Rowland G. Hazard (1801-88) on Freedom in Willing

Abstract

Between appearance in 1890 of William James's Principles of Psychology and publication of Gilbert Ryle's Concept of Mind in 1949 it was dominant belief of American philosophers that psychology should be considered an empirical science independent of philosophical inquiry. Philosophers went to great lengths to do penance for their earlier unscientific speculations about workings of human mind. However, Concept of Mind and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (1953) emboldened philosophers to return to their sins against experimental science, and last twenty years have witnessed a flood of publications in philosophy of mind, philosophical psychology, and theory of action. One of most puzzling aspects of this new wave of mental philosophy is its disregard of work in United States in nineteenth century. Doubtless reasons for this overlooking of American predecessors are many. Some philosophers may overlook nineteenth-century philosophies of mind because they seem often to have been handmaidens of Protestant theology and to have no value independent of that theology. Other philosophers may overlook works on mental philosophy in that period because they were often presented in form of college textbooks and are, they think, to be taken no more seriously than sort of philosophy contained in today's textbooks.1 These may or may not be good reasons for disregarding nineteenth-century American philosophers of mind in general, but they are clearly not good reasons for overlooking at least one philosopher of mind of that period-Rowland Gibson Hazard. Alone among philosophers of mind of that period, Hazard was neither a clergyman nor an educator; one historian of American philosophy has aptly called him Rhode Island's businessman-philosopher;2 and W. T. Harris' remarks are well taken: The most important characteristic of Dr. Hazard's writings is his clearness and simplicity. He expresses his insights in language of a businessman, avoiding almost entirely conventional technique of schools.3 Indeed, one eminent American philosopher pronounced Hazard the father of original American philosophy.4 Hazard had a many-sided career as a manufacturer of woolen goods, fi-