” could be interpreted in infinite ways – I did wonder whether it is an exclusive to academics to discuss eugenics, along the vein of genocide, so casually? Either that, or it was too early in the morning for my tiny brain to contemplate such things.
The Real World for Young People 