Hull House Founder Jane Addams as an International Intellectual

FAIN: FB-56886-13

Marilyn R. Fischer
University of Dayton (Dayton, OH 45469-0001)

In my proposed book manuscript, I will trace how Jane Addams (1860-1935) developed her theory of cosmopolitan pluralism through engaging with a range of international theorists and working in a variety of transnational contexts. Best known for her work with immigrants at Hull House in Chicago and her leadership in progressive era social reforms, and for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, Addams was also a prolific writer, producing ten books and hundreds of articles. My project lies at the intersection of intellectual history and philosophy. Working as intellectual historian, I will locate Addams's thinking among the astonishing array of international interlocutors with whom she shaped her conception of cosmopolitan pluralism. As philosopher, I will explore the inner workings of Addams's theorizing and show how Addams's conception of cosmopolitan pluralism was an integral component of her theories of social democracy and pacifism. Neither task has been done to date.

Associated Products

Science and Art Converge in The Spirit of Youth" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Science and Art Converge in The Spirit of Youth"
Author: Marilyn Fischer
Abstract: Jane Addams’s 1909 book, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, is puzzling in some ways. James Weber Linn, Addams’s biographer, writes, “Of all her books [it was] the nearest to her heart” (178). But why? Even the analogy upon which the book’s argument rests sounds odd: Working class youth can serve the same function of vitality and renewal for themselves and adults, as the arts currently serve for the middle and upper classes. To explain the analogy and show why it spoke so powerfully to her readers and herself, I will set the book in context and show how Addams constructed the analogy using then current theories of child development and aesthetics. While these theories are now out-dated, the book can still serve as a model for interdisciplinary investigations.
Date: 09/28/2014
Conference Name: Midwest Pragmatist Study Group

Jane Addams, Peace, and Anti-War Activism" (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Jane Addams, Peace, and Anti-War Activism"
Abstract: Addams's conception of peace grew out of her immersion in the industrial, immigrant neighborhood of Chicago's nineteenth ward, and her concrete efforts to bring about understanding among immigrants from many nationalities. Her many forms of activism during World War One grew out of her conviction that war can never bring democracy. Violence only hardens hatred and divisions among people, rather than healing them.
Author: Marilyn Fischer
Date: 11/15/2014
Location: Newberry Library, Chicago, IL

"Jane Addams" (Article)
Title: "Jane Addams"
Author: Marilyn Fischer
Abstract: The entry for the Supplement to the Dictionary of American History presents Jane Addams from an international perspective. Addams's work in the international arena and international resources she used in her writings are highlighted.
Year: 2014
Format: Other
Periodical Title: Dictionary of American History, 3rd ed., Supplement
Publisher: Schribner's

A Pluralistic Universe in Twenty Years (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: A Pluralistic Universe in Twenty Years
Author: Marilyn Fischer
Abstract: Placed side by side, James’s A Pluralistic Universe and Addams’s Twenty Years at Hull-House seem to have little in common. James’s critique of absolute idealism is written for intellectuals comfortable with philosophical abstractions. Twenty Years is full of stories about the lives of poor people and immigrants. Yet the two book echo each other. I will give a reading of Twenty Years as a presentation in real time of James’s pluralistic universe, with both form and contents conveying the “essential provisionality” of experience in James’s “strung-along” universe. I will then show how in Twenty Years sympathy and memory serve as wires upon which the universe is strung.
Date: 03/08/2015
Conference Name: Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy Annual Conference, 2015

Sustaining War or Creating Peace? Jane Addams and the Ambiguities of Food Aid During World War I" (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Sustaining War or Creating Peace? Jane Addams and the Ambiguities of Food Aid During World War I"
Abstract: Addams, a committed pacifist, was active in soliciting humanitarian aid for those made hungry by war. Her own speeches and writing on behalf of humanitarian aid were all cast in terms of meeting people's most basic needs and creating connections of sympathy and understanding between donors and recipients. Yet she worked closely with people who saw relief as a weapon of war and as a tool for staving off the appeal of Bolshevism. Using Addams as a case study, I discuss the ambiguities inherent in relief work.
Author: Marilyn Fischer
Date: 04/09/2015
Location: University of Dayton, Dayton, OH

