To the memory of my teachers in philosophy and psychology (then not sharply separated) at Harvard in 1919-23:
James Naughton Woods (my advisor; whose counsel, “study logic, it’s the coming thing,” I should have taken more to heart than I did), scholar in Hindu philosophy, who in 1924 helped to turn a British mathematician, logician, and theoretical physicist into one of the great metaphysicians of all time;
Clarence I. Lewis, who made all subjects fascinating, and who saw the importance of modal logic and brilliantly contributed to it;
Ernest Hocking, who encouraged thought about first principles;
Ralph Barton Perry, who made clarity and precision in philosophy seem possible and desirable;
Raphael Demos, the ideal “tutor”;
Levy-Bruehl, admirable visiting lecturer in the history of modern philosophy;
H.M. Sheffer, who made logical puzzles appealing and also gave a splendid course on British empiricism;
Ralph Eaton, clear-headed student of logical forms;
E.T. Bell, who saw the lack of a proper theory of givenness in modern philosophy, including that of Husserl, but who unfortunately inherited a Nova Scotia farm;
M. de Wulf, vigorous proponent of neoscholasticism;
H.S. Langfeld and William McDougal, excellent teachers in psychology;
L.T. Trolland, who not only knew “psychophysiology” better than anyone else but also had some valuable ideas (unluckily left unpublished) in cosmology;
H.A. Wolfson, whose influence upon me came chiefly after I left Harvard, as his superb historical works came out (1929-1976);
These men guided my studies. They then made it possible for me to go for two years to two other superior philosophy departments of the time, Freiburg in Breisgau (where Husserl, Heidegger, J. Ebbinghaus, and R. Kroner taught) and Marburg (Heidegger, N. Hartmann, Natorp).
Finally they furnished me, as member of the staff, 1925-28, with the immeasurable boon of intensive study of the unpublished and published writings of C.S. Peirce, and simultaneous association with A.N. Whitehead, whose metaphysical speculations were then crystallizing, thanks to his teaching duties in the department, begun In 1924.
For anything I have failed to do or be as a philosopher they are certainly not to blame.
Also my parents, who combined sincere piety with good sense in formulating and applying the content of their faith.
HyC