## 1. Life



Compared to the many biographical accounts of Addams' life, relatively
few comprehensively consider her philosophy. However, her
philosophical insights are closely tied to her life experiences which
are briefly recounted below.



Laura Jane Addams was born in Cedarville, Illinois, on September 6,
1860. She grew up in the shadow of the Civil War and during a time
when Darwin's *Origin of the Species* achieved widespread
influence. Her childhood reflected the material advantage of being the
daughter of a politician and successful mill owner, John Addams. When
Jane was two years old, her mother, Mary, died giving birth to her
ninth child. Subsequently, the precocious Addams doted upon her father
and benefited emotionally and intellectually from his attention.
Although John Addams was no advocate of feminism, he desired higher
education for his daughter. Therefore, he sent her to the
all-women's institution, Rockford Seminary (renamed later
Rockford College) in Rockford, Illinois. As a result, Addams became
part of a generation of women that were among the first in their
families to attend college. At Rockford, she experienced the
empowerment of living in a women-centered environment, and she
blossomed as an intellectual and a social leader. Her classmates and
teachers acknowledged this leadership. Ultimately, Addams spearheaded
an effort to bring baccalaureate degrees to the school and, after
serving as class valedictorian, received the first one.



Like many women of her time, Addams' prospects after college
were limited. She made a failed attempt at medical school and then,
precipitated by her father's death, slipped into a nearly decade-long
malaise over the direction of her life. At first, the energy and
spirit of her undergraduate college experience did not translate into
any clear career path, given that she had rejected both marriage and
religious life. Moreover, Addams' malady was somewhat analogous
to the unidentified illness that her later acquaintance, Charlotte
Perkins Gilman (as described in *The Yellow Wallpaper*),
suffered. As a member of the privileged class, her soul searching
included a trek to Europe, which Addams made twice during this period.
On the second trip, she visited Toynbee Hall, a pioneering Christian
settlement house in London, which was to inspire her in a direction
that propelled her toward international prominence (TYH 53).



Toynbee Hall was a community of young men committed to helping the
poor of London by living among them. After engaging the leaders of
Toynbee Hall, Addams was rejuvenated by the idea of replicating the
settlement in the United States. She enlisted a college friend, Ellen
Gates Starr, in the plan. However, identifying their vague idea as a
"plan" is a bit of hyperbole. There were very few specific
blueprints for what the settlement would be other than a good neighbor
to oppressed peoples. Nevertheless, Addams found a suitable
location in a devastatingly poor Chicago immigrant neighborhood, and
on September 18, 1889, Hull House opened its doors. Working amidst one
of the most significant influxes of immigrants the United States has
ever known, Hull House got off to a slow start as neighbors did not
know what to make of the residents and their intentions. However,
Addams and Starr built trust, and in a short time, Hull
House became an incubator for new social programs and a magnet
for progressives wanting to make society a better place. Without
formal ideological or political constraints, the settlement workers
responded to the neighborhood's needs by starting project after
project. The list of projects created at Hull House is astounding,
including the first little theatre and juvenile court in the United
States and the first playground, gymnasium, public swimming pool, and
public kitchen in Chicago. In addition, the work of Hull House
residents would result in numerous labor union organizations, a labor
museum, tenement codes, factory laws, child labor laws, adult
education courses, cultural exchange groups, and the collection of
neighborhood demographic data. Hull House was a dynamo of progressive
initiatives, all of which Addams oversaw.



The reputation of the settlement rapidly grew, and women, primarily
college-educated, came from all over the country to live and work
at Hull House. Although Hull House was co-educational, it was a
woman-identified space. There were male residents at Hull House, some
of whom later became prominent leaders. However, the policies,
projects, decision-making, and methodologies of the Hull House
community were gynocentric--foregrounding women's
experience, analysis, and concerns. Furthermore, although a few
residents were married, most were single, and some were in committed
relationships with other women. Given the drastic shifts in sexual
mores in the twentieth century, the contemporary understanding of what
it means to be lesbian cannot straightforwardly be mapped onto the
late and post-Victorian eras. Still, it can be argued that Hull
House was a lesbian-friendly space. Addams set the tone for this
identification with her own long-term intimate relationships with
women, first with Starr and then with Mary Rozet Smith (Brown,
2004).



