The hiring of James Mark Baldwin and James Gibson Hume at the University of Toronto in 1889.

Abstract

In 1889, George Paxton Young, the University of Toronto's philosophy professor, passed away suddenly while in the midst of a public debate over the merits of hiring Canadians in preference to American and British applicants for faculty positions. As a result, the process of replacing Young turned into a continuation of that argument, becoming quite vociferous and involving the popular press and the Ontario government This article examines the intellectual, political, and personal dynamics at work in the battle over Young's replacement and its eventual resolution. The outcome would have an impact on both the Canadian intellectual scene and the development of experimental psychology in North America.