Tag: Peabody

Harvard. Social Ethics Courses. Enrollments and Final Exams. Peabody et al., 1911-1912

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-08-07

Harvard professor Francis G. Peabody and his team tried to establish something like a school of social work at Harvard that offered courses covering a great range of economic and social policy. As befitting a “Department of Social Ethics” the emphasis was on applied ethics, which is something distinct from the interest of a Department of Economics in applied economics. The intersection of the two was located in real-world problems.

Previously posted course material for social ethics at Harvard.

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Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Jeffrey Richardson Brackett
Robert Franz Foerster
James Ford
Ray Madding McConnell
Francis Greenwood Peabody

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Social Ethics 1-7
1911-12

Social Ethics 1. Application of Ethical Theory
Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service
Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 4. Selected Topics in Social Ethics
Social Ethics 5. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in Europe
Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

The courses in this group are designed to apply philosophical principles to the modern problems of philanthropy, industry, and social life. They begin with a general introduction to Social Ethics and proceed to methods of applied ethics which approach those of a professional school. Students should have already elected courses both in Philosophy and in Economics, and should regard the courses in Social Ethics as concerned with the transition from academic to practical life.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), pp. 70-74.

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Application of Ethical Theory
to Present Social Problems

Course Description
1911-12

The Problems of Poor-Relief, The Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of Ethical Theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody, Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster.

The following courses are planned for students who take or have taken Social Ethics 1 or its equivalent.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 70.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 1 ²hf. Professor Peabody, Drs. Ford and Foerster. — Social Problems in the light of ethical theory.

Total 43: 3 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12

This paper should be considered as a whole. The time should not be exhausted in answering a few questions, but such limits should be given to each answer as will permit the answering of all the questions in the time assigned.

Explain briefly: —

“Economic determinism”;
“Social labor time”;
“The capitalistic appropriation of surplus value”;
“The class-conscious conflict.”

Lassalle and Marx compared as influences on German socialism.
What legislation on Woman and Child Labor has been enacted in the United States? (Adams & Sumner, pp. 30–37.)
What is the Sweating-System, and what forms does it take? (Adams & Sumner, pp. 114–119.) What legislation has been enacted to deal with it? (pp. 122–126.)
Explain and criticise the following statement: “Co-operation differs from profit-sharing primarily by reason of the fact that, in its industrial form, at least, its aim is to modify radically, and finally to utterly abolish, the wage system.” (Adams & Sumner, p. 379, and Dr. Ford’s Lectures.)
Compare the advantages of industrial partnership under the direct-bonus plan with those of a pension system or a stock offering.
The conclusions of physiology concerning the function of alcohol.
The history of the liquor traffic in Boston from 1875 to 1894. What are the comparative merits of the three types of licensing boards operating in Boston during that period?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 87-88.

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Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work:
Practical Problems

Course Description
1911-12

²hf. Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work. Lectures, prescribed reading, and observation of work under skilled direction. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. Brackett.

This course is for advanced students, especially for those who plan, as ministers, teachers, or as citizens, whatever their vocation, to be actively interested in charity, correction, or any form of social work. It is also an introduction to Social Ethics 20c, the School for Social Workers. It is a study of tendencies in Social Service, of law and custom, especially in England and the United States, bearing directly on such topics as neighborhood improvement, forms and sources of relief, modification of charitable trusts, treatment of special types of the needy, organization of charity, financial management, supervision of work by public and private agencies.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), pp. 70-71.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 2 ²hf. Dr. Brackett. — Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work.

Total 14: 2 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 2

In all answers, give your reasons.

“A community can have as much pauperism as it will pay for.” Comment on this, with illustrations from English or American history.
What are the “feeble-minded”? In what ways would you have provision made for them?
A homeless, able-bodied machinist, who says there is no one dependent upon him, but he is at the end of his money, tells you he can have a good job in Providence, R.I., where he formerly lived, if he can get there tomorrow and be ready for work the next morning. He asks a railroad ticket to that place. What would you do, and why?
What have been the chief steps in progress in the treatment of offenders?
—
1. What was the chief principle for administration of public aid, laid down by the English poor-law commission of 1832–34?
2. How was it to be carried out?
—
1. In taking up neighborhood work, what kinds of persons in the neighborhood, would you aim primarily to reach?
2. When and how would you decide what methods to use for reaching them?
What is meant by “organizing charity”? I.e., when we speak of the work of an associated charities or other agency for organizing charity.
—
1. To what extent would you advise residents in a “settlement” to give material relief to persons in the community?
2. To what extent would you advise pastors of churches to give it?
What are the chief lessons you have learned from your field work connected with this course?

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Criminology and Penology

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

¹hf. Criminology and Penology. Lectures, prescribed reading, and reports. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 1.30. Dr. McConnell.

This course aims to offer a brief general study of crime and its prevention. As a necessary preparation for the meeting of present problems some investigation of historical as well as of present conditions will be attempted. The subjects considered will include the following: methods of study in criminology; classes of crimes and of criminals; causes and effects of crime; prevalent conceptions of crime and of the treatment which society should accord it; agencies especially intended for the punishment and prevention of crime (including certain features of criminal law and its administration, the identification of criminals, the indeterminate sentence, institutions for the detention, punishment, and reformation of criminals, the supervision and aid of convicts on probation or parole or after discharge, and special methods for dealing with young criminals); the influence on the volume of crime of various agencies designed for general social betterment.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 71.

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Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Course Description
1911-12

¹hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12.

Subjects for 1911-12: –

The State and Charity. Dr. Brackett.
The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs. Dr. McConnell.
The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation. Dr. Ford.
The Ethics of Immigration. Dr. Foerster.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 71.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 4 ¹hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics.

Dr. Brackett. — The Ethics of Public Aid and Private Charity.
Dr. Ford. — The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation.
Dr. Foerster. — The Ethics of Immigration.

Total 10: 2 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 4

What do you say (1) in favor of, and (2) in opposition to the provision by the state of non-contributory old-age pensions for all persons beyond the age of 69, and below a small income line?
How are profits divided in (1) the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers’ Society; (2) the Scottish Wholesale Society; (3) a typical Copartnership Housing Association; (4) an Irish Co-operative Dairy; (5) the New England Cranberry Sales Co. (or some other American Co-operative Sales Association)?
Describe the economic and co-operative features of the credit unions of Massachusetts. What are the essential dissimilarities in method and purpose between the credit unions and the “co-operative banks” of this State?
“Distributive co-operators are anti-capitalists and class-conscious.” Examine carefully and in detail the truth of this statement as applied to the distributive movements of England, Belgium and Germany.
What are the usual features of the padrone commissary system?

Devote not less than one hour to this question.

The following citations give the main arguments of an address recently reported in the newspapers.
1. 1. “Why exclude the immigrant when there is so much room for him? . . . Texas alone could support our entire population without worrying about the problem of congestion. . . . The trouble in America is usually not a lack of work but a lack of workers.”
  2. “If he accepts a small wage, his need is responsible and it is to be deplored that Americans should be content to take advantage of this desperate need and convert the hunger of this stranger into more dollars for themselves.”
  3. “Thirty of every ten thousand immigrants become paupers. . . . While the thirty are costing us $3000 a year, the other 9970 are adding almost $40,000,000 to the wealth of the land. And this exclusive of the taxes each pays.”
  4. “There is a higher rate of crime among the native born than among the foreign born.”
  5. “The solution . . . is distribution, not exclusion. . . . We should be undeserving our blessings if we selfishly refused to share them.”

Illustrate your answer to the following questions from the reading and lectures of the course. So divide your time that you may write upon all questions; avoid generalities. The lettered divisions correspond with those just given.

1. In what sense does a lack of workers exist? When would it not exist, — e.g., when Texas should be as densely populated as Europe?
2. Is the immigrant underpaid? What consequences would follow for employers, consumers, and immigrants if employers were compelled to pay their immigrant workmen wages not less than twice as high as they are now paying? What effect has immigration had on wages in the United States?
3. In what sense is wealth “added”? If, by adding wealth, immigrants save Americans labor, should they not be welcomed like any other labor-saving device — a machine, typically? What kind of relation has immigration with dependency?
4. Describe the criminal aspects of immigration.
5. What can the best system of distribution accomplish? What can it not accomplish?

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Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

²hf. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Dr. McConnell.

This course considers the fundamental ethical principles involved in the organization of the modern State, and the duties of public authorities in regard to defectives, charity, the child, and public health.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

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Social Amelioration in Europe

Course Description
1911-12

²hf. Social Amelioration in Europe. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. Foerster.

This course is mainly concerned with schemes of social amelioration that have so far been little considered in the United States. Remedial methods of dealing with poverty will be treated only incidentally. Chiefly the course will make a comparative study of the preventive and constructive measures, public and private, of several countries. After a brief consideration of the place of thrift institutions, unemployment and the important recent efforts to meet it will be discussed at some length. The experience of several countries in providing for the indigent in case of accident, sickness, invalidity, and old age will, in turn, be examined. The course will close with a study of recent developments of legislation governing conditions of labor.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 6 ²hf. Dr. Foerster. — Social Amelioration in Europe.

Total 19: 7 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 6

So allot your time that you may answer all questions.

“Putting these unemployed men to work in industries already fully manned or over-manned would solve nothing. . . . The problem which the Labour Party desires the state to face is therefore that of the development of its unused resources. . . . Neither relief works nor the National Workshops of 1848 (except for training, perhaps) are asked for, but a policy of national development. . . . As part of this programme, the Socialist has long been crying for afforestation, national drainage and reclamation, labour farm colonies . . . and the pressure of social misery and depopulation has at length come to his aid.” (J. R. Macdonald, The Socialist Movement.) What is the value of such a policy in dealing with the problem of unemployment?
What are the salient features of the English Workmen’s Compensation Act? What are its defects? How are these defects avoided in the legislation of other countries?
What effect upon the industriousness and thrift of the population have the following?
1. Provision for old age in Denmark.
2. Provision for old age in England.
3. Savings bank insurance in Massachusetts.
4. Provision for sickness, old age, etc., in the mutual aid societies of France.
5. Unemployment benefits under the Ghent system.

In each case show specifically to what feature of the institution in question the effect is to be traced.

