Journal of the History of Philosophy

Professionalization and Organized Discussion in the American Philosophical Association, 1900-1922 DANIEL J. WILSON WHEN JACOB GOULD SCHURMAN AND HIS COLLEAGUESat the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University launched the first academic journal of philosophy in America in 1892, the professionalization and specialization increasingly characteristic of the academic disciplines had only begun to affect philosophy. Schurman hoped that the Philosophical Review would spur renewed interest in philosophy as philosophers devoted themselves "to special philosophical interests and.., cultivation of special philosophical domains." Since philosophical systems must now "rest on a much wider induction of facts," he thought it fortunate that "the spirit of professionalization" had "taken possession of Philosophy."' Schurman's advocacy of professionalization and specialization marked an awareness of new developments within the academic disciplines at the end of the nineteenth century. Many of the other disciplines in both the natural and social sciences were becoming increasingly specialized and acquiring some of the characteristics of a profession. For the emerging academic disciplines, professionalization included a recognized advanced degree, an academic position, usually in a college or university, membership in the appropriate professional association, some degree of commitment to the idea of scientific rigor and empirical investigation, and, not infrequently, a belief that real progress in the discipline was possible through scientific cooperation .' By 1892, when Schurman addressed his colleagues, many of the academic Part of the research for this study was completed while 1was conducting a feasibility study of a proposed history of the American Philosophical Association under a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; l would liketo thank both organizations for their assistance. I would also like to thank Professor Maurice Mandelbaum, A. Roger Ekirch, Peter B. Hirtle, Thomas M. Jacklin, and the seminar of Professor Louis Galambos for their useful criticism. ' [Jacob Gould Schurman], "Prefatory Note," Philosophical Review l (1892):4-5. Hereafter, the Philosophical Review will be cited as PR. 2This description of the characteristics of an academic profession draws on Nathan Reingold, "Definitions and Speculations: The Professionalization of Science in America in the Nineteenth Century," in AlexandraOleson and Sanborn C. Brown, eds., The Pursuit of Knowledge in the Early American Republic : American Scientific and Learned Societies from Colonial Times to the Civil War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), pp. 36-38, and on Bruce Kuklick, The Rise of American Philosophy: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1860-1930 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977), p. xxii. The literature on academic professionalization is growing rapidly. See, for example, Burton J. Bledstein, The Culture of Professionalism: The Middle Class and the Development of Higher Education [531 54 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY disciplines were well on their way to achieving the status of recognized professional bodies. 3 Professionalization has two components, one institutional and the other substantive . The institutional aspects are fairly well defined: academic journals, advanced degrees, organized associations, and regular meetings. More elusive, the substantive dimension embraces the broad intellectual consensus and methodological framework within which recognized professionals work.' The degree of substantive coherence will strongly influence the institutional coherence and vigor of a profession, at least in its early years. Professionalization and specialization developed slowly within academic philosophy . The first professional organization, the Western Philosophical Association (WPA) was established in 1900, followed a year later by the American Philosophical Association (APA). These two organizations rose out of a twin desire to prevent the splintering of new disciplines from philosophy and to provide a professional framework and common forum in which the increasingly specialized philosophers could operate for their mutual benefit.s Unlike the newer disciplines of history, economics, sociology, and political science, which were formed by breaking away from nineteenth -century moral philosophy, academic philosophy professionalized in response to these challenges to its traditional domain. Whereas for other disciplines professionalization represented progress and the achievement of an independent intellectual and institutional identity, philosophic professionalization was defensive--an attempt to prevent further defections from the traditional preserve of moral philosophy by making philosophy itself more specialized, more scientific, and more professional . 6 Within the American Philosophical Association this concern focused on the question of achieving philosophic progress through organized discussion and the resulting implications for professionalization and specialization.' There was little disagreement over the institutional...