Science and Sympathy in Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Science and Sympathy in Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing
Author: Marilyn Fischer
Abstract: Many social evolutionary theorists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries considered sympathy as a primitive instinct of gregarious animals and assigned sympathy a central role in human social evolution. I will examine how Addams’s use of sympathy in her ethics was based in the era’s evolutionary science. Like many scientists, she regarded sympathy as a primitive instinct and a primary factor in human social evolution. Unlike others who segmented the civilized from the primitive and denigrated the latter, Addams used the sympathetic instinct to bridge such divisions.
Date: 06/11/2015
Conference Name: Summer Institute in American Philosophy, Dublin, Ireland

When Inquiry is Blocked: Addams's "Personal Reactions During War" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: When Inquiry is Blocked: Addams's "Personal Reactions During War"
Author: Marilyn Fischer
Abstract: Using Dewey’s pattern of inquiry as a template, I challenge two widely held interpretations of “Personal Reactions During the War,” a chapter in Jane Addams’s 1922 book, Peace and Bread in Time of War. First, although the chapter is generally read as an autobiographical account of the psychic costs Addams suffered during World War One, I show how it gives a theoretically sophisticated exploration of how war blocked inquiry for an international group of peace advocates on both sides of the war. Second, the chapter’s concluding sentence, where Addams declares her “categorical belief that a man’s primary allegiance is to his vision of the truth,” is generally read in a straightforward way. I show how Addams intended it to be read ironically, as demonstrating how the war had made a travesty of her deepest commitments.
Date: 09/11/2015
Primary URL: http://epc2.sciencesconf.org
Primary URL Description: Conference program
Conference Name: Second European Pragmatist Conference

A Pluralistic University in Twenty Years (Article)
Title: A Pluralistic University in Twenty Years
Author: Marilyn Fischer
Abstract: Placed side by side, James’s A Pluralistic Universe and Addams’s Twenty Years at Hull-House seem to have little in common. James’s critique of absolute idealism is written for intellectuals comfortable with philosophical abstractions. Twenty Years is full of stories about the lives of poor people and immigrants. Yet the two book echo each other. I will give a reading of Twenty Years as a presentation in real time of James’s pluralistic universe, with both form and contents conveying the “essential provisionality” of experience in James’s “strung-along” universe. I will then show how in Twenty Years sympathy and memory serve as wires upon which the universe is strung.
Year: 2014
Access Model: Subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: The Pluralist, Volume II, Number I, Spring 2016, pp. 1-18
Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Addams’s Theme and Variations on Sympathy and the Primitive (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Addams’s Theme and Variations on Sympathy and the Primitive
Author: Marilyn Fischer
Abstract: Throughout Addams’s lifetime, the theme that social healing comes through the extension of sympathy remained at the center of her ethics. She derived her conception of sympathy from the science of the day. Like many intellectuals of the era, she regarded sympathy as a primitive instinct and a primary factor in human social evolution. Unlike those who segmented the civilized from the primitive and denigrated the latter, Addams used sympathy to bridge these divisions. She created variations by adapting the theme to the contingencies of rapid industrialization and a brutal world war.
Date: 10/17/2015
Conference Name: Society for U.S. Intellectual History

Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing: Constructing 'Democracy and Social Ethics' (Book)
Title: Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing: Constructing 'Democracy and Social Ethics'
Author: Marilyn Fischer
Abstract: Jane Addams’s Evolutionary Theorizing tells the story of how Addams, during her first decade at Hull House, used social evolutionary thinking to develop a method of ethical deliberation. She presented this method in Democracy and Social Ethics (1902), generally considered her most philosophical book and the one most beloved after Twenty Years at Hull House. The vast array of evolutionary theories, concepts, and images Addams used to develop her thinking lie just below the surface of her texts. My method is archeological in bringing this evidence to light. It is architectural as I reconstruct her arguments in light of this excavation. Rather than examining Democracy and Social Ethics directly, I first examine essays Addams wrote during the 1890s and lightly revised for the book. Addams’s sources and patterns of reasoning are more accessible in the essays than in the book itself. The cumulative effect reveals the subtlety, flexibility, and richness of her method.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: ht//https://www.worldcat.org/title/jane-addamss-evolutionary-theorizing-constructing-democracy-and-social-ethics/oclc/1051679805&referer=brief_resu
Primary URL Description: "This book tells the story of how Jane Addams, during her first decade at Hull House, used social evolutionary thinking to develop a method of ethical deliberation. Addams presented her method for addressing the most troubling social problems of the era in Democracy and Social Ethics (1902), a foundational text of classical American pragmatism."--Provided by publisher.
Access Model: from University of Chicago Press
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978022663132-5
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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