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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2010
A recent aspect of Canadians' concern to discover their “national identity” has been the interest of some Canadians to discover the history of philosophy in their country. Several decades ago this interest scarcely existed. If any questions about the subject had been raised, the chances are they would have elicited sceptical smiles or yawns. Many would simply have denied—and a few still deny—that there is any “Canadian philosophy” at all. Nowadays, however, the climate of opinion is more accommodating, so that those who study and write about what past philosophers in this country have done can expect to receive a serious hearing. No doubt a conclusive case for the study has yet to be stated. But the most extensive speculative statement made thus far is the book by Leslie Armour and Elizabeth Trott which I shall comment on below.
1 Armour, Leslie and Trott, Elizabeth, The Faces of Reason: An Essay on Philosophy and Culture in English Canada 1850–1950 (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1981), xxvi, 548Google Scholar. All references below are to this work.
2 Ibid., xxii.
3 Ibid., 512.
4 Ibid., xxiii.
5 Ibid., 26.
6 Ibid., 26. This is a free rendering of a passage, using expressions rather different from those of the authors.
7 Ibid., 8.
8 Ibid., 26.
9 Ibid., 1.
10 Ibid., 507.
11 Ibid., xxiv.
12 Ibid., 1.
13 Ibid., xxiii.
14 Ibid., 14.
15 Ibid., 14.
16 Ibid., 18.
17 Ibid., 18.
18 Ibid., 16.
19 Ibid., 508.