From the outset of its operation, Addams theorized about the nature
and function of Hull House. The language she used reflected her
philosophical approach. For example, in one published essay, Addams
describes the application and reorganization of knowledge as the
fundamental problem of modern life and then claims that settlements
are like applied universities: "The ideal and developed
settlement would attempt to test the value of human knowledge by
action, and realization, quite as the complete and ideal university
would concern itself with the discovery of knowledge in all
branches" (FSS 187). This kind of reflective analysis and wider
thematization of her work and the social settlement work was a
hallmark of Addams' writing. Because of her insightful
reflections on the Hull House community, Addams became a popular
author and sought-after public speaker. Eventually, she extended her
cosmopolitan analysis to race, education, and world peace issues.
For Addams, local experiences were always a springboard for political
theorizing.



Addams became one of the most respected and recognized individuals in
the nation. She played a crucial role in numerous progressive
campaigns. Addams was a founding figure in the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil Liberties
Union, and the Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom. Her popularity was such that when Theodore Roosevelt sought
the presidential nomination of the Progressive Party in 1912, he asked
Jane Addams to second the nomination, the first time a woman had
participated in such an act. There was a gendered dimension to this
popularity, however. Addams had challenged the borders of the public
and private spheres through her work at Hull House. Still, her
forays into masculine domains were masked by the "social
housekeeping" characterization of the settlement activism. After
World War I broke out in Europe, her outspoken pacifism and refusal to
endorse the war or the U.S. entry into it was more gender role
transgression than the public could tolerate from a woman.
Addams' popularity fell, and she became the victim of vicious
gender-specific criticism. Biographer Allen Davis reports that one
writer indicated that what Addams needed to disabuse her of her
pacifism was "a strong, forceful husband who would lift the
burden of fate from her shoulders and get her intensely interested in
fancy work and other things dear to the heart of women who have homes
and plenty of time on their hands" (240). A reporter for the
*Los Angeles Times* quipped,



> 
> If Miss Addams and her peace mission are a sample of women in world
> affairs, I want to take it all back. I am sincerely sorry I voted for
> suffrage. (Davis, 253)
> 



Her new role as social outcast and critic allowed the public
philosopher in Addams to reflect on the nature of citizenship and
patriotism in her many books and articles--some of which had
difficulty getting into print because she was perceived as
anti-American. Although she had written on peace early in her public
career (NIP), from 1914 through the end of her life, Addams'
publications became decidedly more focused on issues of peace and war,
including two books exclusively dedicated to the topic (WH, PBT) and
several books with sections devoted to the nature and politics of war
(LRW, STY, MFJ). Although initially criticized, Addams' pacifist
tenacity was ultimately lauded with the Nobel Peace Price (1931). In
the last years of her life, she spent less time at Hull House and more
time working for world peace and an end to racism. Addams died of
cancer on May 21, 1935, leaving a tremendous intellectual legacy that
has yet to be fully explored.


## 2. Influences



Addams was well-read and could claim numerous and varied influences.
However, Addams was no one's protege. Addams chose
intellectual resources that resonated with her notion of sympathetic
knowledge in bringing about social progress. A few significant
influences are recounted here. Addams read Thomas Carlyle's
(1795-1881) work while she was attending Rockford Seminary.
Carlyle's social morality held a particular appeal to Addams. He
believed the universe was ultimately good and moral and led by a
divine will that worked through society's heroes and leaders.
Carlyle wrote biographies of social saviors that came in the form of
poets, kings, prophets, and intellectuals, mixing in commentary that
explicated his moral philosophy. However, Carlyle's heroes
reflect the evolution of society, as different contexts require
different leadership. These heroes can recognize the social dynamics
at work and use them for the benefit of others. Carlyle's heroes
evolved. For Carlyle, everyone has a public duty and needs to find
themselves or realize their place in the world and what their work on
behalf of society should be. Because of his emphasis on powerful
individuals, Carlyle was not particularly fond of democracy. Although
Addams shed Carlyle's notion of individualistic heroism and his
disdain for democracy, she retained the valorization of moral action
throughout her career. Furthermore, Carlyle's morality was
grounded in social relations: to be moral is to be in right relation
with God and others. Carlyle's relational ethic is a precursor to
Addams' notion of sympathetic knowledge.



