Where alchemy failed, chemistry, in little more than a century, has succeeded in finding the "Philosopher's Stone," for it is now not only possible to transmute one metal into another and heal many of man's infirmities, but scarcely a facet of man's life has not been influenced through chemical research and industry.

Alchemists failed because they sought to solve the problem directly. Chemists succeeded because they first sought to understand the basic principles of nature and directed their efforts to the fundamentals. Industrial applications were the logical and natural outgrowth of these fundamental discoveries.

Each of these dangers has its own characteristics, its own special perils, and its own possibilities for prevention. Nuclear war would bring swift and complete destruction of life as we know it. Whether or not such a war occurs, seemingly depends upon the wisdom of a few trusted leaders. On the other hand, so it is said, starvation is a gradual and agonizing phenomenon, already stealthily engulfing the world. The extent to which we endure the slow and dehumanizing destruction that is synonymous with starvation, depends on the individual decisions of literally billions of human beings.

The two threats are inter-related. A world in which one-third of the people live in extravagant opulence while two-thirds live in oppressive squalor is not conducive to political sta,bility. Such a world is particularly susceptible to violence, including mass nuclear destruction. There is little question that, as a rule, man's inclination towards aggressiveness declines in proportion to the spaciousness and comforts of his life.

It is said that a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client. Can the same be said of a man's other roles? At least for learning (which professionally intersects education and psychology) any person may have the goal of helping himself to appreciate and evaluate the role of the learning professional.

A knowledge explosion has taken place in the area of learning, as in the many fields of science in the university. It is not now a sufficient answer to teach a person "how to think" or "how to learn." We must give a guide to his selective attenion for continued study. In this way the fantastic expansion of detail may be related to "sets or structures of basic knowledge," so that the subsumptive organized pattern may give a sufficient context for adequate comprehension and evaluation.

In this presentation, we would like to name and illustrate five "dusters" of factors which are now known to influence learning behavior. Within these clusters are to be found specific independent variables now proven to affect behavior in measurable ways. These clusters include current material on environment stimulus control, readiness, aptitude, self-concept, perception, cognition, mode of attack, transfer, reinforcement, and feedback. the concept of thinking as a particularly important human behavior will be stressed.

Although accurate data are lacking, it is estimated that more than two-thirds of today's world population is afflicted by hunger and/ or malnutrition. Almost 300 million children are suffering physical and, probably, mental damage because of insufficient food. This evidence points to one of two conclusions: we have either too many people, or not enough food. If the former is our problem, what are the means of controlling population, and what obstacles stand in our way? If it is the latter, how do we get more food? The world food problem is not merely a question of inadequate supplies or clinical starvation. It also encompasses those who are malnourished and do not know it, and those for whom the mechanism of distribution has broken down.

I have always been awed, and even disheartened, by the achievements, scholarship, and insights of many of my colleagues; and I wish that r could utter some memorable profundities on the mystery of it all, as they do so lucidly and finally. I would like to come up with even one thought worthy of being carved in stone. I know enough about politics to agree with the notion that Prometheus gave man all except political wisdom, which he reserved for the gods. I know enough about the social sciences to be aware of the changes in jargon that so often signify progress. I know enough about religion to sanction Kafka's belief that it is an inescapable fact of life and to add that it isn't any worse than we deserve.

This evening I would like to rectify that impression. The night I told J. Golden Kimball stories I played the role of folklore performer. Tonight I will play the critic. My argument will be that the performance of folklore- whether it provides us with delight and amusement or causes us to fear and tremble- is one of our most fundamental human activities. The study of folklore, therefore, is not just a pleasant pastime useful primarily for whiling away idle moments. Rather, it is centrally and crucially important in our attempts to understand our own behavior and that of our fellow human beings.

If an experimentalist does experiments, then a theorist presumably does theories. What is a theory? My dictionary defines it as ". . . a system of assumptions, accepted principles, or rules of pro· cedure devised to analyze, predict or otherwise explain the nature or behavior of a specified set of phenomena."

Those who now understand perfectly what a theorist does may stop reading here because everything that follows will be superfluous. For those who are still somewhat in the dark, the rest of this lecture will attempt to explain, in rather more concrete terms, just what it means to be a theorist. Of course, I cannot presume to speak for all theorists; therefore, I am going to discuss only what it means to be a theorist within the context of my own specialty, theoretical chemistry.