Pragmatist tradition who became a nationally recognized leader of
Progressivism in the United States as well as an internationally
renowned peace advocate. Addams is primarily acclaimed for founding
the Chicago social settlement, Hull-House, which emerged as the
flagship of the Settlement Movement. Hull-House provided Addams with a
supportive intellectual community and a basis for understanding urban
life amidst rapid immigrant influx. Together with other Hull-House
residents, Addams undertook a number of local, state, national and
ultimately international activist projects including garbage
collection, adult education, child labor reform, labor union support,
women's suffrage and peace advocacy among others. Her personal
accomplishments are staggering and are recounted in a number of
contemporary biographies. Addams helped to found the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil
Liberties Union and the Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom. In 1931, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Addams' achievements as a social reformer represent a prodigious
legacy but she also left a significant intellectual heritage. She
authored a dozen books and over 500 articles of original social
philosophy as recognized by her contemporaries including John Dewey,
William James, and George Herbert Mead. The organizing principle of
her social philosophy was progress. To this end, Addams understood
democracy as both a form of socially engaged living and as a framework
for social morality. Accordingly, authentic social advancement should
be democratic or what she termed "lateral progress," an inclusive
advancement not just narrowly applied to the privileged. Addams argued
that fostering the moral relations necessary for a robust democracy
required community members to engage in "sympathetic knowledge," an
approach to learning about one another for the purpose of caring and
acting on one another's behalf. Addams' writings emphasize direct
experience, pluralism and fallibility in the engagement with concrete
social issues. Although the works of male philosophers such as Dewey,
Peirce, James and Mead dominate the literature of classic American
pragmatism, the writings of Jane Addams provide a unique and
provocative feminist pragmatist voice.
1. Biography
Laura Jane Addams was born on September 6, 1860 in Cedarville,
Illinois, ten months after the publication of Darwin's Origin of The
Species, two months prior to the election of Abraham Lincoln to the
presidency of the United States and seven months prior to the
secession of the South from the Union. Addams recounts her early life
in Twenty Years at Hull-House, the only one of her works to
continuously remain in print since it was first published in 1910. As
a child she was called "Jennie" but her childhood had a turbulent
beginning. When Jennie was two, her mother, Sarah, died whilst giving
birth to her ninth child. As a result, Addams formed a significant
bond with her father, John, who was a successful mill owner and
politician. John Addams corresponded with Lincoln, and Jane Addams
associated her father and Lincoln as moral icons and personal
inspirations throughout her life. The relationship between John and
his daughter was important because it afforded Jane the attention of
an educated and worldly adult, an opportunity not experienced by many
young women of this era. John Addams remarried but there was always a
special bond between Jane and he.
John Addams sent his daughter to college at the Rockford Female
Seminary (later Rockford College). Although Addams was always a good
student, she blossomed in college and became a widely acknowledged
campus leader. Addams learned how valuable a supportive female
community could be given women's exclusion from most activities in the
public sphere. She later replicated the woman-centered atmosphere at
Hull-House. When Addams graduated from college in 1881, she intended
to pursue a medical career, but after a short tine in graduate school,
she decided that medicine was not in her future. The death of her
father in that same year placed her life in turmoil. Having lost
direction in her life, she fell into a decade-long phase of soul
searching, combined with sporadic health problems. During this period
she undertook several trips to Europe. On her second trip, she
encountered the pioneering social settlement, Toynbee Hall in London.
Toynbee Hall provided young men an opportunity to work to improve the
lives of impoverished Londoners. Soon after this encounter Addams
developed a plan to start a social settlement in the United States.
Addams enlisted the help of her friend Ellen Gates Starr in her noble
scheme. Starr had briefly attended Rockford College with Addams, so
they shared an understanding of the empowerment that a female
community could provide to its residents. Addams and Starr open the
Hull-House settlement in 1889 in the heart of a run-down neighborhood
on the west side of Chicago. They began with few plans, few resources
and few residents but with a desire to be good neighbors to the
community. Working with the network of women's organizations in
Chicago, the number of Hull-House projects quickly grew, as did their
reputation. Women, and to a lesser extent men, came from all over the
country to live and work as part of this progressive experiment in
communal living combined with social activism. Under Addams'
leadership, Hull-House opened a public bathhouse, undertook a campaign
to have the garbage collected, started a kindergarten, developed the
first playground in Chicago and responded to a variety of community
needs. At first, Addams had rented the entire second floor and the
first floor drawing room of the Hull-House building but eventually the
settlement complex grew to accommodate one full city block. Addams
faced an ongoing challenge to explain the work Hull-House had
undertaken. People often felt compelled to give settlement projects
the familiar label of charity work, but Addams rebuffed this claim. As
she explained in her 1893 article, "The Objective Value of the Social
Settlement," Addams viewed Hull-House residents as engaged in
reciprocal knowledge work: the collection, analysis and dissemination
of information combined with intelligent action.
