Professor Munsterberg's Lecture

Professor Munsterberg gave the first of the series of four memorial lectures, arranged by the department of philosophy in observance of the centennial of the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the New Lecture Hall last night. The subject was "Emerson as a Philosopher," and the lecture consisted chiefly of an explanation and appreciation of Emerson's philosophy. The general opinion of philosophers and scientists until recently favored materialism which attempts to explain all things by mechanical laws of cause and effect and which emphasizes body, not mind. Philosophic opinion is now, however, beginning to favor idealism, which believes many things above mechanical law and which emphasizes mind rather than body. Emerson was thoroughly inclined to this belief of idealism and he is consequently in complete harmony with modern thinking. Because of this harmony the new Philosophy Building is called "Emerson Hall."