Jane Addams and her Philosophy

 

Jane Addams: A Pioneer of Progressivism and Peace Advocate

• Jane Addams was a prominent activist and writer in the American Pragmatist tradition.
• She founded the Chicago social settlement, Hull-House, which became 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.
• Addams undertook several activist projects including garbage collection, adult education, child labor reform, labor union support, women’s suffrage, and peace advocacy.
• She helped 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, Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Addams' intellectual legacy includes a dozen books and over 500 articles of original social philosophy.
• Her social philosophy emphasized progress, democratic social advancement, and the need for "sympathetic knowledge" in community engagement.
• Addams' writings emphasize direct experience, pluralism, and fallibility in the engagement with concrete social issues.
• She was born on September 6, 1860, in Cedarville, Illinois, and her life was marked by a turbulent beginning with her father's death and a period of soul searching.
• After visiting Toynbee Hall in London, Addams developed a plan to start a social settlement in the United States.
• She enlisted the help of her friend Ellen Gates Starr in her noble scheme and opened the Hull-House settlement in 1889.
• Under Addams’ leadership, Hull-House opened a public bathhouse, started a kindergarten, developed the first playground in Chicago, and responded to a variety of community needs.

Addams' Influence on Social Theory and Social Philosophy

Addams' Early Influence
• Addams was influenced by her father, who housed the town library in their home.
• She was exposed to Ancient Greek philosophy and social theories of the Romantics, John Ruskin, and Thomas Carlyle.
• At Hull-House, Addams was influenced by John Dewey, William James, and George Herbert Mead.
• Addams used her Hull-House experience to develop public philosophy in the American Pragmatist Tradition.

Addams' Public Philosophy
• Addams published "The Function of the Social Settlement" in 1899, focusing on the importance of social settlements in building collective knowledge about diverse society.
• Social settlements served as a conduit of information about human lives, helping immigrants navigate the complex American culture.
• 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' Contributions to Social Philosophy
• Addams was a recognized and admired figure in the United States, working with W.E.B. DuBois and founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
• She also 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' Social Philosophy
• Addams' work is characterized by her focus on social phenomena and her concepts of sympathetic knowledge, lateral progress, pluralism, and fallibilism.
• Sympathetic knowledge is the rationale behind social settlements, which provide a physical location for people of different backgrounds to meet and foster sympathetic knowledge.
• Addams also viewed "play" as an essential aspect of education, arguing that it creates the possibility of empathetic imagination.

Addams' Approach to Sensitive Knowledge and Lateral Progress

Sensitive Knowledge and Human Ontology
• Addams uses imaginative extrapolation of experiences to understand marginalized women's struggles.
• She believes in the fundamental goodness and relationality of people, aiming to increase understanding and positive action.
• She eschews antagonism and uses sympathetic knowledge in a detached manner, bridging the reserved Victorian era and the moral commitment of the Progressive era.

Lateral Progress
• Addams advocates for social progress, focusing on the widespread experience of progress rather than a few elites.
• She sees the inability of immigrants to fully participate in the economy or political process and the laws that prevent African-Americans from actualizing their legal rights.
• Addams viewed lateral progress as derived from participatory democratic processes, not hierarchically enforced from authority structures.
• She applied this concept to social issues, such as women's suffrage and labor unions, arguing for the inclusion of all, including women, to improve society.

Pluralism
• Addams advocates for the inclusion of all members of society in institutions, policies, and practices leading to social progress.
• She sees the value of diversity and believes in the power of collective intelligence to find common cause from that diversity.
• Addams integrates cultural diversity into her pacifist arguments, arguing that cosmopolitan cities are a model for international peace.
• She applies her pluralistic commitment to intellectual understanding, eschewed ideological ties for herself and the Hull-House community, and exhibited pragmatism by avoiding political labels but aligning herself when advancing social progress.

Addams' Definition of Democracy and Social Ethics
• Addams defined democracy as a mode of living and social morality, emphasizing the importance of understanding fellow citizens' struggles.
• She viewed democracy as a dynamic organism that needs to evolve with changing times.
• Addams advocated for a "social democracy," emphasizing social relations over political structure.
• She developed the concept of "cosmic patriotism," arguing that one's commitment to humanity must exceed national borders.

Addams' Humility and Fallibilism
• Addams used the experimental method of American Pragmatists to describe ventures undertaken by the Hull-House community.
• She acknowledged her mistakes as opportunities for growth and risk of active engagement.
• She used anecdotes from her work to provide insights into the community's cultural sensitivity and the need for learning from errors.

Addams' Themes
• Addams' pragmatist philosophy integrated experience with theory, making it inappropriate to separate her theories from the social issues she engaged with.
• She used feminist philosophers' concept of "standpoint epistemology," acknowledging that her philosophy is derived from a particular social, political, and historical position.

Addams' Focus on Peace
• Peace was a significant focus of Addams' public career, with her books addressing issues of peace and pacifism.
• Despite not invoking a universal principle, she argued that violent conflict was regressive, wasteful, and could lead to further violence in society.

Addams' Philosophy on Peace and Education

Addams' View on Peace
• Viewed peace as an opportunity for social progress and social harmony.
• Identified collective peace as tied to individual peaceful relations.
• Argued that war is socially regressive, ending rational and dispassionate conversations.
• Identified the gender dimension of increased militarism.

Addams' Social Philosophy
• Resisted compartmentalizing her moral philosophy.
• Addressed variables less causally related to a particular conflict.
• Identified instances of increased social violence tied to the formal acceptance of war.
• Suggested that militarism has been ennobled in cultural traditions.
• Offers social activism as the cause that should be rallied around.

Addams' Public Career and Public Criticism
• Faced personal criticism during her public career.
• World War I signaled a changing tide for progressivism, making Addams' ideals of peace culturally archaic.

Addams' Role in Education
• Viewed lifelong education as a critical component of an engaged citizenry in a vibrant democracy.
• Sponsored educational projects to improve childhood education.
• Developed pedagogical techniques centered on making education more relevant for students.
• Sponsored programs for adolescents including social gatherings, athletics, drama, and young women’s sports and physical activity.
• Pioneered work in adult education, including college extension courses and various educational opportunities for adults.

Addams' Support for Women’s Advancement
• Despite eschewed ideological labels, she was aligned with the feminist movement.
• Supported women’s advancement in terms of social progress rather than principles of equality.
• Contended that women brought an alternative perspective to politics and that alternative perspectives could strengthen society.

Jane Addams' Empowerment and Economic Influence

Addams' Women-Centered Projects
• Hull-House, a women-centered project, supported immigrant mothers and disseminated birth control information.
• Addams established the Jane Club, a workingwoman’s cooperative to ensure rent payment during labor interruptions.
• She was a pragmatist feminist, highlighting the intersection of American philosophy and feminist theory.

Addams' Socialistic Leanings
• Addams had a strong affinity for socialist analysis, particularly in the rocky period of American economics.
• She supported labor unions, viewing class differences as representing social progress and supported unionization.

Addams' Role in the Pullman Strike of 1894
• Addams became involved in union management relations after the Hull-House project.
• She negotiated between railroad car workers and George Pullman, a wealthy man, but played a negligible role in the strike.
• Addams penned an eloquent account of the strike, “A Modern Lear,” comparing Pullman to King Lear.

Addams' Philosophical Legacy
• Her contemporaries, including John Dewey, William James, and George Herbert Mead, publicly acknowledged Addams’ influence on their thinking.
• Addams' major works have come back in print and intellectual biographies have reconsidered her intellectual legacy.
• Addams applied American pragmatism to social action, demonstrating the dynamic relationship of experience and theory in the service of social advancement.