Addams was an effective activist and organizer but she was also keenly
attuned to social theory. As a child she had read widely, largely
influenced by her father who housed the town library in their home. At
Rockford, she was exposed to Ancient Greek philosophy as well as the
social theories of the Romantics, John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle. At
Hull-House, Addams attracted the attention of John Dewey, William
James and George Herbert Mead, each of whom visited and engaged Addams
in lively conversations that proved to be mutually influencing. Given
this intellectual foundation, Addams used her Hull-House experience as
a springboard for developing public philosophy in the American
Pragmatist Tradition. In 1899, ten years after founding Hull-House,
Addams published, "The Function of the Social Settlement" in which she
placed her progressive activities in epistemological terms. Addams
viewed issues of knowledge as the most profound contemporary
challenge. Social settlements were an active effort to learn about one
another across class and cultural divides thus building collective
knowledge about the individuals who make up this diverse society. In
this manner, Hull-House served as a multi-directional conduit of
information about human lives: Addams and her cohorts helped
immigrants learn how to navigate the complex American culture while
Addams communicated and thematized her experience with immigrants to
help white, upper and middle class America understand what it meant to
be poor and displaced. Furthermore, Addams viewed this knowledge
creation as reciprocal: society benefited from the knowledge that
immigrants brought and the immigrants benefited from learning about
their new neighbors. Addams was unique in recognizing that immigrants
could contribute to American culture.
Addams authored or co-authored a dozen books and over 500 articles
after she founded Hull-House. The articles appeared in both scholarly
and popular periodicals, establishing Addams as a public philosopher
and social leader. Addams was also a much in-demand speaker and she
traveled nationally and internationally to make presentations that
supported her progressive values. Addams was one of the few women of
the era to transgress the private sphere to successfully influence the
public sphere. Polls indicate that Addams became one of the most
recognized and admired figures in the United States. She was an
influential catalyst for change, lending her name and organizing
skills to a variety of causes. Addams worked with W.E.B. DuBois in
support of a number of African-American endeavors including writing
articles for his publication The Crisis and helping to found the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She helped
start the American Civil Liberties Union and organized the Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom. Her tireless effort in
support of peace led to Addams receiving the 1931 Nobel Peace prize.
Addams died of cancer on May 21, 1935. The public memorial at
Hull-House filled the streets with mourners and eulogies were
published in newspapers nationally and internationally.
2. Social Philosophy
There are a number of reasons why Addams was not generally recognized
as a philosopher until the late twentieth century which include her
gender and her association with social work. Another factor in this
lack of recognition is that she was not a systematic philosopher
either stylistically or methodologically. Addams' writing style is not
typical of the philosophic tradition in that it lacks a sustained
abstract character. For example, in Democracy and Social Ethics,
arguably the most philosophical of Addams' books, the chapters address
charity workers, family relationships, domestic workers, industrial
working conditions, educational methods and political reforms. To the
trained philosopher, these topics appear far removed from more
familiar considerations of epistemology, metaphysics and ethics.
However, a careful examination of her work reveals that Addams begins
with social phenomena and draws theoretical inference from these
experiences. In Democracy and Social Ethics, Addams offers intriguing,
even radical, insights into the nature of ethics and epistemology. To
read Addams as a philosopher requires setting aside assumptions about
beginning from abstract theoretical positions. As a pragmatist, Addams
is strictly interested in social philosophy. Everything she writes
seeks what James would refer to as the "cash value" of an idea for
social growth and improvement. Four interrelated cornerstones of her
social philosophy are the concepts of sympathetic knowledge, lateral
progress, pluralism and fallibilism.
a. Sympathetic Knowledge
Beginning with her first book, Democracy and Social Ethics and running
through all of her works addressing social issues is the notion of
sympathetic knowledge. Fundamentally, sympathetic knowledge is the
idea that humans can learn about one another in terms that move beyond
propositional knowledge, that is rather than merely learning facts,
knowledge is gained through openness to disruptive knowledge.