Why did state insurance in Germany signify a less radical departure from previous social policy and thought than it would signify in the United States? How serious a burden has it laid on employers?
Mr. Lloyd George said of the English old age pensions plan, that “it is just as much a contributory scheme as one financed directly by means of contributions arranged on the German basis.” Indicate in detail by what course of reasoning this statement may be supported. Or, if you believe it false or in part false, indicate precisely the gounds of your opinion.
Present the best arguments you can for compulsory (and subsidized) insurance against unemployment. Then make out the best case against compulsion. Which way does the net advantage lie? In answering this question it may be assumed that a system of well-organized labor exchanges exists.
Outline the Swiss methods of dealing with vagrancy.

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Rural Social Development

Course Description
1911-12

¹hf. Rural Social Development. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. Ford.

One hour will be devoted each week to the discussion of prescribed reading.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 7 ¹hf. Dr. Ford. — Rural Social Development.

Total 17: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Freshman.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 7

What is meant by a “rural social survey”? What facts must be gathered? (Give reasons in each instance.) What are the probable sources of this material for a Massachusetts or New York community?
—
1. What essential differences do you note between the pleasures of the village and of the rural population in Blanktown?
2. What is meant by pleasures of receptive sensation? What part have they played in the social evolution of Blanktown? (Williams, An American Town.)
What is the rural housing problem in America? State the problem in detail with reference to construction and interior arrangement of farm houses.
(a) Outline the rural health problem. (b) Under what conditions do each of the following matters require action by local or state boards of health? What sort of action is necessary? Why?
1. 1. Illness in the farm home.
  2. Farm water supply.
  3. Farm sanitation.
  4. Milk production.
—
1. “When the rural social sense is thoroughly established, we shall be in a new epoch of rural civilization.” (Bailey, The Country Life Movement.) What is meant by this statement?
2. By what methods can the “rural social sense” be developed in this generation? In the next?
3. Describe in detail the structure and function of any three local socializing agencies (excluding church and school).

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Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1910/11

A short history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics through 1920.

Exam questions for late 19^th century versions of Francis Greenwood Peabody’s course on the Ethics of Social Reform have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

Earlier 20th century course material:

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.
1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1908-09. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford and Foerster.
1909-10. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, and Foerster.
1910-11. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, Foerster, and Brackett. [complete set of social ethics exams]

Image Source: Francis G. Peabody, The Social Museum as an Instrument of University Teaching. Publications of the Department of Social Ethics in Harvard University, Number 4 (Cambridge, MA: 1911).

Tags Brackett, Foerster, Ford, McConnellRM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Social Insurance Social Work

Harvard. Complete Course Offerings in Social Ethics. Descriptions, Enrollments, Final Exams. Peabody et al., 1910-1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-06-15

This post covers all of the courses taught at Harvard during the academic year 1910-11 from the subfield of social ethics that was located at the intersection of economics, philosophy, and social policy.

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Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888-1910

A short history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics through 1920.

Exam questions for late 19^th century versions of Francis Greenwood Peabody’s course on the Ethics of Social Reform have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

Earlier 20th century course material:

Francis Greenwood Peabody. The Approach to the Social Question. New York: Macmillan, 1912. “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

Social Ethics Course Instructors
1910-11

Jeffrey Richardson Brackett
Robert Franz Foerster
James Ford
Ray Madding McConnell
Francis Greenwood Peabody

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Social Ethics 1-7
1910-11

Social Ethics 1. The Ethics of Modern Industrialism
Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service
Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology [omitted 1910-11]
Social Ethics 4. Selected Topics in Social Ethics
Social Ethics 5. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State
Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in EuropeSocial Ethics
Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

Source: History and Political Science, Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1910-11. Published in the Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. VII No. 23 (June 21, 1910), p. 65.

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The Ethics of Modern Industrialism

Enrollment Social Ethics 1
1910-11

Social Ethics 1 ²hf. Professor Peabody, Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster. — The Ethics of Modern Industrialism.

Total 104: 2 Graduates, 27 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 27 Sophomores, 7 Freshmen, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 1
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 1. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Dewey and Tufts’ Ethics]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology] the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Warner’s American Charities]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems and Schaeffle’s Quintessence of Socialism]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations conducted by the Committee of Fifty]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation. Students are advised, before beginning the study of Social Ethics, to take courses both in Economics and Philosophy; and must have taken a course, or the equivalent of a course, in one of these subjects.

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1910-11

Describe the development of Employers’ Associations in the United States. (Adams & Sumner, pp. 279 ff.)
Trace the development of Joint Conferences and Trade Boards of Arbitration in the United States. (Adams & Sumner, pp. 305ff.）
Describe in detail an example of: —
1. The bonus system in industry;
2. deferred participation;
3. industrial partnership.
  On what grounds may each of these systems be criticised as hostile to the higher interests of labor? (Adams & Sumner, ch. IX.)
How far has social history since Marx verified the principles of: —
1. the class-conscious conflict;
2. economic determinism?
“Freedom of demand is a first essential of freedom in general. If the means of life and culture were somehow allotted to each from without, and according to an officially drawn-up scheme, no one could live out his own individuality or develop himself according to his own ideas; the material basis of freedom would be lost.” (Schaeffle, p. 40.) Explain this statement and indicate how far, in Schaeffle’s opinion, it correctly describes the position of demand in the Socialist State.
What are the essential features of: —
1. the doctrine of contributory negligence;
2. the doctrine of common employment;
3. the Employers’ Liability Act of 1880;
4. the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1906?
  (Dr. Foerster’s Lectures.)
Millennial Socialism and Militant Socialism; — their economic and ethical effects defined and compared
Methods in force in Switzerland for the promotion of employment and the control of the unemployed.
Show concisely the effects of alcoholic liquors (a) in moderate use, (b) in immoderate use, on:
1. the digestive system;
2. the nervous system;
3. resistance to disease.
  (The Liquor Problem, ch. I, and Dr. Ford’s Lectures.)
Discuss: —
1. Methods of granting licenses in the United States;
2. Methods of removing the element of profit from the sale of liquor.
  (The Liquor Problem, 56 ff. & pp. 151 ff.)

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, pp. 79-80. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Practical Problems of Social Service

Enrollment Social Ethics 2
1910-11

Social Ethics 2 ²hf. Dr. Brackett. — Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work.

Total 15: 7 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 2
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 2 ²hf. Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work. Lectures, prescribed reading, and observation of work under skilled direction. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. Brackett.

This course is for advanced students, especially for those who plan, as ministers, teachers, or as citizens, whatever their vocation, to be actively interested in charity, correction, or any form of social work. It is also an introduction to Social Ethics 20c, the School for Social Workers. It is a study of tendencies in Social Service, of law and custom, especially in England and the United States, bearing directly on such topics as forms and sources of relief, modification of charitable trusts, treatment of special types of the needy, organization of charity, financial management, supervision of work by public and private agencies.

SOCIAL ETHICS 2
Year-end Exam 2010-11

What place do you give to the changes in the English Poor Law in 1834 as reform measures making for progress?
What is insanity?
What is feeble-mindedness ?
Choosing one of these types, give the chief features of a programme for care which a state should adopt.
—
1. A young mother, unmarried, asks a child saving agency to take her infant from her: What would you do with the child?
2. An infant is found exposed in a public place, with no trace of relatives. In what way would you care for it? Why?
What do we mean by the word adequacy in the expression “adequacy of relief”?
What is to be said in favor of grants of public money to private charities? What against such grants?
Discuss briefly the effect of charity on the continuance of the least “fit” to survive.
How do you value the field work which you have done in connection with this course?

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 80. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Enrollment Social Ethics 4
1910-11

Social Ethics 4 ¹hf. Dr. Brackett, Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster. — Selected Topics in Social Ethics.

Dr. Brackett. — The State and Charity.
Dr. McConnell. —The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs.
Dr. Ford. —The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation.
Dr. Foerster. —The Ethics of Immigration.

Total 14: 5 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 4 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 4
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 4 ¹hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. , at 12.

Subjects for 1910–11:—

Methods of Poor-Relief in Great Britain and Germany Compared. Professor Peabody.

The State and Charity. Dr. Brackett.

The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs. Dr. McConnell

The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation. Dr. Ford.

The Ethics of Immigration. Dr. Foerster.

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

—
1. It is proposed, following English and Australian precedent, to improve the economic position of the poorly paid working people of New York, by providing that wages less than a legal minimum shall not be paid. How far may such a measure be expected to be successful? Explain your opinion.
2. “Any one may become a bricklayer in New York City, but whosoever enters the trade as a unionist must agree not to accept less than a certain rate and must, therefore, be an efficient worker with a high standard of living. The American workingman believes that there is ample room in this country for all men who are efficient and willing to demand wages commensurate with the American standard of living.” How far do you agree with the conclusion of this statement? Explain your opinion.
What economic loss does emigration signify for a country? Is there a corresponding economic gain to the country of immigration?
—
1. Briefly outline the position of the Slavs in agriculture in the United States.
2. For what reasons would you, or would you not, favor an effort systematically to settle upon the land those of our immigrants who have lived in rural districts in their country of origin?
What disposition of the gross profits of business is made: —
1. In co-operative associations of the Rochdale model?
2. In the London Civil Service Stores?
3. In the Belgian Socialist Stores?
Which of the above methods of disposition of profits is most conducive to business strength? To working-class progress? Give reasons in detail.
What are the principles of the co-partnership housing movement? Would this form of co-operation be practicable in America?
Discuss the various legal provisions which could be effective in checking the evils of child labor.
Discuss legislation governing hours of labor, and give special attention to (a) practicability, (b) constitutionality, (c) uniformity.
Discuss the “moral quality” of each of the socialist principles of distribution — “To each according to his works,” “To each according to his needs.”

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 81. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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The Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Enrollment Social Ethics 5
1910-11

Social Ethics 5 ¹hf. Dr. McConnell. — The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State.

Total 10: 2 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 5
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 5 ²hf. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Dr. McConnell.

This course considers the fundamental ethical principles involved in the organization of the modern State, and the duties of public authorities in regard to crime, defectives, charity, the child, and public health.

