HARVAR COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS FOREWORD WE, as a country, have been told that we have no philosophy, that we do but reflect the speculations of other lands. This is not wholly true. We have had philosophers, original thinkers who, though their influence may not have reached abroad, were makers of history at home. So a study of the speculative movements in America leads to a clearer understanding of our national character, for these very movements are so closely allied to our history and our literature that they may be said to form a background for both. The colonial background I have presented in a previous volume-American Philosophy: The Early Schools. This described the most important forms of thought as they crossed from the Old to the New World, developed during two centuries, and slowly prepared the way for the native philosophy of Emerson. The present work condenses the previous account and continues the development of national thought until it emerges triumphantly in pragmatism—a typical American philosophy. |