Free will and human responsibility;
the following monograph grew out of class exercises in my course in philosophy given for a number of years in Dartmouth College. In order to quicken interest by varying the method and to make philosophy touch life, we would sometimes have classroom debates on philosophical subjects by the students under the guidance of the instructor. The main issues in philosophy, because of their two-sided nature, of the uncertainty of their settlement, and of their stimulating effect on both the imagination and the intellect, lend themselves easily to the method of debate, as Plato, the Scholastic, and Bishop Berkeley illustrate.
Now the question as to whether the fate of man rests at all with himself or not, which is the problem this little volume discusses, is one of perennial freshness and interest, to which the newest movements of thought always contribute additional data without thereby finally solving the issue. If any suppose the question is worn out, let him recall the notable newly translated work of the leading French pragmatist, Bergson, on Time and Free Will} Each new generation of thinkers comes upon this problem afresh, and to it a class in philosophy will always respond. In my own work I have felt the need of a clear brief treatise covering both sides of the issue in outline, to which students might be referred, and which might perhaps be used as a text for discussion at a certain point in the course. These pages are designed to supply such a need.
The content of the argument may be seen by a glance at the chapter headings. First,a survey of the "Analogous Issues" indicates the problem is not an isolated one; next, the brief "Historical Sketch of the Issue" gives perspective to the discussion; then "The Is-sue" is formulated in its intensive significance;in joining the debate the question is so stated that it falls to determinism to present the affirmative side in "The Arguments for Determinism"; next appears the "Rebuttal of these Arguments"; after which come "The Arguments for Free Will", this order in the argument being in accord with the racial development of free institutions from East to West.
Because the latest philosophical movement bases its conclusions on feelings and activities rather than ideas, it is omitted from the main body of the argument, though its importance is recognized in an independent chapter on "Pragmatism and Freedom".
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