SOCIAL ETHICS 5
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

—
1. Differentiate the theories of Lombroso and Ferri with reference to the origins of crime.
2. What are the chief agencies which society may utilize with the express aim at prevention of crime?
3. Briefly suggest the principal advantages and defects of the jury. (Omit either a, b, or c.)
Argue against “reformation” as the rightful aim of punishment.
Argue in favor of each of the following propositions, and show how they may be maintained consistently together: “All criminals are morally irresponsible for their deeds,” “All criminals are socially accountable for their deeds.”
Briefly suggest the successive steps, with underlying principles, from beginning to end of the treatment of a case of juvenile delinquency in a modern juvenile court.
—
1. “The whole prison problem so far as it concerns philanthropy is largely an unnecessary problem. … Improving the economic status of the people would cut the prison problem in half.” To what classes of prisoners do these statements of Gray’s refer?
2. Discuss “The Law of Settlement” and “Settlement Laws.”
—
1. Discuss the necessity of public agencies for the relief of the poor.
2. Discuss the proper division of labor between public and private charities.
Outline the work of the State Board of Charity of Massachusetts.
—
1. State the leading causes of death in the United States. (Give approximate rates, or state the causes in the order of their importance.)
2. State approximately the ratio of preventability of death from each of these causes.
3. Explain the means on which such prevention depends.
Mention the various duties of the Health Department of the city of Boston.

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 82. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Social Amelioration in Europe

Enrollment Social Ethics 6
1910-11

Social Ethics 6 ²hf. Dr. Foerster. — Social Amelioration in Europe.

Total 20: 4 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 6
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 6 ²hf. Social Amelioration in Europe. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. Foerster.

This course is mainly concerned with schemes of social amelioration that have so far been little considered in the United States. Remedial methods of dealing with poverty will be treated only incidentally. Chiefly the course will make a comparative study of the preventive and constructive measures, public and private, of several countries. After a brief consideration of the place of thrift institutions, unemployment and the important recent efforts to meet it will be discussed at some length. The experience of several countries in providing for the indigent in case of accident, sickness, invalidity, and old age will, in turn, be examined. As far as time permits, a study of legislation governing conditions of labor, and of the housing movement, will be included.

SOCIAL ETHICS 6
Year-end Examination
1910-11

Answer the questions in the order asked. So allot your time that you can answer all questions.

“Mr. H— is devoting his life to the solution of the problem of the unemployed. He proposes an amendment to the constitution of Missouri which declares that it is the duty of the State to provide relief works, including factories and farms, to employ men when necessary.” How far has the experience of France with such a measure as this been successful? of England? of Germany? What have been the causes of success or failure? What would be the probable outcome of the establishment of relief works in the United States?
—
1. What share of the cost of the compensation for accidents falls to the employer in Germany? in Austria? in Norway? in England?
2. A distinguished lawyer holds: “The funds required to make compensation should be raised by contributions from both employer and employee, preferably in equal shares.” What arguments can be advanced for and against this opinion?
3. What division of cost should, in your opinion, be made? Why?
Discussing the bill recently introduced into the English Parliament for compulsory insurance of workmen (premiums to be paid by employer, employee, and State) against unemployment and sickness, a Boston newspaper editorial says: “American workmen want nothing of this kind… they would be the first to realize that any socialistic scheme of the Lloyd-George kind would inevitably harm them”; because, “As President Hadley well says: ‘The payments to the insurance funds must chiefly, if not wholly, come out of wages. Even though they be nominally levied upon the employer, he is compelled, by competition with other employers not subject to the levy, to reduce in corresponding degree the wages he pays?’”
Discussing the same bill, a London newspaper says: “Including the existing old age pensions charge of £13,000,000, £18,500,000 will be contributed by the general taxpayer… The greater part of this £18,500,000 which is said to be supplied by that metaphysical entity, the state, will be really supplied, in their capacity as taxpayers, by the same persons who, in their other capacity of employers, are called upon to produce about £9,000,000 under the new bill.”
Criticise the reasoning of these positions, and indicate your own reasoning as to the burden of insurance.
—
1. What are the kinds, and advantages and disadvantages, of the several types of savings banks?
2. What are your reasons for thinking that savings accounts would or would not increase in number and size in a country which had such an old age pensions system as that of England? Such an old age insurance system as that of France?
Discuss the nature and development of
1. the insurance of widows and orphans in Europe;
2. the industrial insurance of the casualty insurance companies of the United States.
Describe as fully as you can the nature of the measures which has been taken by the Social Insurance authorities of Germany to reduce risks.
—
1. Are the functions of employers’ welfare establishments (such as the activities embraced under the “Welfare Fund” of the firm of D. Peters & Co.) more properly assumed by the State?
2. On the basis of the success or failure of plans discussed in this course, what general attitude do you consider that the State should adopt toward the amelioration of social conditions?
(To be answered if you have time.) What can, and what cannot, a well-organized system of labor exchanges do toward solving the problem of unemployment?

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, pp. 83-84. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Rural Social Development

Enrollment Social Ethics 7
1910-11

Social Ethics 7 ¹hf. Dr. Ford. — Rural Social Development.

Total 13: 4 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 7
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 7 ¹hf. Rural Social Development. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. Ford.

This course is concerned with rural life as a problem in itself and as a solution of urban problems. It will study the distribution of population and its consequences; the development of country life from without, through suburban, “Garden-city,” “Back-to-the-land,” and other movements, — and rural reconstruction from within, through private initiative (e.g., the country church, village improvement societies), coöperative movements (e.g., the Irish Agricultural Organization Society), and State activity (e.g., homestead commissions, departments of agriculture).

One hour will be devoted each week to the discussion of prescribed reading.

SOCIAL ETHICS 7
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

In how far is a natural tendency to industrial decentralization recorded (by the U.S. Statistics of Manufactures for 1905) for the United States as a whole? For the Boston Industrial District (500 square miles)? What are the causes of this tendency? In what types of industry is it inoperative?
“In no field does corporate (philanthropic) operation promise more for the betterment of human conditions; for a higher standard of morals, and of education, or great certainty of profit for capital, than by systematically aiding (city) men to obtain farms.” Examine and criticise this statement in detail.
Under what conditions will “aiding men to obtain farms” assure fair profits for capital? better rural society? better society in general?
What is the sociological significance of the “abandoned” farm in New York State? (Bailey, “The State and the Farmer,” Pt. I.)
—
1. Show by example what part physical environment plays in the social history of Blanktown.
2. What forms of “selection” are described as operative in Blanktown? (Williams, “An American Town.”)
What are the comparative advantages of (1) district, (2) township, (3) county school systems with reference to
1. Maintenance of rural schools?
2. Supervision of rural schools?
3. The use of agriculture as a means of general training?
4. The teaching of professional agriculture?
“The ideal of rural betterment is to preserve upon our farms the typical American farmer. …
“What is wanted … is the breaking down of those barriers which have so long differentiated country from urban life; the extinction of that social ostracism which has been the farmer’s fate.”
Examine both quotations critically. What institutions or lines of social effort could be made to contribute to both ends?

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, pp. 84-85. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

Tags Brackett, Foerster, Ford, McConnellRM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Labor Policy Social Insurance Social Work

Harvard. Topics in Social Ethics. Outline, enrollment and final exam. Peabody et al, 1909-1910

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-12-31

Picket "Girls" on Duty: Ladies' Tailors Strike, New York City [1910 Feb]

The faculty teaching this course on selected topics in social ethics that was taught at Harvard in 1909-10 was based in the philosophy section of the School of Divinity. Social Ethics at that time was closely related to the economics department and its survey course Social Ethics 1 was a relatively popular outside field for economics graduate students. Social Ethics 4 appears to have been a course that went into greater depth on four topics: poor relief, government intervention/regulation, cooperation and immigration with emphasis on the normative issues involved.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Announcement
1909-10

Selected Topics in Social Ethics (Social Ethics *4²hf.).

— Subjects for 1909-10:
— The Ethical Approach to the Social Question. Professor [Francis Greenwood] Peabody.
— Sources of Relief in Cases of Need. Dr. [Jeffrey Richardson] Brackett.
— The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs. Dr. [Ray Madding] McConnell.
— The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation. Mr. [James] Ford.
— The Ethics of Immigration. Mr. [Robert Franz] Foerster.

Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th, Sat., at 12.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1909-10, p. 24.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Enrollment
1909-10

Social Ethics 4^1[sic]hf. Professor [Francis Greenwood] Peabody, Dr. [Jeffry Richardson] Brackett, Dr. [Ray Madding] McConnell, Dr. [James] Ford, and Dr. [Robert Franz] Foerster. — Selected Topics in Social Ethics.

Total 19: 8 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Divinity.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Final Examination
1909-10

Discuss and illustrate by historical instances the ethical principles involved in the State’s interference with the individual’s freedom of contract.
(a) Discuss Compensation for Accidents — Employer’s Liability; (b) Discuss Injunctions in Labor Disputes.
Describe the constitution and business methods of the Civil Service co-operative stores in London. State all points of divergence from Rochdale principles. What are the relative advantages or disadvantages of Civil Service co-operative methods?
Do you believe that any form of co-operation could be instituted in New England villages with reasonable expectation of success? State reasons explicitly.
“The girls have become convinced… that the only effective remedy for their unsatisfactory condition is a union, in full control of every shop on the side of the employees, and authorized to bargain with the employers on their behalf. They are willing that every one shall belong to the union.” How far do you consider that the remedy proposed by the striking shirt waist makers of New York may be effective? Explain the influence of immigration on wages in the United States.
Discuss the connection of Immigration with: (a) poverty in the United States; (b) cycles of prosperity and depression; (c) municipal government in the United States.
What are the effects of Emigration upon the countries from which it proceeds?
In what degree are the ethical principles indicated in the Introduction of this Course, verified or illustrated in the case of: State activity; or of Co-operation; or of Immigration?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910).

Image Source: Picket girls on duty: Ladies’ Tailors Strike, New York City (Feb 1910). Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Tags Brackett, Foerster, Ford, McConnellRM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Social Work Socialism

Harvard. Description, enrollment and exam for Social Ethics. Peabody, 1909-1910

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-12-29

Themes of social policy were covered in the intersection of philosophy (ethics) and economics by Francis Greenwood Peabody and his staff at Harvard around the turn of the 20th century.

A brief biography of Francis Greenwood Peabody

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Social Ethics à la Peabody

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

Another post provides the history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics up through 1920.