Knowledge can be disruptive in the sense that new information can
transform one's perceived experience and understanding. This idea
motivated Addams and the residents of Hull-House to undertake the
first urban study of racial demographics, which was published as
Hull-House Maps and Papers in 1895. Addams integrated epistemological
inquiry with ethical analysis such that it was the responsibility of
members of a society to know one another better for the purposes of
caring and acting on one another's behalf. Sympathetic knowledge is
Addams' rationale behind social settlements. By providing a physical
location where people of different backgrounds could meet, social
knowledge is built up reducing the abstraction of distant others
transforming them into concrete, known others. Accordingly, Addams
suggests that the many social activities sponsored by
Hull-House—clubs, dances, performances, athletics—were not frivolous
affairs but a means for breaking down barriers between people, thus
fostering sympathetic knowledge. In Twenty Years at Hull-House and
later in The Second Twenty Years at Hull-House, Addams claims that
these social activities performed an educative function and that
social settlements were in fact thoroughly educative projects. Like
Dewey, Addams valued education as the foundation of a healthy
democratic society. Like Mead, Addams viewed "play" as an essential
aspect of education because of its ability to fire the imagination.
Addams takes this notion so far as to argue that play is important for
a vibrant democracy because it creates the possibility of empathetic
imagination. When one plays, one takes on the roles of others and
through fictitious inhabitation of these positions begins to empathize
with the plight of others. In this manner, education also contributes
to sympathetic knowledge. Similarly, literature and drama can enhance
sympathetic knowledge as one empathizes with fictitious characters.
Accordingly, Hull-House sponsored community theater as well as the
reading of novels.
The basis of sympathetic knowledge is experience that is imaginatively
extrapolated. When Addams addresses prostitution in A New Conscience
and an Ancient Evil, she employs anecdotes from the Hull-House
community to allow her audience to understand the struggles of young
women in the big cities. In this manner, she is neither strictly
deontological nor teleological in her moral approach. Rather than
dealing with principles of sexuality, for example, or the consequences
of prostitution on society, although both considerations are
important, Addams begins by attempting to increase knowledge of
marginalized women. Inherent in this approach to human ontology is a
belief in the fundamental goodness and relationality of people. Addams
believes that if her audience understands what is going on in the
lives of others, even if those others are outcasts, then we may begin
to care and possibly take positive action on their behalf. Addams'
method of sympathetic knowledge extends to those with whom she
disagreed. For example, in Democracy and Social Ethics, Addams
describes her failed political battles with local ward alderman,
Johnny Powers (who Addams does not name in print). Hull-House
sponsored a number of unsuccessful attempts to unseat Powers. Rather
than excoriate Powers for his backroom deals and bribery, Addams set
out to understand what made such an alderman popular. Through this
method of inquiry, Addams, although not altering her denunciation of
Powers' cronyism, began to understand how the people of the ward
appreciated an alderman who was visible and connected to their
everyday lives. For Addams, sympathetic knowledge, despite its emotive
implications, was a rational attempt to understand others.
Accordingly, Addams eschewed antagonism. Ad hominem attacks only
foster defensive barriers so Addams employed sympathetic knowledge in
what she described as a detached manner. Such an approach might seem
counter intuitive, but is understandable for a figure like Addams who
bridged the reserved nature of the Victorian era and the moral
commitment of the Progressive era.
b. Lateral Progress
Given her status as one of the leading figures of the progressive era,
it is not surprising that Addams advocated social progress, but she
distinguished the particular type of progress she advocated. The
industrial revolution had seen many people prosper in the name of
economic and technological progress. In addition, Addams had grown up
in the post-Civil War era where social progress had been attributed to
the newfound rights of African-Americans. Addams, however, viewed such
progress to be more abstract than concrete. In the case of economic
progress, it was experienced mostly by an elite few with some benefits
trickling down to the middle class. From her perspective at
Hull-House, she witnessed the inability of immigrants to fully
participate in the economy or the political process. Similarly, she
saw that although African-Americans ostensibly had legal rights, they
often were prevented from actualizing those rights through a
combination of laws intended to circumvent equality and racism in
social relations. Given these experiences, Addams advocated what she
referred to as "lateral progress," or the idea that for authentic
progress to take place, it would have to be experienced in a
widespread manner rather than by a privileged few. Furthermore,
Addams' notion of lateral progress was not to be enforced
hierarchically from structures of authority. Addams envisioned a
progress that was derived from participatory democratic processes.
Addams applied the concept of lateral progress to a number of social
issues. When it came to women's suffrage, for example, Addams did not
base her arguments upon principles of equality or fairness. Instead,
she argued that such a move represented lateral progress, the
inclusion of all—including women—would lead to the betterment of
society. Similarly, her support of labor unions was tempered by the
notion of lateral progress. Addams did not advocate for collective
bargaining merely to benefit those fortunate enough to be in the
unions; she viewed labor unions as working toward lateral progress by
improving wages, hours and working conditions for all workers.
c. Pluralism
Addams argued for the inclusion of all members of society in the
institution, policies and practices that were to lead to social
progress. For example, in a 1930 article, "Widening the Circle of
Enlightenment" Addams contends that pluralism has an energizing impact
on society and should be embraced rather than feared. In this manner,
Addams was an early American theorist who saw the value of diversity.