Addams was also influenced by John Ruskin (1819-1900), who
theorized that art and culture reflected the moral health of society.
Although Ruskin maintained a certain elitism in his view that great
people produced great art, he also saw such great cultural works as a
manifestation of the well-being of society as a whole. The plight of
the oppressed was tied to a sense of the aesthetic. Indeed,
Addams' valorization of art and culture, as exhibited in the
appearance and activities of Hull House resonates with Ruskin's
aesthetics. For Addams, "Social Life and art have always seemed
to go best at Hull House" (STY 354). Addams viewed art and
cultural activities as reinforcing essential human bonds (DSE 29).
Ruskin also influenced Arnold Toynbee and other future settlement
workers by identifying the problems in large industrial cities and
calling for reforms foreshadowing the safety nets typical of later
welfare states. Ruskin valued labor as a noble means of
self-actualization. This became a crucial concept for Addams as she
sought meaningful labor for those in the Hull House neighborhood. For
example, Addams expresses sympathy for laborers who skipped work or
came in late for work because "all human interest has been
extracted from it" (SYC 129). Although Addams valued
Ruskin's moral imagination, the concept of labor, and ideas
about transforming the city through infusing culture, she rejected his
romanticization of the preindustrial past. With a strong belief in
social progress, Addams did not desire a return to a previous era. For
Addams, society should grow and adapt to its conditions, even
regarding moral philosophy.



Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was another type of hero to Addams.
Unlike Carlyle, Tolstoy did not valorize individuals standing out from
the crowd as exemplary moral paragons who wield socially ordained
positions of power. Instead, he valued solidarity with the common
laborer. Addams' vast intellectual curiosity made such extremes
in influences possible. Addams read Tolstoy's works from the
time she graduated from college until the last years of her life, and
she often praised his writing in articles and book reviews.
Tolstoy's emphasis on working for and with the oppressed while
writing novels and essays that influenced a wider audience resonated
with Addams' work and writings. However, Tolstoy was a moral
idealist. He left everything behind to take up the plow and work as a
typical farm laborer. Addams was moved by Tolstoy's account,
and--typical of her self-critical, thoughtful approach--she
questioned her leadership role in the social settlement, but only for
a short time.



Motivated by Tolstoy's troubling moral challenge to work in
solidarity with the common laborer, Addams sought him out while she
was on vacation (and recovering from typhoid) in Europe in 1896. The
meeting made a lasting impression on Addams (TYH 191-195).
Tolstoy came in from working the fields to be introduced to Addams and
her partner Mary Rozet Smith. The meeting began with Tolstoy
questioning Addams' fashion choice because the sleeves of her
arms, consistent with the style of the time, had "enough stuff
on one arm to make a frock for the girl" (TYH 192). Tolstoy was
concerned that the trappings of material wealth alienated Addams from
those she was working with. This criticism continued when Tolstoy
learned that part of Hull House's funding came from
Addams' estate, which included a working farm: "So you are
an absentee landlord? Do you think you will help the people more by
adding yourself to the crowded city than you would by tilling your own
soil?" (TYH 192) The remarks humbled Addams, and, on her return
to Hull House, she was determined to take up more direct labor by
working in the new Hull House bakery. However, reality demonstrated
how Tolstoy's idealism was incompatible with her work in social
settlements: "The half dozen people invariably waiting to see me
after breakfast, the piles of letters to be opened and answered, the
demand of actual and pressing human wants--were these all to be
pushed aside and asked to wait while I saved my soul by two
hours' work at baking bread?" (TYH 197)



Theoretically, the shared experience of common labor would break down
class distinctions. Addams had experienced such camaraderie at Hull
House, and she never stopped appreciating Tolstoy's social
criticism. However, she saw the value of intelligent leadership.
Someone had to organize the clubs, arrange for philanthropic support,
and chair the meetings. Addams found Tolstoy's labor demand to
be self-indulgent to a certain extent. If she engaged in the labor of
the poor exclusively, she might alleviate her upper-class guilt.
Still, she would no longer be working holistically toward changing the
structure of society. Addams' philosophy of civic activism
valued engagement through ongoing presence and listening. Indeed, Hull
House had a very flat and responsive organizational structure.
Nevertheless, Tolstoy's absolutist moral demands failed to
consider context--a hallmark of Addams' approach.