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Material from earlier years

Exam questions for late 19^th century versions of this course have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.

1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers

1908-09. Taught by Peabody, assisted by Dr. McConnell and Messrs. Ford and Foerster.

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Course Enrollment
1909-10

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster. —The Problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 80: 7 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 3 Freshman, 13 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.

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Course Description
1909-10

Social Ethics. — The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody Dr. McConnell, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Foerster.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Dewey and Tufts’ Ethics]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Bosanquet’s The Family]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Warner’s American Charities]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

Rooms are expressly assigned for the convenience of students of Social Ethics, on the second floor of Emerson Hall, including a large lecture room, a seminary-room, a conference-room, a library, and two rooms occupied by the Social Museum. The Library of 1800 volumes is a special collection for the use of students of Social Ethics, with conveniences for study and research. The Social Museum is a collection of graphical material, illustrating by photographs, models, diagrams, and charts, many movements of social welfare and industrial progress.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1909-10, pp. 24-25.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1909-10

Consider briefly : —

(a) The social conditions necessary to produce a class-conscious conflict.

(b) Economic determinism as a working faith.

The development of the English and American law on labor combinations, from 1824. (Adams & Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 464 ff.）
The history and lessons of Employer’s Liability Acts in the United States. (Adams & Sumner, pp. 478 ff.)
How do the principles of compensation for accidents in England under the Workingmen’s Compensation Act of 1906 differ from those of the period before 1880? (Dr. Foerster’s lectures.)
The likenesses and differences between the organizations of workmen and those of the employers. (Dr. Brooks’s lectures.)
How might the assignment of laborers to tasks be accomplished in the Socialist State? Discuss three possibilities. (Dr. McConnell’s lectures.)
The French system of arbitration, as applied, first, to local disputes and, secondly, to collective bargains.
“Eventually it will be seen that industrial divisions should be perpendicular and not horizontal.” Explain and illustrate this citation.
Contrast the methods of the British (Rochdale) and Belgian (Socialist) coöperators as to distribution of the profits of coöperative business. (Dr. Ford’s lectures.)
Industrial peace, as promoted by :—

(a) The Maison Leclaire;

(b) The Pennsylvania R.R.;

Economic forces working for and against the consumption of liquor. (The Liquor Problem, a Summary of Investigations, pp. 127 ff.）

Image Sources: Radcliffe Yearbook 1914 (for Peabody), Radcliffe Yearbook 1915 for Ford and Foerster.

Tags Ford, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy Social Work

Harvard. Description, enrollment and exam for Social Ethics. Peabody, 1908-1909

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-06-10

At the turn of the 20th century social policy at Harvard was a subject for the department of social ethics located at the intersection of economics and philosophy. It was taught as a subfield of philosophy (Social Ethics) by divinity professor Francis Peabody together with a changing cast of junior instructors to assist him.

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Exams from past years

Exam questions this course from the late 19^th century have been transcribed and posted: 1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.

1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

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Francis Greenwood Peabody. The Approach to the Social Question. New York: Macmillan, 1912. “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

Another post provides the history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics up through 1920.

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DR. RAY MADDING McCONNELL

Harvard Instructor in Social Ethics Had Made Long Study of Important Problems

Dr. Ray Madding McConnell, long active in educational work, died early this morning at a private hospital in Cambridge. Dr. McConnell, who was a graduate of Harvard, class of 1902, was born in Tennessee in 1875, and had been since his college days a great student of sociological problems and recently instructor in social ethics at Harvard.

Dr. McConnell received numerous honorary degrees, including his A.B. from Southern University in Alabama, in 1899, his S.T.B. from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee in 1901, his A.M. from Harvard in 1902, and from that university his Ph.D. in 1908. He was a writer on the subject to which he had given so many years of earnest study and research, and last year his book on “The Duty of Altruism” was brought out and he had at this time another book in preparation, “Philosophy of Crime.” He had contributed frequently to the International Journal of Ethics, and at Harvard he had given courses of lectures on “Moral Obligations of the Modern State.”

Dr. McConnell was married, in 1907, to Miss Phoebe Estes Bedlow of Ithaca, N.Y., by whom he is survived, as well as by a young son, Frank McConnell.

Source: Boston Evening Transcript (June 24, 1911), p. 14.

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Course Description
1908-09

Social Ethics. — The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody assisted by Messrs. [Ray Madding] McConnell [d. 1911 of thematic fever and pneumonia], [James] Ford, and [Robert Franz] Foerster.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy, and Seth’s Study of Ethical Principles]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Bosanquet’s The Family]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Devine’s Principles of Relief]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1908-09, p. 24.

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Course Enrollment
1908-09

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. McConnell and Messrs. Ford and Foerster. — Social Ethics. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 136: 3 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 65 Juniors, 29 Sophomores, 6 Freshmen, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1908-09

The place in the modern labor question of:—

Leclaire.
Lassalle.
Conseils des Prud’hommes.

Discuss the following:—

“Labor is the original source of all value.”
“Property is robbery.”
“Surplus-value.”

What is:—

“Economic determinism”;
“A class-conscious conflict”;
“Collective bargaining”?

Ruskin’s criticism of the economists, and his own theory of value. [“Unto this Last” by John Ruskin]
The evidences of progress on the part of the working-classes since the introduction of the factory-system. (Adams and Sumner, pp. 502-526.)
The legal aspects of strikes. (Adams and Sumner, p. 187 ff.)
The development in England of the principle of Employer’s Liability.
The prospects of Industrial Co-operation in Great Britain and in the United States. The relative advantage of Federalism and of Individualism applied to Coöperation.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Relief-Department; its organization, operation, and the criticisms which it encounters.
The physiological action of alcohol and its relation to intellectual work. (Lectures, and The Liquor Problem, pp. 19-42.)
The Scandinavian Liquor-System. (The Liquor Problem, p. 153ff.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), p. 69.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Foerster, FordJM, McConnellRM, Peabody

Economists Harvard Philosophy

Harvard. Intersection of philosophy and political economy instruction by Benjamin Rand. 19th century

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-06-02

While even economists lacking the slightest interest in the history of economics are aware that Adam Smith lectured and wrote on moral philosophy, few probably appreciate the fact that up through the last quarter of the 19th century political economy was still a relatively minor subfield of academic philosophy. The following account provides a nice sketch of that philosophical backstory to economics instruction at Harvard.

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Looking back from 1928-1929 at instruction in philosophy at Harvard

…With the opening of the nineteenth century philosophy at Harvard enters upon a period about which information is more available than in the preceding centuries. The annual catalogue superseded the broadside in 1819. With the year 1826 begins the annual report of the President of the University. The deans’ reports date from 1869. Since 1883 a description of the courses [Note: link is for Faculty of Arts and Sciences since 1879-1880] has been published yearly by the philosophical department. From such sources reliable data may be gained of Harvard’s philosophical developments throughout the last century.

Levi Hedge (H.C. [Harvard College] 1792), who had received annual appointment as tutor in philosophy beginning in 1795, was given in the year 1800 the first permanent tutorship ever established in Harvard. For the support of this tutorship authority was obtained from the legislature to transfer to it the income then received by the College from tolls on the West Boston Bridge. The permanent tutor was assigned the same duties as the others, but in the event of marriage twenty per cent was to be added to his salary and a parietal tutor was to be appointed to supply his place within the College walls. In 1810, shortly after the administration of President Kirkland began, Mr. Hedge was promoted to a College Professorship of Logic and Metaphysics. He is therefore the first Professor of Philosophy in Harvard University. After appointment he continued his former duties with such other tasks as the boards constituting the government of the College might assign. He held this College Professorship of Philosophy from 1810 to 1827, when it was abandoned owing to the necessity of retrenchment. He was then given the Alford Professorship of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity made vacant by the death of Mr. [Levi] Frisbie who had become his associate in the department. His academic career as Alford Professor continued until 1832, when he resigned owing to an attack of paralysis. He recovered from this attack and enjoyed the twelve remaining years of his life in quiet retirement with his books and in pleasant intercourse with his friends.

Mr. Hedge taught philosophy in Harvard for the long period of thirty-seven years. His reputation as a scholar has been best established by his excellent textbook in logic. His method of instruction was the customary one at that time of recitation. He was, however, far more punctilious than other teachers in exacting adherence to the language of the book. “Students expected,” says Professor Andrew Preston Peabody, who was his pupil, “to gain his permanent good will and lasting favor by reciting his ‘Logic’ verbatim, and there were myths afloat as to his own laudation of the book: ‘It took me fourteen years, with the assistance of the adult members of my family, to write this book; and I am sure that one cannot do better than to employ the precise words of the author.’ If Dr. Hedge thought well of his ‘Elements of Logic,’ he was entirely in the right. There is not in the whole book a definition, or the statement of a principle, or a rule that would bear abbreviation and that would not lose by being simplified.”

In 1817 Mr. Levi Frisbie (H.C. [Harvard College] 1802) who had previously been a Tutor (1805-11) and Professor (1811-17) of Latin, was elected the first Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity. This new professorship had been made possible through the bequest of John Alford, a wealthy merchant of Charlestown, Massachusetts. This benefactor had died in 1761 leaving a large portion of his estate to “pious and charitable purposes.” His executors selected Harvard College as a proper beneficiary and in 1782 transferred to it somewhat over £1300 on condition that the Corporation retain this sum and add the interest to the principal until the capital should suffice to endow a professorship. They also stipulated at considerable length the functions and duties of this chair, and some of the details which are the product of a past age. Mr. Frisbie, the first incumbent of the professorship thus established in 1817, held it till his death in 1822. His successors have been Professors Hedge, Walker, Bowen, Palmer and Hocking. Both the philosophical and the preceding classical instruction by Mr. Frisbie were attended with a considerable degree of success. “Few men,” says President Quincy, “have left deeper traces of their moral and intellectual excellence in the memories of their contemporaries than Mr. Frisbie. In the collegiate circle in which he moved, he was the object of universal confidence and affection. He united a classic taste with great acuteness of intellect and soundness of judgment; and with a mind highly gifted and highly cultivated, rich in the powers of conversation and research he regulated his life by a standard of moral and religious principle exquisitely pure and cultivated.”

