An Inquiry Respecting the Self-Determining Power of the Will; or Contingent Volition.
New Haven: Herrick & Noyes, 1838. First edition. 12mo, original ribbon embossed green cloth, printed paper spine label, 200 pages. Spine sunned; some foxing; a very good copy. Item #19130
From the president of Yale; per Schneider’s History of American Philosophy, “As the new three-faculty psychology became familiar during the 1830s, being expounded in both American and Scottish texts, and as it was re-enforced by the transcendentalist psychology coming in from Coleridge, Cousin, and the Germans, the criticism of Edwards and of necessitarianism in general gained momentum rapidly. Jeremiah Day, president of Yale, published An Inquiry Respecting the Self-Determining Power of the Will or Contingent Volition (1838) and An Examination of President Edwards’s Inquiry on the Freedom of the Will (1841). He used the new psychology, which he had apparently learned by reading Henry’s translation of Cousin, to bolster the moderate orthodoxy of the Presbyterians and Congregationalists, and in general defended Edwards.” A pleasing association copy, this copy with the pencil signature of American Transcendentalist Sylvester Judd on the front free endpaper, dated 1838 (and a later institutional bookplate noting the gift of Judd’s library but no other evident library marks). American Imprints 50021.
Price: $250.00