Addams suggested that by bringing their cultural heritage to the
United States, immigrants kept America from becoming static.
Reciprocally, immigrants benefited from engaging in the cultural
heritage found in North America. For Addams, social progress demanded
that all voices be heard but she believed in the power of collective
intelligence to find common cause from that diversity.
Addams' valorization of cultural diversity was so thoroughgoing that
she integrated it into her pacifist arguments. In Newer Ideals of
Peace, Addams contends that cosmopolitan cities are a model for
international peace. While not romanticizing the conflicts between
groups that occur in the city, Addams draws on numerous experiences of
people from different cultural heritages setting aside their
differences to develop working relationships and help one another
survive the challenges of urban life. Addams believed that if diverse
people under the strain of Chicago's urban blight could find a way to
work together, then countries in the international community could
also come to some equilibrium without violence.
Addams applied her pluralistic commitment to intellectual
understanding. Hull-House welcomed speakers from a variety of
political positions, whether the residents agreed with those positions
or not. To foster this openness, Addams eschewed ideological ties for
herself and for the Hull-House community. In this manner, although she
was sympathetic to many of the arguments of socialists, anarchists,
feminists and various Christian leaders, she never entirely accepted
any ideological position. Demonstrating her pragmatism, she avoided
political labels but variously aligned herself when it meant advancing
the cause of social progress. On many occasions, Addams and Hull-House
were criticized for not clearly associating themselves with an
ideological camp.
d. Democracy
Addams maintained a robust definition of democracy that moved far
beyond understanding it merely as a political structure. For Addams,
democracy represented both a mode of living and a social morality. She
viewed democracy as an acknowledgement that the lives of citizens are
bound up with one another and this relationship creates a duty to
understand the struggles and circumstances of fellow citizens.
Reciprocity of social relations is crucial for providing citizens with
the empathetic foundation necessary to energize democracy. Social
settlements were experiments in the kind of democracy that Addams
endeavored to promote: one of active social engagement. Addams'
definition of democracy becomes clearest in Democracy and Social
Ethics where she makes two equivalencies clear. One, moral theory in
the modern age must emphasize social ethics. Two, for Addams,
democracy is social ethics.
Addams metaphorically described democracy as a dynamic organism that
must grow with changing times in order to remain vital. In Newer
Ideals of Peace, Addams goes so far as to suggest that it was time
that the United States' political institutions and morality
progressed. She argued that America's founders, whom she admired,
developed the Bill of Rights based upon an individual sense of
morality appropriate for their era. However, Addams viewed social
morality as the appropriate response to the contemporary rise of big
cities along with the improvements in technology and transportation
that brought so many people together. The time had come to emphasize
the social relations necessary for a vibrant democracy under the
current historical circumstances. Some commentators describe Addams as
advocating a "social democracy," one that emphasizes a way of being
over the political structure. Addams' valorization of democracy did
not entail a static object of affection. She wanted democracy to grow
and flourish which required ongoing conversation and change. In this
manner, Addams never conflated her love of democracy with unabashed
patriotism. Also in Newer Ideals of Peace, Addams develops the notion
of "cosmic patriotism," arguing that one's commitment to humanity must
exceed national borders.
e. Fallibilism
Another aspect of Addams' work that differentiates it from traditional
philosophic literature is its humility. Employing the experimental
method of American Pragmatists, Addams described numerous ventures
undertaken by the Hull-House community in the name of fostering
sympathetic knowledge or lateral progress. However, Addams was not
afraid to recount her errors in these efforts. For Addams, mistakes
are opportunities for growth and are worth the risk of active
engagement. In the process of crossing class and cultural
boundaries—moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar—there are bound
to be mistakes made, but if they are done in the spirit of care and
with humility, then the errors are not insurmountable and have the
potential to be great teachers. Time and again, the upper class,
college-educated, white women who predominated the Hull-House
community demonstrated their lack of cultural sensitivity only to
provide Addams with an anecdote for further social analysis and an
opportunity to learn from the errors. Mistakes were merely part of the
pragmatist cycle of action and reflection.