After Professor Frisbie’s death on July 9, 1822, the Alford Chair remained vacant until 1827, when Professor Levi Hedge, as already mentioned, was transferred to it from his College professorship. Accompanying this change instruction in logic was assigned to the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, and the teaching of metaphysics was retained by Dr. Hedge “as not inconsistent with the Alford statutes.” After the resignation of Professor Hedge in 1832, the Alford Professorship was again permitted from considerations of economy to remain vacant until the appointment of the Reverend James Walker to it in 1838. Meanwhile, between 1832 and 1838 instruction in philosophy was given by two tutors. Joseph Giles (H.U. [Harvard University] 1829) was Tutor in Natural, Intellectual, and Moral Philosophy from 1832 to 1834, and Instructor in the same subject from 1834 to 1836. He afterwards became a lawyer in Boston, where he lived until his death in 1882. Francis Bowen was the Tutor and Instructor in Natural and Intellectual Philosophy from 1836 to 1839. Of him we later shall have much more to say.

During the period of Professors Hedge and Frisbie the courses of instruction and the textbooks underwent changes, due to a modernizing tendency. Instruction in logic, ethics, and metaphysics was given wholly by Dr. Hedge from 1795 to 1817. But when the philosophical work was shared with Professor Frisbie from 1817 to 1822, the Alford Professor taught the intellectual philosophy as well as the natural religion. After 1822 Dr. Hedge was again in complete charge of the courses, but, as he became Alford Professor from 1827 to 1832, he surrendered the logic and devoted his attention more particularly to intellectual and moral philosophy.

An examination of the annual catalogues as issued after 1819 reveals both the subjects taught and the textbooks used by the professors. From 1820 to 1827 Professor Hedge taught logic and intellectual philosophy to the Sophomores. He used his own “Logic,” and Locke’s “Essay” as textbooks. To the Juniors he gave instruction in ethics and metaphysics, using as the textbooks Paley’s “Moral Philosophy” and Stewart’s “Philosophy of the Human Mind.” Professor Frisbie gave the course to the Seniors in intellectual philosophy and political economy. For textbooks he employed Brown’s “Lectures on the Philosophy of the Mind” and Gay’s [sic, “Say’s” is correct here] “Political Economy.” [Vol. I; Vol. II] He also taught a course in natural religion to the Juniors, using Paley’s “Evidences of Christianity,” and another to the Seniors, using Butler’s “Analogy of Religion.” These various courses were termed private exercises or recitations.

In addition lectures were given by the Alford Professor upon which the students were frequently or regularly examined.

For the later period of Professor Hedge’s incumbency very complete information about the philosophical department is afforded by the report of the President, who had been asked by the Overseers to include in it annually an account of the state of the departments, the duties of the instructors and the progress of the students. Instruction in the department from 1828 to 1838, it is said, was conducted through study and recitations. The studies commenced in the Junior year with Stewart’s “Elements of the Philosophy of Mind,” and concluded with Paley’s “Moral Philosophy.” Recitations were heard six days in the week from the class in two divisions. About two thirds of each division were questioned at every recitation. The Juniors also had a forensic exercise under the instruction of the philosophical professor every other Friday. In the Senior year the study of philosophy was continued with Brown’s “Treatise on the Mind.” When both volumes of this work were completed, the class entered upon the study of Gay’s [sic, “Say’s” is correct] “Political Economy,” and concluded with Levi Hedge’s “Elements of Logic.”

During the first term recitations were heard for two hours in the afternoon five days in the week, and during the second and third terms for one hour every day. On all the books used in this department twelve pages constituted the average length of the lessons assigned. Besides the preceding work two lectures were delivered every week during the second term on Civil Polity and Locke’s “Essay on the Human Understanding.”

With the advent of Mr. Giles as Instructor in 1833-34, Locke’s “Essay” was substituted for Brown’s “Philosophy of the Mind.” He also required of the students a written analysis, upon which commentary was made by the Instructor “exhibiting the opinions of other philosophers on controversial questions.” This is the first mention of direct instruction akin to the history of philosophy. The only new feature during the term of Mr. Bowen as Instructor (1836-39) is the statement in the President’s Reports that his method included “familiar lectures.” In this direction great changes were later to be effected.

In addition to the instruction given in the philosophical department, logic, as already stated, had been transferred in 1827 to the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric at the time Professor Hedge became Alford Professor of Natural Religion. It was taught to the Sophomores during the third term by Professor Edward Channing, who at first used Hedge’s “Logic,” but in 1833 introduced Whately’s “Logic.” This work was long employed by the department of rhetoric.

It is evident from this detailed review of the courses of instruction and of the textbooks between 1800 and 1840 that the introduction of the Scottish philosophy chiefly characterized the progress of philosophical thought at Harvard during the first half of the nineteenth century. The devotion of Professor Hedge to the Scotch school is particularly revealed by the fact that he made an abridgment of Brown’s “Philosophy of the Mind” for the use of his students. The philosophy of Stewart and Reid, moreover, was prescribed throughout this period. English philosophy, however, maintained a foothold in the continuance of the study of Locke. In ethics Paley’s “Morals,” which was used at this period, offered a splendid presentation of the utilitarianism of the eighteenth century for study. The supernatural sanction added by its author to the principles of Bentham, as evidenced by his well-known definition of virtue, would also tend to make the doctrine more acceptable in New England. But Paley is a wonderful expositor and has seldom been surpassed in this respect as a writer of textbooks. Doubtless, too, this was an important factor which commended his work for use in the curriculum of instruction at Harvard. As regards the general method of instruction in the subjects here described, the change from the close adherence to textbooks by Professor Hedge to the written exercises under Mr. Giles and to the “familiar lectures” of Mr. Bowen is also an advance which occurred during the early portion of the nineteenth century.

[…]

Francis Bowen accepted the chair of Alford Professor as successor to President Walker in 1853. He was born in Charlestown in 1811 and was graduated from Harvard in the Class of 1833, that later became famous in academic circles for such members as Professors Lovering, Torrey, and Wyman. From 1833 to 1839 he had been instructor, as already mentioned, in intellectual philosophy at Harvard. From 1843 to 1854 he was editor and proprietor of the North American Review. The Alford professorship was held by him for the long period of thirty-six years, extending from 1853 to his resignation in 1889. To ascertain the influences which moulded his thought and later entered into his philosophical instruction, one must revert briefly to various papers written by him during the period when he was instructor. These are to be found in his “Critical Essays” and concern the history and existing condition of speculative philosophy. In 1837 he wrote an article upon “Locke and the Transcendentalists.” Its purport was to prove that while the transcendentalists decry Locke, he had diffused a juster mode of thinking and a clearer knowledge of the human intellect than they possessed and that his work in consequence has been of incomparable value to philosophy. “The new philosophy,” he writes, “of transcendentalism comes from Germany, and is one of the first fruits of a diseased admiration of everything from that source, which has been rapidly gaining ground of late till in many individuals it amounts to sheer midsummer madness. In the literary history of the last half-century there is nothing more striking than the various exhibitions of this German mania. The peculiarities of the German mind are too striking to grace any other people than themselves.” But for the German language, literature, and philosophy Bowen had real admiration. He perceived that the study of philosophy by the Germans was a national passion. They had produced a race of metaphysicians after Kant, while among the countrymen of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume the taste for metaphysical speculation had declined.

It is thus not surprising that Bowen turned his attention at an early date to the understanding of Kant. The first fruits of this attempt was an article on Kant and his philosophy which appeared in the North American Review in 1839. This paper consists of a review of the translation of the “Critique of Pure Reason” which had appeared in London in 1838 and in it he gives a comprehensive outline of the system of this Copernicus of philosophy. It is, so far as I am aware, the first direct presentation of the critical philosophy in America. Kant, Bowen believed, needed an interpreter, rather than a translator, and Cousin he regarded as the best qualified for this task. Nevertheless, Bowen’s own interpretations of various philosophical systems always possessed the lucidity of the French. The presentation he made of the Kantian philosophy did not lead him to become an adherent of it. A system that coupled the refutation of idealism with the denial of space and time he viewed as certainly original; but it could scarcely be expected that such a doctrine would find acceptance by a follower of the common-sense philosophy.

Both the German successors of Kant and the French philosophers were likewise studied during the period of Bowen’s instructorship. In 1841, shortly after he became an editor, his familiarity with them is revealed in two reviews, one on “Fichte’s Exposition of Kant” in the Christian Examiner (1841) and the other on “The Philosophy of Cousin” in the North American Review (1841). The latter paper consists of a detailed criticism of Cousin’s “Elements of Psychology: included in a Critical Examination of Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding,” which had recently been translated from the French by Rev. C. S. Henry. It is to Cousin rather than to Jouffroy, as attested by the translations of this work and by the use of his textbook, that the French School is indebted for the influence which it then began to acquire in England and America. Cousin’s “Elements of Psychology,” which was reviewed by Bowen, was used at Harvard in 1845–46, and became a favorite textbook in a number of other American universities. The fact that Bowen had gained a thorough acquaintance of French and German philosophy while instructor from 1836 to 1839 must be kept in mind, as it was many years after he became a professor before these subjects found a large place in his courses of instruction.

There are two distinct and separate periods both in the method and in the character of instruction given by Bowen as successor to President Walker in the Alford professorship. The first period was from 1853 to 1870, during which he employed the customary method of recitations and adhered to the prevailing Scottish philosophy. The second period lasted from 1870 to his resignation in 1889, in which he gradually adopted the method of lectures as in harmony with the elective system, and introduced the Harvard students for the first time through regular instruction to the domain of German philosophy.