Addams found Tolstoy's pacifism inspiring. She admired how
Tolstoy sympathized with revolutionaries in the 1870s but did not
compromise his moral convictions because of these sympathies. Tolstoy
offered a doctrine of non-resistance that sought to substitute moral
energy for physical force. Addams once again did not accept
Tolstoy's pacifist ideas uncritically. For example, she
questioned the clarity of the categories (moral energy versus physical
force) that Tolstoy created in his doctrine of non-resistance (TYH
195). Addams also asked whether Tolstoy reduced social issues too
simplistically, albeit eloquently. Despite her less than pleasant
meeting with him, Addams cited Tolstoy as a positive moral example
throughout her life. However, like all her influences, she could not
accept Tolstoy's philosophy uncritically. Addams had to adapt
and infuse her insight to make it work for the society she was a part
of.



As previously mentioned, Toynbee Hall was an inspiration for Hull
House, and Canon Barnett (1844-1913), who served as
"warden" of the settlement for over twenty years, was the
inspirational force. Before his service at Toynbee Hall, Barnett
worked as Vicar of St. Judes, Whitechapel. He instituted many
improvements to the slums surrounding the Church, including building
educational and recreational programs. It was St. Judes that students
from Oxford would visit, working to help improve conditions for
residents of the surrounding community, all the while engaging in
discussions about how to institute social reforms. One of those
students was Andrew Toynbee.



Barnett describes a threefold rationale for the development and growth
of settlements: First, a general distrust that government-sponsored
institutions could care for the poor. In particular, government and
private philanthropy appeared to be failing the masses. Second,
Barnett viewed the need for information as spurring the rise of
settlements. Barnett believed there was widespread curiosity regarding
oppression that he could satisfy with documented observations
regarding the circumstances of the poor. Finally, Barnett notes a
groundswell of fellowship not driven by traditional "Charities
and Missions" but by fundamental humanitarianism. Settlements
provided an outlet for these fellow feelings.



Addams was familiar with Barnett's writings and often referred
to them. For example, when Addams wrote "The Function of the
Social Settlement," Barnett's philosophy played a
prominent role. She agrees that settlements should not be
missions because if they become too ideological, they will fail to be
responsive to their neighbors (FSS 344-345). However, despite
acknowledging that the term "settlement" was borrowed from
London, she finds differences between the philosophies of Toynbee Hall
and Hull House: "The American Settlement, perhaps has not so
much a sense of duty of the privileged toward the unprivileged of the
'haves' to the 'have nots,' to borrow Canon
Barnett's phrase, as a desire to equalize through social effort
those results which superior opportunity may have given the
possessor" (FSS 322-323). Addams is very concerned about a
sense of moral superiority attributed to settlement work. She always
eschewed the notion that she was a charitable "lady
bountiful." Instead, she wanted to learn about others to develop
the proper sympathies and strategies for assisting--sympathetic
knowledge. For Addams, Hull House always combined epistemological
concerns with moral ones.



