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Canadian Philosophy from a Cosmopolitan Point of View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

J. T. Stevenson
J. T. Stevenson
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Extract

The title of my paper may lead the reader to expect an account of the content of Canadian philosophy, as seen from outside Canada. This is not my intention. In fact, I shall say very little indeed about the content of Canadian philosophy. What I shall offer, rather, is an apology for Canadian philosophy. The apology, needless to say, will not be apologetic; it will be an apologia, a clearing of the ground for a position. And the apology itself will be cosmopolitan, having a world-wide perspective.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , Spring 1986 , pp. 17 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1986

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References

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11 Ibid.

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16 See, for example: Moniére, Denis, Le développement des idéologies an Québec: des origines à nos jours (Ottawa: Editions Québec/Amerique, 1977)Google Scholar; English translation, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981); Yvan Lamonde, comp., Historiographie de la philosophic an Québec (Montréal: Hurtubise HMH, 1973)Google Scholar and La philosophic et son enseignement au Québec (1665-1920) (Ville La Salle: Hurtubise, 1980); Panaccio, C. and Quintin, P. A., eds., Philosophic an Québec (Montréal: Bellarmin, 1976)Google Scholar; and Houde, Roland, Histoire et philosophic au Québec (Trois-Rivières: Les Editions de Bien Publique, 1979)Google Scholar.

17 A pioneer chronicler was Irving, John. See “The Development of Philosophy in Central Canada from 1850-1900”, Canadian Historical Review 31/3 (1950), 252–287,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Philosophy in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1952).Google Scholar See also Goudge, Thomas A., “Philosophical Literature: 1910-1960” and “Philosophic Literature: 1960-1973”, in Klinck, Carl, ed., Literary History of Canada, vols. 2 and 3 (rev. ed.; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976).Google Scholar

There has been recent and growing interest in Canadian intellectual history and historiographical theory. A pioneer has been Berger, C.. See Approaches to Canadian History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974)Google Scholar and The Writing of Canadian History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976).Google Scholar A leaderin Canadian intellectual history with a special interest in philosophy has been McKillop, A. Brian. See A Critical Spirit: The Thought of William Dawson LeSueur (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977)Google Scholar and A Disciplined Intelligence: Critical Inquiry and Canadian Thought in the Victorian Era (Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1979).Google Scholar Special mention should be made of Armour, L. and Trott, E., The Faces of Reason: An Essay on Philosophy and Culture in English Canada, 1850-1950 (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1981).Google Scholar It might be characterized as a thematic and doxographic history of English-Canadian philosophy before 1950, emphasizing the themes of Reason and Compromise, written from an idealist perspective, and claiming a special value forindigenous philosophic thought. See also the article “Philosophy” in The Canadian Encyclopedia (Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1985) for summary accounts of philosophy in Canada, by historical periods, by linguistic community, and by philosophical subdisciplines. The conclusion of the article summarizes some of the main positions regarding the question of national philosophy addressed here.

18 Toynbee, Arnold, from a debate with Pieter Geyl on the Third Programme of the BBC on 01 4, 1948, reprinted in Gardiner, Theories of History.Google Scholar