The instruction during the first period of his incumbency from 1853 to 1870 was mainly based upon Reid’s “Intellectual Powers of Man,” Stewart’s “Active and Moral Powers,” Bowen’s “Ethics and Metaphysics,” Hamilton’s “Metaphysics,” edited by Bowen, and Bowen’s “Logic.” From 1853 to 1856 during the first term the junior class recited three times a week in Reid’s “Intellectual Powers of Man” and the seniors three times a week in Stewart’s “Active and Moral Powers.” During the second term the juniors recited three times a week in Bowen’s “Ethics and Metaphysics” while the seniors studied political economy and constitutional law. From 1856 to 1857 the seniors only were taught philosophy. During the first academic term throughout the year this class recited four times a week from Bowen’s “Ethics and Metaphysics,” and likewise from 1860 to 1867 in Hamilton’s “Metaphysics.” During the second term the same class recited four times a week mainly on logic, using in successive years the logic of Mill, of Hamilton, and of Bowen. From 1867 to 1870 the sophomores and juniors were again included with the seniors in the study of philosophy. The sophomores recited at this time during one term, twice a week, in Stewart’s “Metaphysics” and the juniors in Bowen’s “Logic” and Hamilton’s “Metaphysics.” The senior class recited the first term three times a week in Bowen’s “Logic[”] and [“]Political Economy,” and the second term in Hamilton’s “Metaphysics” and Bowen’s “Ethics and Metaphysics.” Forensics were also read in alternate weeks throughout the year by the juniors and seniors. From this survey of the textbooks during the first period of Bowen’s teaching, between 1853 and 1870, it is evident that the Scottish philosophy still predominated in the philosophical instruction at Harvard.

[…]

In 1869, Charles W. Eliot became President of Harvard University. Almost immediately a radical change was effected in the entire method of instruction by the permanent adoption of the elective system. Bowen proved equal to the new demands in the philosophical department. He abandoned in large measure the method of recitation and gradually adopted the lecture system. The range of his textbooks was greatly enlarged. He broadened the entire scope of instruction in philosophy and between 1870 and 1874 introduced no less than five new courses. In 1870-71 he offered a course on formal logic, using doubtless De Morgan’s “Formal Logic,” in conjunction with Bowen’s “Ethics” and Mansel’s “Metaphysics.” He also founded a course in the same year which later was the first to receive in the curriculum the formal designation of “Psychology.” The textbooks used in it were Porter “On the Human Intellect,” Locke’s “Essay,” Cousin “On Locke,” and Mill’s “Examination of Sir William Hamilton.” This course was given for five years from 1870 to 1876. A course was also given for one year (1872-73) in ancient philosophy in which the textbooks studied were by Renouvier, Ueberweg, and Bouillier.

In the development of Bowen’s instruction during the second period, two courses in the history of philosophy are of greatest importance. In 1868 to 1870 a course had been introduced in the general history of philosophy with the use of Schwegler and Kant; and in 1870–71 this course became permanently established as part of the curriculum under the title of “French and German Philosophy.” It continued to be included in Bowen’s teaching for nineteen years, until his resignation in 1889. The textbooks used in it were Bouillier’s “Historie de la philosophie cartésienne” and Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” for the entire period; Schwegler’s “History of Philosophy” from 1870 to 1879; and Bowen’s “Modern Philosophy” from 1879 to 1889. In this course, in addition to Kant, the study of the later German metaphysicians was pursued by him with the aid in 1870 of his own excellently written sketches on the “History of Modern Philosophy.” The other course by Bowen mentioned as of significance in his philosophical instruction was one in modern German philosophy. It was first offered in 1873-74 and was given until 1889 throughout the remaining period of his academic instruction. In it German textbooks were for the first time used in the study of philosophy at Harvard. The authors and the works studied were Hartmann’s “Philosophie des Unbewussten” and Schopenhauer’s “Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung.” These works were translated by the students in the classroom and their philosophical doctrines discussed. To Bowen thus fairly belongs the credit during this period of introducing the study of German philosophy into Harvard. He also laid thereby broad foundations for the future development of the entire field of the history of philosophy in the University.

Bowen’s resignation as Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity took place at the close of the College year, 1888-89. In the annual Report, dated January 16, 1890, President Eliot wrote of him: “Mr. Bowen had been forty years in the service, four years as tutor (1835–39) and thirty-six years as Alford Professor (1853-89). In the earlier part of his service as Alford Professor he gave instruction in all the great subjects mentioned in the title of his chair: in the later years the Plummer Professor and the Professor of Political Economy had relieved him of large portions of the work assigned by its founder to the Alford Professorship. As teacher and author Professor Bowen was always learned, clear, positive, and incisive; as a member of the Faculty he was punctual in attendance, usually, but not uniformly conservative in his action, and courteous though strenuous in debate. In recognition of his long, faithful, and distinguished service he has been elected, since the beginning of the current year, Alford Professor Emeritus.”

Bowen lived only six months after his resignation. His death occurred January 21, 1870. Of him a writer at the time said: “The late Professor Bowen was in some respects a more remarkable man than the comments upon him since his death would indicate. He had not an original mind, but, like Mr. John Fiske, who has given a new popular rendering to American history, he had the faculty of using the knowledge accumulated or the results reached by others in a remarkable degree. He accumulated what was going in economics, politics, literary criticism, philosophical investigation and religious thought, as if in each department he were a specialist and his long list of works shows his versatility in this respect to have been, perhaps, more remarkable than that of any American of his time.”

An innovation in academic instruction occurred during the period of Bowen’s teaching by the addition to the regular curriculum of courses of university lectures. These were given by eminent men in different domains who received annual appointment. Only a few lectures were delivered by any one individual; so that in a course given throughout a single year six lecturers were employed. The system failed as a scheme for giving advanced instruction. The treatment of subjects was too disconnected. Students in the higher branches demanded more continuous and systematic training. The system, therefore, disappeared in 1871-72 after a trial of nine years. The best results, however, according to the President’s Report were attained by it in the year 1869–70 from the courses through the year in modern languages and philosophy. The success of the course in philosophy was undoubtedly due to the brilliant array of lecturers appointed in that year. The list included Ralph Waldo Emerson of Concord, J. Elliot Cabot of Brookline, George P. Fisher of Yale College, Charles S. Pierce and John Fiske of Cambridge. In 1870-71, which was the last year of this University lecture course in philosophy, R. W. Emerson lectured “On the Natural History of the Intellect”; J. E. Cabot on “Kant”; Chauncy Wright of Cambridge on “Psychology” C. S. Pierce on “Logic”; and John Fiske “On the Positive Philosophy.”

III

The development of religious and moral instruction in the University has always been closely associated with the philosophical department. Natural religion and moral philosophy were among the subjects specifically assigned to the Alford Chair. They likewise formed a part of the instruction given by the Hollis Professor of Divinity. Upon the appointment of Professor Bowen in 1853 the teaching of the religious and practical aspects of these subjects, as already mentioned, was transferred to President Walker, although he continued to give a course in “Religious Instruction,” as these branches were then designated, from 1853 to 1855. In 1855, however, a new professorship of “Christian Morals” was established through the will of Caroline Plummer. The full title of the incumbent was at first “Preacher to the University” and “Plummer Professor of Christian Works”; but in 1886 it was changed to “Plummer Professor of Christian Morals.” The course in religious instruction and Christian ethics which had been given by the President was then assigned to the Plummer Professor. The first incumbent of the new chair of Christian Morals was Frederic Dan Huntington (A.B. Amherst 1839), who held it from 1855 to 1860. Instruction was given by him to the freshman class in Whately’s “Lessons in Christian Morals,” and in Paley’s “Evidences of Christianity.” He also heard recitations from the seniors in Butler’s “Analogy.” In 1860 Professor Huntington resigned to become President of Saint Andrew’s Divinity School at Syracuse, New York. Later he became “Episcopal Bishop of Central New York,” an office he held until his death in 1904.

Professor Andrew Preston Peabody (H.U. [Harvard University] 1826) received in 1860 the second appointment made to the chair of Christian Morals. He retained this professorship for the long period of twenty-one years. From 1860 to 1875 he gave instruction twice a week both to the freshman and the senior classes; but from 1875 to 1881 his work was limited mainly to the senior class. With the freshmen he used from 1862 to 1873 Champlin’s “First Principles of Ethics,” which was an elementary textbook devoted chiefly to practical ethics. In 1873 Professor Peabody published a “Manual of Moral Philosophy,” which he had prepared for the special use of his freshman class. This work contained, in addition to a discussion of the motives of action and of the various virtues, an excellent outline of the history of moral philosophy. The textbook prescribed by him for the senior class was changed nearly every year. He used in turn Hopkins’s “Lectures on Moral Science,” Peabody’s “Lowell Lectures on Christian Doctrine,” Bulfinch’s “Evidences of Christianity,” Peabody’s “Christianity, the Religion of Nature,” Fleming’s “Manual of Moral Philosophy,” Stewart’s “Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man,” Calderwood’s “Handbook of Ethics,” Jouffrey’s “Ethics,” Upham’s “Elements of Mental Philosophy,” Hodgson’s “Theory of Practice on Ethical Inquiry,” Grote’s “Treatise on the Moral Ideals,” Janet’s “Ethics,” and Plutarch’s “Morals.” No better evidence than this list of works need be offered of the wide range of his knowledge and of the character of his instruction in Christian ethics. Upon his resignation in 1884, he was appointed Professor Emeritus. Thereafter he was engaged in constant literary activity, of which one result was the publication of his “Moral Philosophy” in 1887. His death occurred on the 10th of March, 1893. It was the personality of Professor Peabody, even more than the instruction he gave, which proved an inspiration to successive generations of students. He was a modern saint, and, as is said upon his memorial tablet in Appleton Chapel, “Wist not that his face shone ?”

In the foregoing description of the progress of philosophical instruction at Harvard during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we have dealt with the work of successive professors each of whom was responsible for teaching almost all the courses in philosophy. The system of instruction, moreover, during this period was organized to correspond with the four successive years of the college course. A new era was inaugurated with the adoption of the elective system. The classification of courses based upon college classes now gave place to a grouping according to subjects from the elementary to the most advanced. The gradual growth of the elective system resulted in 1879-80 in the entire disappearance of prescribed work in philosophy. Political economy had for many years been taught as part of the work of the Alford Professor of Civil Polity and was included in the department of philosophy even after a special instructor was appointed for the subject. In 1879-80, however, a separate department of political economy was formed. From a very early date forensics also had been regarded the peculiar work of the teacher of philosophy and Professor Palmer had charge of them after his appointment, until they too, in 1879-80, ceased to be required. Henceforward the work of the philosophical department was limited to its own peculiar sphere and the changes which take place therein are those due to development within its own domain. Philosophical instruction under the elective system now devolved upon a staff of teachers each of whom became responsible in large degree for special subjects or branches of philosophy.

