PREFACE
When
the eminent George Paxton Young, Professor of Logic, Metaphysics, and
Ethics at the University of Toronto, dies in 1889, the unexpected burden
of obtaining a new professor lay upon the Ontario government since Toronto
was the Provincial University. Premier Oliver Mowat and his cabinet,
in consultation with the leaders of the University of Toronto, narrowed
the choice among candidates to two young men -- James Gibson Hume, a student
of Young and a graduate of the University of Toronto, and James Mark Baldwin,
a graduate of Princeton University. In the recollection of W.S.
Wallace nearly forty years later, there was an unseemly
controversy over the appointment of Young's successor. The nativists
demanded the appointment of a Canadian, whereas their opponents denounced
inbreeding and advocated the introduction of new blood from the outside. In the end Mowat agreed
to a compromise which allowed for the appointment of both Hume and Baldwin.
This
study presents an investigation of the controversy surrounding the appointment
of Hume and Baldwin. An attempt is made to identify, among those
people who played major roles in the affairs of the University, certain
prevailing values in science and education that resulted in the confrontation
of two philosophic traditions, and, consequently, two different approaches
to psychology (also known as mental science). Because filling the
vacant chair in metaphysics was a political responsibility, this study
also presents the political side of the controversy.
Chapters
One and Two give the historical background of the appointment and focus
upon the increasing influence of laboratory science and evolutionary theory
at the University, especially as it related to G.P Young and his department
of metaphysics. Chapters Three to Six contain a detailed account
of the appointment of Hume and Baldwin, in the context of the intellectual
climate at the University of Toronto. Of particular importance is
a debate between the supporters of Hume and those of Baldwin. Chapter
Seven analyzes Baldwin's unique contribution to mental science and the
development of a more modern psychology at the University of Toronto.
Whereas the above chapters demonstrate how one intellectual faction
at the University could win the appointment of Baldwin in the face of
strong opposition, Chapter Eight traces the events that led to Baldwin's
decision to leave and his influence upon the later development of the
department.
Baldwin's
appointment was a significant event in the transition from mental science
as an academic subject in Ontario to the establishment of psychology as
a study distinct from philosophy in both subject matter and methodology.
Since this study deals with the context in which Baldwin's appointment
occurred, as well as his psychological orientation at an early stage in
his career, it is submitted both as a study of one fragment of Canadian
intellectual history and as apart of the history of academic psychology
in Canada. Finally, this study may serve a cautionary function in
reminding psychologists that psychological theorizing does not and cannot
occur independently of its cultural environment. Academic psychology
today has social and political components as much as it did in Toronto
in 1889.
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