Twenty Years at Hull-House recounts many of Addams' mistakes. For
example, when Starr and Addams first established the settlement, they
furnished Hull-House with the trappings of the high culture with which
they were familiar. Addams later regretted this approach and
recognized the class alienation that fine furniture, draperies and
artwork foster. She later has these items removed for simpler
furnishings. In another anecdote from Twenty Years at Hull-House,
Addams oversees the construction of a coffee house at Hull-House to
provide working immigrants with a place to purchase nutritious food
without the temptation of alcohol, as was available at local saloons.
Despite bringing in modern equipment and using the latest techniques
in economical and healthy food production, the coffee house proved
unpopular, even with Hull-House residents. Addams came to realize that
their paternalism had prevailed, once again alienating their
community. Eventually, they made adjustments in the menu to local
tastes and the coffee house became another successful part of the
Hull-House complex, although more for its contribution to socializing
than the cuisine it provided. What is interesting about these
anecdotes is that Addams does not attempt to hide or put a positive
spin on them. Out of sensitivity for misrepresenting the interests and
positions of her neighbors, Addams describes the practice of bringing
Hull-House neighbors to her presentations so that she would not be
viewed simply as the outside expert attesting to her findings. In this
way, mistakes served to improve her practices.
3. Themes
Addams' pragmatist philosophy integrated experience with theory in an
ongoing and dynamic dance that makes it inappropriate to separate her
theories from the social issues in which she engaged. This is part of
the reason that Addams' work appears alien to those steeped in the
Western tradition of philosophy, which attempts to lay claim to
universal truths. Addams makes use of what feminist philosophers have
described as "standpoint epistemology," acknowledging that her
philosophy is derived from a particular social, political and
historical position. Her theoretical work flowed from working out
tangible social issues of her day, and yet many of her themes and
conclusions remain relevant for the present.
a. Peace
Perhaps no other issue took more of Addams' time and attention in the
latter part of her public career than did peace. Besides dozens of
articles, she authored two books, Newer Ideals of Peace and Peace and
Bread in Time of War, she also co-authored Women at The Hague, all
books that directly address issues of peace. In addition, many of her
other books such as The Long Road of Women's Memory, The Second Twenty
Years at Hull-House, and My Friend, Julia Lathrop have at least a
chapter dedicated to issues of peace. While Addams avoided ideological
positions, she came closest when it came to pacifism. Nevertheless,
she never invoked a universal principle such as declaring all war as
immoral, however she did contend that violent conflict was regressive,
wasteful and provided the possibility of further violence in society.
In Newer Ideals of Peace, Addams made it clear that she saw peace as
more than the absence of war. For Addams, peace represented an
opportunity for social progress because people were capable of working
together to achieve social goals. Like many in the late nineteenth
century, Addams viewed social evolution as progressing toward greater
peaceful relations and social harmony. Collective peace was tied to
individual peaceful relations such that communal activism represented
peace efforts. For example, helping immigrants thrive in the United
States was an act of peace. In this manner, given her commitment to
democratic social progress achieved through collective engagement in
an effort to foster sympathetic knowledge, Addams extrapolated that
war is socially regressive. Armed conflict ends rational and
dispassionate conversations impeding the agreement necessary for
social growth. War makes opposing human beings into ultimate
others—someone so alien that it is possible to kill them—creating the
antithesis of sympathetic knowledge.
Addams resisted compartmentalizing her moral philosophy, and she
extended this to her ideas about peace. Rather than merely offering a
direct normative assessment of militarism, Addams casts a wider net to
address variables less causally related to a particular conflict. In
"Democracy or Militarism," written in the context of the
Spanish-American War, Addams indicates that society is at a
crossroads. According to Addams, to accept militaristic actions as a
part of international politics is to normalize brutalization that
makes further violence acceptable. To support her claim, she cites
instances of increased social violence that can be tied, albeit
loosely, to the formal acceptance of war. Furthermore, Addams
identifies the gender dimension of increased militarism. In "War Times
Changing Women's Traditions," Addams resists traditional notions of
chivalry and romanticism to claim that the ostensible argument for the
violent protection of women can only lead women to a vulnerable
position in a society where violence is normalized.
Addams was not merely a social critic. Her social philosophy often
included alternative plans of action—not fixed solutions but flexible
and revisable outcomes. Addams, like William James, suggests that
militarism has been ennobled in cultural traditions and that an
ennobling substitute was needed to fire the same kind of dedication.
In Newer Ideals of Peace, Addams offers social activism as the cause
that should be rallied around. Addams challenges her readers to
imagine heroism in the work of social activists to improve urban life.