Prior even to the adoption of the elective system a beginning had been made towards the enlargement of the philosophical staff. In 1866, Ephraim Gurney was appointed Assistant Professor of Intellectual Philosophy and as an associate of Professor Bowen taught for two years the course given in Bowen’s “Logic” and Hamilton’s “Metaphysics” to the junior class. He had as his immediate successors, who taught the same course, William Wells Newell, Instructor in Philosophy for the year 1868-69, and Ellis Peterson, Assistant Professor of Philosophy for the years 1870-72. But with the transition to the elective system and the consequent formation of a philosophical department, in the early history of which, as already described, Professors Bowen and Peabody had shared, there was made in successive years a series of appointments to the philosophical staff of younger men who were to assume the large responsibilities of the successful development of this important division under the newly adopted elective method of instruction.

[…]

In 1880, Francis Greenwood Peabody (H.U. [Harvard University] 1869) was appointed Parkman Professor in the Harvard Divinity School, where he taught homiletics, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. In 1882-83 he added to the scope of the philosophical instruction by offering two courses in the philosophical department of the College. One of these courses was upon the philosophy of religion and the other upon ethics in relation to religion. In the latter course, he used Spencer’s “Data of Ethics” and Maurice’s “Social Morality.” The social aspects of moral questions here discussed proved significant of the future development of his work. In 1883-84 he offered a course on ethical theories and the social problem, in which he treated the topics of charity, divorce, labor, Indians, prisons, and temperance. Thereafter, in a course designated “The Ethics of the Social Questions,” he discussed the practical ethics of modern society and required of students personal investigation of various institutions of charity or reform. In 1886 he was transferred from the Parkman professorship to the Plummer professorship of Christian Morals as successor to Professor Andrew Preston Peabody and thereby maintained the prestige of an honored name in the department. The work of social ethics developed under him to such proportions as to be formed in 1905 into a separate department of the philosophical division. This department, thoroughly equipped with a library and museum of social ethics, found permanent quarters for social research in 1905 in Emerson Hall.

[…]

A systematic course in which ethical theory was applied to the social problems owed its founding at Harvard, as already stated, to Professor Francis Greenwood Peabody. It was first given by him under the designation of “Social Ethics” in 1884, having been preceded by his course on “ethics in relation to religion” from 1882 to 1884. Religious instruction, Christian ethics, and Social ethics has thus been the progressive terminology applied to their courses of instruction by the three successive Plummer Professors of Christian Morals. In the course on social ethics emphasis was laid by Professor Peabody upon the moral aspects of the social questions as well as the philosophy of society involved. The ethics of the family, of poor relief, of the labor question, and of the drink question, were studied. In addition, students made personal investigations of various institutions for the amelioration of society. Dr. Benjamin Rand was associated with Professor Peabody in the successful development of this course from 1894 to 1902. The staff for the practical study of social problems was further enlarged by the appointments of Professor David Camp Rogers and Professor Jeffrey Richardson Brackett. Through the efforts of Professor Peabody a finely equipped department for instruction in social ethics was made possible by the wise gifts of Mr. Alfred Tredway White, toward the construction and endowment of it in Emerson Hall.

Source: Benjamin Rand. Philosophical Instruction in Harvard University from 1636-1906. pp. 14-19, 23-25, 28-33, 35-36, 41-42. Reprinted from The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, 1928-1929.

Tags BowenF, Frisbie, Hedge, Peabody, RandB

Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy Social Work

Harvard. Description, enrollment and exam for Social Ethics. Peabody, 1907-1908

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-01-13

Social Ethics inhabited an academic borderland between the disciplines of economics and philosophy at Harvard in the early 20th century. Professor Francis Greenwood Peabody, himself a Unitarian minister and professor of theology, governed that territory which attracted many graduate students of economics interested in social policy.

This post adds to the collection of examinations given in his courses over the course of nearly two decades.

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Exams from past years

Exam questions this course from the late 19^th century have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.

1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

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Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

Another post provides the history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics up through 1920.

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Course Description
1907-08

Social Ethics. — The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy, and Seth’s Study of Ethical Principles]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (Volume 1; Volume 2; Volume 3)]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People (links below), and Devine’s Practice of Charity]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Carlyle’s“Past and Present”, Ruskin’s “Unto this Last”, Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1907-08, p. 22.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People:

(Original) Volume I, East London;
(Original) Volume II, London;
(Original) Appendix to Volume II;
Note: the previous three original volumes were re-printed as four volumes that then were followed by
Volume V, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VI, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume VII, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VIII, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume IX, Comparisons, Survey and Conclusions.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers. — Social Ethics. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 108: 3 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 44 Juniors, 38 Sophomores, 2 Freshman, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 69.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1907-08

The economic doctrines of Carlyle and Ruskin compared and criticized.
[cf: “Past and Present” by Thomas Carlyle; “Unto this Last” by John Ruskin]
The philosophies of the anarchist and the communist compared.
The political origins of the Labor Question in Great Britain.
The German school of Socialism; its philosophy of history, its principles and its demands.
French and English precedents in Arbitration and Conciliation, applied to the circumstances of the United States. (Lectures, and Adams & Sumner, pp. 289-305.)
The progress of Labor Legislation in the United States, and its relation to the doctrines of free contract and class legislation. (Adams & Sumner, p. 466 ff.)
The “third party” to industrial disputes; and the American method of safeguarding its interests.
The Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act; its intention, limitations, and results.
The German system of Workingmen’s Insurance, its principles, methods, and applicability to the United States.
Four types of Industrial Partnership; their historical sequence, and relative importance.
The relation of the Drink Problem to poverty, crime and nationality, in the United States. (Summary of the Liquor Problem, ch. 4.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 58-59.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy Socialism

Harvard. Final examination for Ethics of the Social Questions. Peabody, 1905-1906

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-27

In 1905-06 Francis Greenwood Peabody’s popular course on the ethics of the social questions was listed for the first time as one of the course offerings in a new sub-departmental unit “Social Ethics” within the Philosophy Department. In previous years the course was listed as “Philosophy 5”. It was a relatively popular field chosen for economics Ph.D. general examinations.

More about Professor Peabody can be found in the earlier post for 1902-03 together with the final examination questions from that year. Here the course description and exam from 1904-05. Readings and final exam for social ethics in 1906-07.

A fully linked transcription of Peabody’s own short bibliography of social ethics published in 1910 is also of interest.

Note: the items cited in the exam are found in the original printed exam. Links to the corresponding passages have been added.

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A Peek into Likely Course Content

Cf. Francis Greenwood Peabody’s The Approach to the Social Question (New York: Macmillan, 1912). “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

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Course Enrollment
1905-06

Social Ethics 1 ²hf. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers. — Ethics of the Social Questions. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10.

Total 165: 5 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 50 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 11 Divinity, 14 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 75.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 1²
Year-end Exam, 1905-06

The place in the ethics of industry of :—
The Civic Federation.
Mundella.
Conseils de Prud’hommes.
Employers’ Associations. (Adams and Sumner, page 279.)
The Social-Democratic Party in Germany; its history and principles.
Economic and ethical criticisms on the programme of Revolutionary Socialism.
“The labor movement in America already exhibits a manifest tendency in the same direction [towards organized socialism] in which it moves in older countries.” (Sombart, Sozialismus und sozialistische Bewegung, s. 249.) How far is this judgment justified by the history of Collectivism, and by the present attitude of Tradesunionism [sic], in the United States?
Industrial education, in its relation to child-labor and to economic efficiency. (Lecture of R. A. Woods.)
The methods and policies of labor-organization in the United States. (Adams and Sumner, pages 245 ff.)
“Have the conditions of employment and the material comfort of the working classes really improved since the introduction of the factory system?” (Adams and Sumner, page 502.) The answer of these authors to their own question, and some of the evidence which they cite.
Compare, in their importance for the ethics of industry, the system of profit-sharing and the system of industrial partnership.
“Trade-agreements,” considered in their relations to the rights of the people.
The relation of the drink-habit in the United States to poverty and crime; and the economic forces now operating for temperance, (“The Liquor Problem,” Chapter IV, pages 108-134.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 59.

Tags Peabody

Bibliography Harvard Philosophy Socialism

Harvard. Short Bibliography of Social Ethics for “Serious-minded Students”, Peabody, 1910

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-02-06

In 1910 Harvard published 43 short bibliographies covering “Social Ethics and Allied Subjects”, about half of which were dedicated to particular topics in economics, economic sociology, and social ethics. The project was coordinated by Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, Francis G. Peabody who compiled three of the short bibliographies.

Peabody regularly taught a course on the Ethics of Social Questions [e.g., 1902-03; 1904-05] so we may presume that most of the items listed below would have been in whole or in part assigned reading.

___________________________

About Francis G. Peabody

Links to biographical information previously posted

___________________________

Previously posted Harvard short bibliographies
(1910)

I.2. Economic Theory by Taussig

I.3. Economic History by Gay

I.7. Social Statistics by Ripley

II.3. Taxation by Bullock

IV.5 Economics of Socialism by Carver

IV.6 Socialism and Family/Christian Ethics by McConnell

IV.7. Trade Unionism by Ripley

IV.8. Strikes and Boycotts by Ripley

IV.12 Thrift Institutions by Oliver M. W. Sprague

IV.13. Social Insurance by Foerster

___________________________

SOCIAL ETHICS
FRANCIS G. PEABODY

The sources of instruction in Social Ethics must be sought in the philosophical masterpieces which study the individual in his relation to social order: Maurice, Social Morality, 1869; Plato, The Republic, tr. Jowett, 1871; Grote, A Treatise on the Moral Ideals, 1876; Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 1883; Aristotle, Politics, tr. Jowett, 1885; Fichte, Vocation of Man, tr. Smith, 1889; Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, tr. Abbott, 5th ed., 1898; Royce, The World and the Individual, 1901.

Of contemporary and less academic titles, the following, out of a great number, may be named:

Addams, Jane. Democracy and social ethics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902, pp. 281.

A forcible exposition of the new duties created by a new social world. “The essential idea of democracy becomes the source and expression of social ethics” (p. 11).

Bosanquet, Helen. The strength of the people, a study in social economics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902, pp. xi, 345.

