Abstract

I am grateful to the group of philosophers who gave so liberally of their time and talent to the January issue of Idealistic Studies, which was devoted to my work. My thanks go particularly to Richard De George and Charles Landesman, who conceived the idea of such a collection, and to Robert Beck who, as editor, cooperated with them warmly. I treasure the collection the more because all the writers have been in one way or another students of mine. Judging by their admirable essays, I was more successful in persuading them that rival positions were wrong than that my own were right. About that I cannot complain. The business of a philosophy teacher is not to produce disciples but to offer a discipline in thinking; and if the discipline is effective enough to expose cracks in his own system, that is at least some evidence that he has done his job.