Her staunch philosophy of pacifism brought Addams a great amount of
personal criticism during her public career. Although many of her
contemporaries, like Dewey, would support the United States' entry
into World War I, Addams did not. Her popularity suffered greatly and
she faced some of her harshest rebukes as national emotions peaked
prior to the onset of war. More significantly, World War I signaled a
changing tide for progressivism. Political realism came to the fore,
and Addams' ideals of peace suddenly became culturally archaic. The
post World War I period saw the number of social settlements dwindle
and American Pragmatism experienced an extended hibernation.
b. Education
Addams viewed lifelong education as a critical component of an engaged
citizenry in a vibrant democracy. To that end, Hull-House sponsored a
myriad of educational projects. Addams strived to improve childhood
education by working for legislation to reduce child labor, she
sponsored a kindergarten at Hull-House and worked with Dewey and
education pioneer Ella Flagg Young on pedagogical techniques centered
upon making education more relevant for students. Extant descriptions
by visitors to Hull-house describe it as permeated by children
furiously involved in a myriad of activities.
In the early twentieth century, adolescence was a largely overlooked
period of human development and on the occasions when young adulthood
was addressed at all, it was usually conceived of as a problem.
Addams, who often directed her philosophical analysis to marginalized
sectors of society, took a particular interest in adolescence. In what
she described as her favorite book, The Spirit of Youth and the City
Streets, Addams offers an extended study of the plight of young people
and through her Hull-House experiences explains to her readers the
needs and challenges of this age. Accordingly, Hull-House sponsored a
number of programs for adolescents including social gatherings,
athletics and drama. Hull-House engaged in pioneering programs for
young women's sports and physical activity, defying social norms that
claimed that exercise was inappropriate for women.
Addams' commitment to lifelong education resulted in pioneering work
in adult education. Hull-House sponsored college extension courses as
well as a variety of educational opportunities for adults in the
community including lectures and clubs. For example, The Plato Club
offered weekly readings and discussions on philosophy, where Dewey
sometimes lectured, and The Working People Social Science Club
provided an opportunity for discussions of social and political
philosophy. Some commentators have claimed that Hull-House was the
birthplace of adult education. In The Second Twenty Years at
Hull-House, Addams describes developing particular pedagogical
techniques adapted for adult students including the need for a
peer-level social atmosphere and the use of news events as an
opportunity for learning.
c. Women's Advancement
Addams eschewed ideological labels including that of feminist,
nevertheless she was clearly aligned with the feminist movement. She
advocated for women's suffrage and took a leadership role as the
Vice-President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
from 1911-1914. Consistent with her notion of lateral progress,
Addams' support for women's advancement was framed in terms of social
progress rather than principles of equality or merely advocating for
an oppressed constituency. Addams contended that women brought an
alternative perspective to politics and given her commitment to
pluralism, alternative perspectives could only strengthen society. For
example, in "If Men Were Seeking The Elective Franchise," Addams
parodies the plight of women by commenting on men's foibles in a
manner that mimicked the way men spoke of the reasons women should not
be given elective franchise. She accused men of being quarrelsome as
well as exhibiting misplaced values in preferring to spend money on
armaments than on domestic welfare. Accordingly, Addams is sometimes
accused of being a gender essentialist in the language she employed
about the nature of men and women.
Addams undertook numerous projects with the empowerment of women as a
goal. Hull-House itself was a unique woman-centered project. There
were male residents but it was always clear that the leadership and
culture of Hull-House were decidedly female. Hull-House supported
immigrant mothers in their roles as primary care givers and even took
the radical step of disseminating birth control information. One
example of Addams' concern for women can be seen in the creation of
the Jane Club, described inTwenty Years at Hull-House. At a time when
collective bargaining did not enjoy the legal protections that it does
today, Addams observed that women labor union members were
particularly vulnerable when it came to periods of unemployment
created by strikes or lockouts. When such actions took place, single
women could no longer afford rent money. This vulnerability reduced
the power of the bargaining unit. Working with women labor leaders
such as Mary Kenney, Addams established a workingwoman's cooperative
named the Jane Club. This cooperative ensured that all members' rent
was paid in the event of labor interruptions. Addams eventually
secured funding to build housing for the Jane Club but it operated as
an independent entity.
