SC I EN C E. Supplement. 



FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 1886. 



INVENTORY OF PHILOSOPHY TAUGHT IN 

 AMERICAN COLLEGES. 



In the general overhauling which the college 

 curriculum has been receiving of late, there has 

 been one subject quite generally overlooked, — 

 that of philosophy. Apart from an occasional 

 editorial note in the columns of Science, I have 

 seen next to no allusion to the matter. Yet it is 

 difficult to see how we are to develop a high grade 

 of national culture in science and in literary matters 

 without contact, by way either of stimulus or of 

 mirroring, or of both, of these matters with philo- 

 sophic principles. Where this contact is to occur, 

 unless in college, it is also difficult to see. I have 

 no intention of discussing these matters here ; but I 

 wish to give an inventory of the present condition 

 of philosophic instruction in our colleges, based 

 upon the catalogues of these institutions. Neither 

 my knowledge nor the limit of space allows me to 

 go beyond a consideration of the subject taught to 

 discuss methods, etc. 



The philosophic discipline of the ordinary 

 American college is a survival of that period of 

 its existence when its especial deed was to furnish 

 to the community well-fortified ministers of the 

 gospel. The catalogues of our colleges reveal all 

 stages of evolution from this original source, but 

 all show their genetic connection. The extent of 

 the evolution may be shown by considering the 

 courses of four of the older New England institu- 

 tions, selected from as many states. In Dartmouth 

 the instruction begins with a twenty-four-hour 

 course in natural theology, followed by twenty 

 hours of anthropology. The piece de resistance 

 is sixty hours of psychology (Porter's ' Elements '), 

 which is supplemented by courses in ethics 

 (twenty-five hours), history of ancient philosophy 

 (twenty-six hours), aesthetics (fifteen hours), and, 

 to complete the circle with which the instruction 

 began, a tliirty-bour course in the evidences of 

 Christianity. All this, certainly no insignificant 

 amount, is required work. There is one elective 

 of thirty-two hours in the history of modern 

 philosophy. 



Crossing the Connecticut River, and coming to 

 the University of Vermont, we find the following 

 courses : psychology (Sully), logic (Davis's ' Theory 

 of thought '), ethics (Calderwood), a short course 



in aesthetics, another short one in the evidences 

 of religion, and quite an extensive course in 

 metaphysics, in which Watson's ' Kant's philos- 

 ophy in extracts,' and the exposition of Kant 

 by Professor Morris, are used. At Williams, as 

 in the University of Vermont, all philosophical 

 work seems to be required, the curriculum includ- 

 ing the following subjects : anthropology (Hop- 

 kins's 4 Outline study of man '), logic, theology 

 (dogmatic, apparently), natural theology (through 

 the medium of Flint's ' Theism,' and Butler's 

 ' Analogy '), ethics, and the history of philosophy. 

 At Brown we find logic, three hours a week ; 

 intellectual philosophy, four hours, including 

 studies in Hamilton, Kant, Porter, Sully ; ethics, 

 five hours, including Wayland, Calderwood. Kant, 

 etc. There is also a course in natural theology. In 

 addition to these required courses, there is an 

 elective in the history of philosophy. 



None of these colleges, it will be observed, is 

 now a professedly denominational college. It 

 may be well, accordingly, to add one which is : 

 viz., Trinity. Here the required work is ethics 

 (through the medium of Wayland), Butler's 

 'Analogy' and his sermons, metaphysics (Sir W. 

 Hamilton), and courses in psychology and logic. 

 Elective courses are those in anthropology (Hop- 

 kins) ; ethics, two courses, — one in Haven, and 

 the other in Whewell and Plutarch, and meta- 

 physics (McCosh). No very great differentia- 

 tion is observable in these courses, although there 

 is more ethics, and more ethics from a theological 

 stand-point, in Trinity than in other colleges. 



We turn now to the other end of the scale of 

 evolution, where the courses are almost wholly 

 lecture courses, and are, either entirely or in the 

 major part, elective; and in which, also, the instruc- 

 tion is mainly from the historical side. Of such 

 institutions, Harvard and the University of Michi- 

 gan are instances, perhaps the only ones. In the 

 latter college, the only required study in this line 

 is a course in either psychology (Murray) or logic 

 (Jevons). Elective courses are, two in psychology, 

 one in experimental and another in its relations to 

 philosophic problems. The course in the history 

 of philosophy is three hours a week through the 

 year. This is supplemented by a three-hour course 

 in the principles of philosophy, followed by a 

 study of Hegel's ' Logic' The courses under the 

 general head of ethics would include a course in 

 ethics, historical and theoretical ; one in the phi- 

 losophy of state and history ; and a course each 