The correlation of circumstance and character traced in the problems of poverty, the family and industrialism. “‘Difficulties to overcome and freedom to overcome them’ is an essential condition of progress” (p. 339).

*Dewey, John, and Tufts, James H. Ethics. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1908, pp. xiv, 618.

Ethical theory interpreted in its relation to “the world of action.” The ethics of social organization, economic life, politics and the family effectively described.

Dole, Charles F. The ethics of progress. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1909, pp. vii, 308.

A popular and lucid exposition of “the new morality.”

Henderson, Charles R. Practical sociology in the service of social ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1902, pp. 25.

“Social technology” as the guide of social philosophy.

Hobson, J. A. The social problem; life and work. London: James Pott, 1902, pp. x, 295.

Socialism applied to the “economy of national life.” “The Social Question will find its essential unity in the problem how to deal with human waste” (p. 7). “An organized democracy standing on a sound basis of property” (p. 130).

Jones, Henry. Idealism as a practical creed. Glasgow: J. Maclehose & Sons, 1909, pp. ix, 299.

A lucid and serene exposition of the practical efficiency of ethical idealism. “The call of modern age” is a call to the “earnest questioning of our ideals of life” (p. 220).

Jones, Henry. The working faith of a social reformer. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910, pp. xii, 308.

Lectures to students for the ministry, and collected essays, expounding the interdependence of individualism and socialism, or the concurrent evolution of social and individual rights, duties and powers” (p. 111).

*Mackenzie, John S. An introduction to social philosophy. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1890, pp. xi, 390.

An academic, somewhat elusive, but judicial and suggestive outline, which has not yet been superseded.

Muirhead, J. H. Philosophy and life and other essays. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1902, pp. 274.

Admirable essays on various aspects of the ethics of modern life.

Peabody, Francis G. The approach to the social question. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1909, pp. vii, 210.

The ways of social science, sociology and economics traced, and the ethical approach approved and explored.

Perry, R. B. The moral economy. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909, pp. xvi, 267.

A searching and convincing analysis of the moral life in its relation to science, art and religion.

Ritchie, David G. Studies in political and social ethics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1905, pp. ix, 238.

Occasional papers on the fundamental problems of social evolution, equality, liberty and responsibility.

*Stein, Ludwig. Die soziale Frage im Lichte der Philosophie. 2te verb. Aufl. Stuttgart: F. Enke, 1903, xvi, 598 S.

A brilliant survey of the history of social philosophy, with the outline of a system. Anti-socialist, but describing the “socializing” of property, law, politics and religion.

Wells, H. G. Mankind in the making. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904, pp. viii, 400.

Social organization in the “New Republic,” with regulation of births, language, education and politics.

Ziegler, Theobald. Die soziale Frage eine sittliche Frage. 6te Aufl. Leipzig: G. J. Göschen‘sche Verlagshandlung, 1899, 183 S.

An early, but permanently important study of the social problem by an ethical philosopher. The moral note in socialism, industrialism and politics detected and reaffirmed.

Source: A guide to reading in social ethics and allied subjects; lists of books and articles selected and described for the use of general readers by teachers in Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University, 1910) pp. 22-24.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Socialism

Harvard. Course description and exam for Ethics of the Social Questions. Peabody, 1904-05

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-12-06

With the growth of the Harvard economics and economics-related course offerings exploding at the start of the 20th century, it’s taking more time for Economics in the Rear-View Mirror to work through all the courses, year by year as we move forwards. Of course the collection of artifacts becomes more valuable as the sample size increases, but I am aware that other content is wanted by visitors too. Or at least a nice mixture across time and space.

Anyhow, this post completes the Harvard exam transcriptions for 1904-05. It was not technically an economics course, but enough economics graduate students took the course for this to be considered a serious elective or even field of specialization at the time. And any present day economist not interested in the socio-normative side of economic life is unlikely to follow Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

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The Instructors

Francis Greenwood Peabody, A.M., D.D., Dean of the Divinity School, and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. The field “Social Ethics” was his responsibility in the teaching programs of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Philosophy) and the Divinity School (Ethics). It was a fairly popular elective field for graduate students in economics. Exam questions for 1889-90 and most intermediate years have been posted earlier.

David Camp Rogers (1878-1959). A.B. Princeton 1899. A.M. Harvard 1902 Ph.D. Harvard 1903 (Thesis: Coördinations in Space Perceptions). First Professor of Psychology at Smith College, appointed 1914. If this seems like an odd pairing of teaching assistant to professor, it would not have seemed particularly odd at that time. Both the study of ethics and human psychology were covered by the philosophy department. To get a Ph.D. in philosophy would have required examination in several fields of philosophy, so I suppose that ethics, or social ethics, was one of Rogers’ examination fields. He probably did well in the exam and was offered a teaching assistantship in social ethics on that basis.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1904-05
[also listed as Ethics 1]

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

[Philosophy] 5 ¹hf. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. Rogers. — Ethics of the Social Questions. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 122: 7 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 47 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 1 Freshmen, 20 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 76.

The Divinity School

[Ethics] 1 ¹hf. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. Rogers. — Introductory Course. — The Ethics of the Social Questions. — The modern social questions: Charity, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. — Lectures, special researches, and required reading. Half-course.

Total 122: 7 Graduates, 99 College, 5 Sc., 11 Divinity.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 173.

__________________________

Course Description
1904-05

Ethics

Introductory Course. The Ethics of the Social Questions. — The modern social questions: Charity, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and required reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. Rogers.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with the same subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the social situation and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature of the Moral Ideal [required reading from (John Stuart) Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from (Herbert) Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (3^rd edition: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3)];the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Devine, The Practice of Charity, and from Charles Booth’s Life and Labour of the People in London (1903 edition) [First Series, Poverty: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4. Second Series, Industry: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4; Vol. 5. Third Series: Religious Influences: Vol. 1; Vol. 2; Vol. 3; Vol. 4; Vol. 5; Vol. 6; Vol. 7; Concluding Volume]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading: J.A. Hobson, The Social Problem; Schäffle’s The Quintessence of Socialism] and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from Rowntree and Sherwell, The Temperance Problem and Social Reform]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigations, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

A special library of 700 carefully selected volumes is provided for the use of students in this course.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University 1904-05, pp. 21-22.

__________________________

PHILOSOPHY 5¹
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS

The chief historical steps in the evolution of the family.
The relation of the Family to the State:—
(a) As urged by Mr. Spencer (Spencer, Sociology, I, 707).
(b) As proposed by “Scientific Socialism.”
Certain economic movements which affect the integrity of the Family.
The causes of poverty, classified and compared.
The evolution of the “Double-Decker,” and the provisions of the New York “New Law” for tenements.
Charles Booth’s Class E in East London; its dimensions, special risk of degradation, and the way of security proposed.
Some elementary principles of organized charity (Devine, The Practice of Charity, ch. IX).
Compare the “Case System” with the “Space System.”
Compare the Church Districting System with the Liverpool system of collection.
Germany and Belgium compared in their provision for the “out-of-works.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 45.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Peabody

Social Ethics Instructors 1911-12

Social Ethics 1-7 1911-12

Application of Ethical Theory to Present Social Problems

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 1 Year-end Final Examination 1911-12

Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work: Practical Problems

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 2

Criminology and Penology

Course Description Not taught in 1911-12

Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 4

Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State

Course Description Not taught in 1911-12

Social Amelioration in Europe

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 6

Rural Social Development

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 7

Social Ethics à la Peabody 1888/89—1910/11

Social Ethics à la Peabody 1888-1910

Social Ethics Course Instructors 1910-11

Social Ethics 1-7 1910-11

The Ethics of Modern Industrialism

Enrollment Social Ethics 1 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 1 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 1 Year-end Examination 1910-11

Practical Problems of Social Service

Enrollment Social Ethics 2 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 2 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 2 Year-end Exam 2010-11

Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Enrollment Social Ethics 4 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 4 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 4 Mid-year Examination 1910-11

The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State

Enrollment Social Ethics 5 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 5 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 5 Mid-year Examination 1910-11

Social Amelioration in Europe

Enrollment Social Ethics 6 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 6 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 6 Year-end Examination 1910-11

Rural Social Development

Enrollment Social Ethics 7 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 7 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 7 Mid-year Examination 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 4 Course Announcement 1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 4 Course Enrollment 1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 4 Final Examination 1909-10

Social Ethics à la Peabody

Material from earlier years

Course Enrollment 1909-10

Course Description 1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 1 Year-end Examination 1909-10

Exams from past years

DR. RAY MADDING McCONNELL

Course Description 1908-09

Course Enrollment 1908-09

SOCIAL ETHICS 1 Year-end Examination 1908-09

Looking back from 1928-1929 at instruction in philosophy at Harvard

Exams from past years

Course Description 1907-08

Course Enrollment 1907-08

SOCIAL ETHICS 1 Year-end Examination 1907-08

A Peek into Likely Course Content

Course Enrollment 1905-06

SOCIAL ETHICS 12 Year-end Exam, 1905-06

About Francis G. Peabody

Previously posted Harvard short bibliographies (1910)

SOCIAL ETHICS FRANCIS G. PEABODY

The Instructors

Course Enrollment 1904-05 [also listed as Ethics 1]

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Social Ethics 1-7
1911-12

Application of Ethical Theory
to Present Social Problems

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12

Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work:
Practical Problems

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1910/11

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888-1910

Social Ethics Course Instructors
1910-11

Social Ethics 1-7
1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 1
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 1
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 2
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 2
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 2
Year-end Exam 2010-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 4
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 4
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

The Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Enrollment Social Ethics 5
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 5
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 5
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 6
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 6
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 6
Year-end Examination
1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 7
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 7
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 7
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Announcement
1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Enrollment
1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Final Examination
1909-10

Course Enrollment
1909-10

Course Description
1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1909-10

Course Description
1908-09

Course Enrollment
1908-09

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1908-09

Course Description
1907-08

Course Enrollment
1907-08

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1907-08

Course Enrollment
1905-06

SOCIAL ETHICS 1²
Year-end Exam, 1905-06

Previously posted Harvard short bibliographies
(1910)

SOCIAL ETHICS
FRANCIS G. PEABODY

Course Enrollment
1904-05
[also listed as Ethics 1]

Course Description
1904-05

PHILOSOPHY 5¹
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS