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Philosophy General

Minerva's Aviary

Philosophy at Toronto, 1843-2003

by (author) John G. Slater

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2005
Category
General, General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802038708
    Publish Date
    Aug 2005
    List Price
    $117.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442677272
    Publish Date
    Jul 2005
    List Price
    $118.00

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Description

Philosophy has been taught at the University of Toronto, and its predecessor King’s College, since 1843. While much has changed in that time, the university’s Department of Philosophy remains one of Canada’s preeminent institutions for philosophical instruction. In Minerva’s Aviary, John G. Slater documents the history of Toronto’s Philosophy Department from its founding to contemporary times.

In the early years, the teaching of philosophy at the university was an appendage to courses in religion. As time passed however, the discipline grew into the independent, largely secular subject it is today. The story of how this happened is told in terms of the people who taught in the department. Slater also recounts the histories and sometimes difficult integration of the philosophy departments that came with the smaller institutions that federated with the university around the turn of the twentieth century: Victoria University, St. Michael’s College, and Trinity College.

Comprehensive and lovingly written, Minerva’s Aviary is the result of decades of research by one of the department’s most esteemed recent scholars. Slater’s intense investigations have uncovered a complex and evolving past that shatters some established myths but also roughly mirrors what was happening in universities throughout the English-speaking world. It thus adds greatly to our understanding of the intellectual history of the last two centuries.

About the author

John G. Slater is a professor emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto.

John G. Slater's profile page