Given their commitments to pluralism, classical American philosophers
have been generally more sympathetic to the plight of women than many
other genres of philosophers, but Addams further sensitized their
thought. Contemporary philosopher Charlene Haddock Seigfried coined
the term "pragmatist feminism" to describe the fruitful intersection
of American philosophy and feminist theory. Seigfried's quintessential
example of a pragmatist feminist was Jane Addams.
d. Economics
Although Addams did not write a book-length work on economics, comment
on economic issues permeates her writings. Addams had much in common
with socialist analysis, which was particularly popular in this rocky
period of American economics. She knew and supported Eugene Debs, and
engaged a number of socialist intellectuals in discussions. Given her
pursuit of lateral progress, her affinity for socialism is
understandable, but Addams' aversion to antagonism did not allow her
to accept the social upheaval espoused in much of the socialist
rhetoric. Addams' support of labor unions exemplified her socialistic
leanings. In the formative years of labor organizing, there was a
widespread belief that collective bargaining was a mediating step
toward a social transformation where eventually greater control of the
means of production would be gained by laborers. Addams viewed the
amelioration of class differences as representing social progress and
therefore supported unionization.
As a result of the Pullman Strike of 1894, Addams became involved in
issues of union management relations. Although it was only five years
after the opening of Hull-House, Addams had already garnered a public
reputation for skilled negotiating and was enlisted to engage in
mediation between railroad car workers and George Pullman, the staunch
patriarch of the Pullman Palace Car Company and one of the richest men
in America. Addams ultimately played a negligible role in the strike
because Pullman refused to meet with her. The labor negotiation
foundered and the strike ended quickly and painfully for the workers.
Addams' most important contribution was in constructing the legacy of
the Pullman strike. Addams penned an eloquent and reflective account
of the strike, "A Modern Lear," in which she compared George Pullman
to Shakespeare's tragic figure, King Lear. It took nearly twenty years
for "A Modern Lear" to be printed, as publishers shunned Addams'
critical analysis. Utilizing a process of sympathetic knowledge,
Addams does not describe clear-cut heroes and villains in the Pullman
strike, but characterizes Pullman as disconnected from his workers,
much like King Lear was alienated from his daughter. For Addams, this
illustrated the danger of capitalism, that economic barriers isolated
people from one another. In a philosophy advocating an engaged
society, such barriers retarded progress.
4. Philosophical Legacy
Although Addams has not always been included in the canon of classical
American philosophy, her contemporaries, including John Dewey, William
James and George Herbert Mead, publicly acknowledged Addams' influence
on their thinking. Therefore, in addition to her own corpus of work,
Addams' intellectual legacy can be found in their philosophy.
Nevertheless, for much of the twentieth century, Addams was considered
unoriginal and her writing was thought to be derivative of other
thinkers. In the 1990's, a renewed interest in Addams' theoretical
work developed from the feminist practice of revisiting historical
boundaries that traditionally limited philosophical qualification. At
the turn of the twenty-first century, Addams' major works have come
back in to print and a number of intellectual biographies have
reconsidered Addams' intellectual legacy.
In many ways, Addams took American pragmatism to a logical conclusion:
social action. Pragmatists emphasize the dynamic relationship of
experience and theory in the service of social advancement. Dewey,
James and Mead engaged in social projects from university settings.
Addams, who never had an official university appointment, although she
did teach occasionally at the University of Chicago, took pragmatist
theory out into society and applied it to her projects. However, in
the process, she never stopped writing and thematizing her
experiences, thus revising and reconsidering her theories. In this
manner Addams provides one model of what it is to be a public
philosopher.
5. References and Further Reading
a Primary Literature
i. Books
* Addams, Jane. Democracy and Social Ethics. 1902. Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press, 2002. Addams' most recognizable
philosophical work. Of particular importance is the Introduction where
she sets forth her concept of sympathetic knowledge.
* Addams, Jane. Newer Ideals of Peace, New York: Macmillan, 1906.
Addams extends the concept of peace to more than the absence of war.
* Addams, Jane. The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets. 1909.
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1972. Addams breaks new
ground by addressing the overlooked age of adolescence and describes
youth in positive terms rather than the negative terms typical of the
era.
* Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull House. 1910. Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press, 1990. Best work to start a study of
Addams. Opening chapters are autobiographical and then the book
addresses the first two decades of the Hull-House community.
* Addams, Jane. A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil. 1912.
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Addams addresses
prostitution using a pragmatist approach that incorporates an analysis
of many variables.
* Addams, Jane. The Long Road of Woman's Memory. 1916. Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press, 2002. Once again focusing upon a
marginalized social group, Addams explores the depth of the memories
of elderly immigrant women. Includes the intriguing story of the Devil
Baby.
* Addams, Jane. Peace and Bread in Time of War. 1922. Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press, 2002. Written after World War I, this
work is less optimistic than Newer Ideal of Peace but addresses issues
of patriotism and dissent in time of war.
* Addams, Jane. Second Twenty Years at Hull House. New York:
Macmillan, 1930. Addams addresses a variety of topics related to
projects at Hull-House.
