Should graduate courses in development studies contain a core element, which would be compulsory for all students, or should students be free to take whatever combination of course elements they choose? In the end, the principal determining consideration is whether development studies in fact possesses an identifiable core of central ideas. The argument presented here is that such a core does indeed exist, and that it has three major components. The philosophical component is the development of the idea of development, in its main vicissitudes since the Scottish Enlightenment. The historical component requires the integration of studies of national development experiences with an understanding of their changing global content. The practical component involves the purging of ideological biases from existing technical knowledge, with a view to salvaging what will be needed in any conceivably desirable future social order.