Columbia. Economic readings for the examination to receive the degree of Master of Arts, 1880

 

 

If I understand the text below correctly, a requirement for a master’s degree for someone who entered with a recognized bachelor’s degree (e.g,. from Columbia or a peer college) and with at least one year of graduate study at Columbia was to be examined in all three subjects from at least one of the following five groups. I have transcribed the titles of the books that would be the subject of examinations for groups two (Philosophy/Ethics/Logic) and five (Constitutional Law, Economics, History). Links for the economics books have been provided as well.

Richmond Mayo Smith  was the Adjunct Professor of History, Political Science, and International Law who covered the economics courses in the school of political science that began operations October 4, 1880. You can read about the undergraduate economics “program” at Columbia College in 1880 as well as an exam for the mandatory Junior year course in political economy in an earlier post.  A syllabus for Mayo-Smith’s course “Historical and Practical Political Economy” from the 1890s has also been transcribed (with links to the items cited!) and posted.

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DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS.

The degree of Master of Arts will be conferred only on Bachelors of Arts of this College of three years’ standing or more, who shall have pursued, for at least one year, a course of study under the direction of the Faculty of the College, and shall have passed a satisfactory examination upon the subjects embraced in one at least of the five groups following, viz.:

[1] Greek. Latin. English.	[3] Mathematics. Mechanics. Astronomy.
[2] Philosophy. Ethics. Logic.	[4] Physics. Chemistry. Geology.
[5] Constitutional Law. Economics. History.

 

Bachelors of Arts of other colleges who may have been admitted ad eundem gradum in this College, may be admitted to the degree of Master of Arts on the same terms and conditions as are prescribed for the admission of Bachelors of Arts of Columbia College to the same degree.

Bachelors of Arts of other colleges may be admitted ad eundem gradum in this College on satisfying the College Faculty that the course of study for which they received the Bachelor’s degree is equivalent to that for which the Bachelor’s degree is given in Columbia College, or passing such additional examination as the Faculty may prescribe, and on payment of a fee equal to the annual tuition fee required of undergraduates.

Candidates will be allowed to offer for examination any one or more of the books or subjects named in the following list in each of the three departments belonging to the group elected by them, viz.:

[…]

 

SECOND GROUP.

ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY.

1. A general knowledge of Plato’s Philosophy.

Text-books :
Ueberweg’s History of Philosophy, Vol. I.
The Dialogues.
Grote’s Plato, Vols. II. and III.

2. A general knowledge of Aristotle’s Philosophy.

Text-books :
Ueberweg’s History of Philosophy, Vol. I.
Sir Alexander Grant’s Aristotle.

3. Books of reference on Plato and Aristotle (German).

Zeller, Gr. Philosophie, Vols. II. and III.;
Brandis, Philosophie, Vols. II. and III.:

or,
MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

1. The Philosophies of David Hume and Herbert Spencer.

Text-books :
Green’s edition of Hume.
Herbert Spencer’s First Principles.
Herbert Spencer’s] Psychology.

2. Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.

Books of reference (German):
Harms’s Die Philosophie seit Kant, art. Kant.
Kuno Fischer’s Kant.

3. Caird, the Philosophy of Kant.

Zeller, Gesch. der Deutschen Phil., art. Kant.
Ueberweg, Hist. of Phil., Vol. II.

 

ETHICS.

1. Calderwood’s Handbook of Moral Philosophy.
2. A general knowledge of the Utilitarian Theory, and the arguments advanced against it.

Text-books :
Bentham.
Mill’s Essay on Utilitarianism.
Spencer’s Data of Ethics.
John Grote’s Utilitarianism.

 

LOGIC.

1. John Stuart Mill’s System of Logic, Books iii.-v.
2. Sir William Hamilton’s Lectures on Logic.
3. Jevons’s Principles of Science.

 

 

 

FIFTH GROUP.

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.

1. English Institutions.
2. Das Deutsche Staatsrecht. Von Rönne.
3. Histoire Parlementaire de France. Duvergier de Hauranne.
4. Constitutional History of the United States. Von Holst.
5. Histoire du Droit des Gens.
6. Das Diplomatische Handbuch. Ghillany.
7. History of International Law. Wheaton.
8. Lehre vom Modernen Staat. Bluntschli.
9. Political Science. Woolsey.
10. Public Law of England. Bowyer.

ECONOMICS.

1. On the Principles of Political Economy, either Mill (J. S.), Principles of Political Economy, or Roscher (Wm.), Principles of Political Economy.
   [Volume I; Volume II]
2. On the History of Political Economy, either Blanqui, Histoire de l’Economie Politique [Volume I; Volume II], or Kautz, Geschichte der Nationalökonomie.
3. On one of the following special subjects, viz.:
   1. Finance, Jevons (W. S.), Money and the Mechanism of Exchange, together with Price (B.), Currency and Banking.
   2. Commerce, Levi (Leone), History of British Commerce, and Fawcett (H.), Free Trade.
   3. Socialism, Schäffle, Kapitalismus und Socialismus.

HISTORY.

The candidate will be expected to present himself for examination in the general history of one of the following countries: Rome, England, Germany, France, or the United States of America.

 

Source: Handbook of Information as to the Course of Instruction, etc., etc., in Columbia College and its Several Schools [1880], pp. viii, 41- 43, 59-66.

Image Source: Richmond Mayo Smith in University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D.  Boston: R. Herdon Company.  Vol. 2, 1899, pp. 582.