* Addams, Jane. The Excellent Becomes the Permanent. New York:
Macmillan, 1932. A unique text where Addams eulogizes twelve people
including herself. Addams concludes by addressing issues of art,
imagination, and memory.
* Addams, Jane. My Friend, Julia Lathrop. 1935. Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press, 2004. Her last book-length work, Addams
provides a biography of long time Hull-House resident, Julia Lathrop
who went on to be the first woman head of a Federal agency (The
Women's Bureau). Although a biography of someone else, this work
reveals a great deal about Addams' values and philosophy.
* Addams, Jane, Emily G. Balch and Alice Hamilton. Women at The
Hague: The International Congress Of Women And Its Results.1915.
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003. Addams authors two
chapters of this intriguing historical account of women organizing to
prevent war and offer a means for lasting world peace.
* Residents of Hull-House. Hull-House Maps and Papers. 1895. New
York: Arno Press, Inc., 1970. Groundbreaking study of urban life and
demographics in Chicago, which had witnessed an unprecedented influx
of migrants from Western and Eastern Europe.
ii. Selected Articles
* Addams, Jane. "Democracy or Militarism." 1899. Central
Anti-Imperialist League of Chicago, Liberty Tract I.
* Addams, Jane. "A Function of the Social Settlement." 1899.
Reprinted in Christopher Lasch, Ed. The Social Thought of Jane Addams.
Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1965.
* Addams, Jane. "If Men Were Seeking The Elective Franchise."
1913. Reprinted in Jean Bethke Elshtain, Ed. Jane Addams and the Dream
of American Democracy. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
* Addams, Jane. "A Modern Lear." 1912. Reprinted in, Jean Bethke
Elshtain, Ed. Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy. New
York: Basic Books, 2002.
* Addams, Jane. "The Objective Value of the Social Settlement."
1893. Reprinted in, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Ed. Jane Addams and the
Dream of American Democracy. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
* Addams, Jane. "The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements."
1893. Reprinted in, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Ed. Jane Addams and the
Dream of American Democracy. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
* Addams, Jane. "War Times Changing Women's Traditions." 1916.
Reprinted in Jane Addams on Peace, War, and International
Understanding 1899-1932, ed., Allen F. Davis (New York: Garland
Publishing, 1976), 135.
* Addams, Jane. "Widening the Circle of Enlightenment." 1930.
Journal of Adult Education II, no. 3 (June).
iii. Collections
* Bryan, Mary Lynn McCree, Barbara Bair, and Maree De Angury.
Eds., The Selected Papers of Jane Addams Volume 1: Preparing to Lead,
1860-1881. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
* Condliffe Lagemann, Ellen. Ed., Jane Addams On Education. New
Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1994.
* Cooper Johnson, Emily. Ed., Jane Addams: A Centennial Reader.
New York: Macmillan, 1960.
* Davis, Allen F. Ed., Jane Addams on Peace, War, and
International Understanding. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1976.
* Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Ed., The Jane Addams Reader. New York:
Basic Books, 2002.
* Lasch, Christopher. Ed., The Social Thought of Jane Addams.
Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1965.
b. Secondary Literature
* Deegan, Mary Jo. Jane Addams and the Men of the Chicago School,
1892-1918. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1988. Through
numerous articles and books, Deegan has spearheaded an effort to have
Addams recognized as one of the most important American sociologists.
* Fischer, Marilyn. On Addams. Wadsworth, 2004. The most concise
review of Addams' philosophy. A handy companion volume to Addams'
writings.
* Hamington, Maurice. Embodied Care: Jane Addams, Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, and Feminist Ethics. Urbana, Il: University of Illinois
Press, 2004. Addams' work conceived as contributing to feminist care
ethics.
* Seigfried, Charlene Haddock, Pragmatism and Feminism: Reweaving
the Social Fabric. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Seigfried suggests that pragmatism and feminism have much in common
and can benefit from further integration. Addams exemplifies a
pragmatist feminist position.
c. Biographies
* Brown, Victoria Bissell. The Education of Jane Addams.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
* Davis, Allen F. American Heroine: The Life and Legend of Jane
Addams. London: Oxford, 1973.
* Diliberto, Gioia. A Useful Woman: The Early Life of Jane Addams.
New York: Scribner, 1999.
* Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Jane Addams and the Dream of American
Democracy. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
* Farrell, John C. Beloved Lady: A History of Jane Addams' Ideas
on Reform and Peace. Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press, 1967.
* Joslin, Katherine, Jane Addams: A Writer's Life. Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press, 2004.
* Knight, Louise, Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for
Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
* Linn, James Weber. Jane Addams: A Biography. Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois Press, 2000.
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