On July 23, 1787, delegates at the Constitutional Convention established a Committee of Detail to prepare a report and a printed draft of a Constitution "conformable to the proceedings of the convention." Two weeks later, the committee submitted a printed rough draft to the delegates for their consideration. In this first draft, the Preamble began…

This paper compares the founding of the elementary school systems of Ireland and Ontario in the nineteenth century. The systems shared a common set of textbooks that had originated in Ireland. Using examples from a number of these books, which were part of a series that had been specially prepared for the Irish national school system, founded in…

The author contrasts the psychological theories of Carl Rogers and B. F. Skinner as developed in their books, "Client-Centered Therapy" and "Science and Human Behavior," published in the early 1950s. He traces the continuing impact of these two theories on psychology, education, and the debate between humanism and science. (SJL)

This paper traces the attempts by the philosopher Robin George Collingwood to answer the question: How does one change the course of modern thought? The description of Collingwood's work is structured around three of the philosopher's books that represent a unified attempt to solve the problem. The three books cover a span of over 10 years and,…

Scientific psychology did not begin with Fechner and Wundt in the 19th century; its roots actually stretch back to 18th century Germany. The only detailed account of this period was published by Max Dessoir more than 80 years ago. Dessoir identified some of the crucial figures in early psychology, including Wolff, Bonnet, Kruger, Hissman, and…

Discusses the controversies about the copyright question by focusing on a case between France and Portugal in the 19th century. (PA)

Philosophy was created by accident out of nothing. The verb "to be" can be confused with "to exist." The accidents of the fact that the "copula" is both a transitive and an intransitive verb are sometimes thought to have plagued ancient Greek thinking until Aristotle discovered logic and thus saved the world from…

This paper celebrates UNESCO's announcement of the re-establishment of the Alexandrian Library, citing the incentive the project provides to review the history of the famed library of antiquity, of the librarians who served it, and of the scholars who used it. After a brief history of the city of Alexandria, including its founding by Alexander,…

Argues that Juan Luis Vives' efforts to rehabilitate the discipline of discourse may well have been the most original of the sixteenth century, and that his discussion of elecutio (the essence of rhetoric) is considerably more distinguished than that of the better known Peter Ramus. (RS)

The lineage of developmental psychology has involved three waves of research in the 1890s (Hall), 1930s, and 1960s (Piaget). Over these years, a cooperative knowledge-building process arose, fostered by new journals in the 1930s, in which articles built upon one another and sustained or redirected trains of thought among a community of…

Discusses the results of a study concerning the relationship between agent, author, and matters of fact in the doctrine and practice of classical empiricism in the late 17th century. States that the historical study of empiricism provides a critical perspective on positivism and on social constructivism. (PA)

Argues that exploring the written work of William Stillman of Rhode Island could help balance the appraisal of 19th-century American technical communication. Reviews the writing and graphics in his "Miscellaneous Compositions" (1851) and patents from 1836 and 1839. Concludes that Stillman had an unusual ability to mimic the biological…

In the process of delegitimating the master narratives that have sustained Western civilization in the past, Postmodernism provoked a "crisis in narrative" which Francois Lyotard describes as narrativity that presents a sense of loss but not of what is lost. Recent histories of rhetoric have promulgated the view that rhetorical maps…

Through the voice of Thomas Nashe in "The Unfortunate Traveller," published in 1594, it is possible to see another side of the historical conflict between splintering Anabaptist groups and the state-operated church which controlled voice and thus literacy and literature during the Renaissance. The Anabaptist movement, forerunner of the…

This paper examines the origins of the principle of free expression as worked out by Galileo. It is intended to supplement standard histories of the development of free expression and to recover its history as part of the political project of postmodernism. The paper resurrects Galileo's encounters with entrenched beliefs in order to position free…