ce it at the end of the series of
fundamentals (psychology, logic, ethics), holding that a student who
has studied these will be best equipped for a study that includes the
history of their development. As a matter of fact, given students of
mature mind and the necessary general preparation, either order may be
justified. The average underclassman is, however, too immature to
plunge at once into the study of the history of philosophy, and the
present writer would recommend that it be preceded by courses in
general psychology, logic and ethics. The average sophomore will have
little difficulty in following courses in psychology and logic; and it
is immaterial which of these he takes up first. The course in the
theory of ethics should come in the junior or senior year and after
the student has gained some knowledge of psychology (preferably from a
book like Stout's _Manual of Psychology_). And it would be an
advantage if the course in ethics could be preceded by a study of the
development of moral ideas, of the kind, let us say, presented in
Hobhouse's _Morals in Evolution_. For reasons already stated, the
entire course in philosophy should be inaugurated by the Introduction
to Philosophy. Advanced courses in metaphysics and the theory of
knowledge should come at the end and follow the history of philosophy.
The ideal sequence would, therefore, be in the view of the present
writer: Introduction to Philosophy, Psychology or Logic, the
Development of Moral Ideas, Theory of Ethics, History of Philosophy,
Metaphysics, and Theory of Knowledge. It must be admitted, however,
that a rigorous insistence upon this scheme in the American college,
in which freedom of election is the rule, would impair the usefulness
of the department of philosophy. Few students will be willing to take
all these subjects, and there is no reason why an intelligent junior
or senior should not be admitted to a course in ethics or the history
of philosophy without having first studied the other branches. A
person possessing sufficient maturity of mind to pursue these studies
will be greatly benefited by them even when he comes to them without
previous preparation; and it would be a pity to deprive him of the
opportunity to become acquainted with a field in which some of the
ablest thinkers have exercised their powers. At all events, he should
not leave college without having had a course in the history of
philosophy, which will open up a new world to him a