When Addams' philosophy is considered, if at all, it is usually
associated with the work of John Dewey (1859-1952). This
association is appropriate given their friendship and mutual
interests; however, her intellectual deference to Dewey is often
overstated. Dewey is considered one of the greatest American
philosophers. His name, along with William James, Charles Sanders
Peirce, and Josiah Royce, is included in the traditional list of
founding fathers of what is labeled American Pragmatism. His work
appealed to Addams because they shared many of the same commitments,
including the value of a robust democracy as well as the importance of
education that engaged the student's experience. Addams and
Dewey were intellectual soul mates from the moment they met in 1892.
Dewey visited Hull House shortly after it opened and before he moved
to Chicago to teach at the University of Chicago. Following the
meeting, Dewey expressed to Addams an appreciation for Hull
House's work, and he would become a frequent visitor. There was
much intellectual cross-fertilization between Hull House and the
University of Chicago and *vice versa*. Historian Rosalind
Rosenberg describes Addams as a *de facto* adjunct professor at
the University of Chicago. Mary Jo Deegan documents that Addams
taught many college courses through the Extension Division of the
University of Chicago for a decade. In addition, she refused offers to
join the undergraduate and graduate faculty (Deegan, 1988).
Furthermore, Dewey assigned Addams' books in his courses. Addams
and Dewey worked together personally and politically. When Hull House
was incorporated, Dewey became one of the board members. He often
lectured to the Plato Club, Hull House's philosophy group. Dewey
dedicated his book *Liberalism and Social Action* to Addams.
Dewey named one of his daughters in her honor, and Addams wrote the
eulogy for Dewey's son Gordon (EBP).



Although Dewey and Addams gained celebrity status in their lifetime,
their fame and legacies are characterized much differently. Dewey is
framed as the great intellectual--a thinker--and Addams was
the activist--a doer. As contemporaries, they represent classic
archetypes of gender: the male as mind generating theory and the woman
as body experiencing and caring. However, there is much evidence that
such characterizations are inaccurate. Both John Dewey and his
daughter, Jane, credit Jane Addams for developing many of his
important ideas, including his view on education, democracy, and,
ultimately, philosophy (Schlipp, 1951). Despite the lack of
attribution in Dewey's written work, many scholars document
Addams' significant influence (Davis, 1973; Deegan, 1988;
Farrell, 1967; Lasch, 1965; Linn, 2000; Seigfried, 1996)



Overshadowed by Addams' relationship with the celebrity
philosopher, Dewey, was her strong tie to George Herbert Mead
(1863-1931), who is considered the father of "symbolic
interactionism," an approach to social inquiry that emphasizes
how symbols create meaning in society. Mead's work on
development through play and education influenced Addams, but, as with
Dewey, the influence was mutual. Addams maintained a long-term close
personal relationship with Mead and his wife, Helen Castle Mead. They
often dined together and visited one another's families. Like
Addams', Mead's intellectual legacy is not altogether
settled. Sociologists have recognized his works as significant, but
many philosophers have overlooked him.



Mead and Addams worked on several projects together, including
pro-labor speeches, peace advocacy, and the Progressive Party. When
Addams was publicly attacked for not supporting the U.S. entry into
World War I, Mead defended her though he disagreed with her position.
Like Dewey, Mead was a frequent lecturer at Hull House. Also, like
Dewey, Mead could not help but be impressed with Addams'
intellect. In 1916, Mead advocated awarding Addams an honorary
doctorate from the University of Chicago. The faculty supported the
award, but the administration overturned the decision (eventually
making the award in 1931).



Addams also maintained a friendship with William James
(1842-1910), whose work she cites on many occasions. James was a
pragmatist whose vision of urban improvement would have been shared by
Addams. James and Addams both valued experience, and among the
"professional" pragmatists his writing style is
closest to Addams' in terms of its readability and use of
tangible examples.



Addams influenced and was influenced by the "Chicago
School," an active collaboration of cross-disciplinary scholars
at the University of Chicago, including Dewey, Mead, James Hayden
Tufts, Robert E. Park, and others who had a significant impact on
philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Although she was often
frustrated with the abstract trajectory of the university, Addams
embraced reflective analysis. Through her Hull House experience,
Addams took many opportunities to theorize about the interchange
between theory and practice. For a time, American philosophy,
sociology, and social work existed in a symbiotic harmony--each
not differentiated from the other but benefiting from the interchange.
Unfortunately, since the early 20th century when Mead,
Dewey, and Addams were together in Chicago, the intellectual genealogy
of American philosophy, sociology, and social work has more
drastically diverged to a point where the crossover is less likely and
perhaps less welcome. Lost in the compartmentalization of these
disciplines is how Jane Addams played a role in each.



In addition to the Romantics (Carlyle and Ruskin), the social
visionaries (Barnett and Tolstoy), and the pragmatists (Dewey and
Mead), Addams was influenced by the great collection of feminist minds
who came to work at the social settlement. Hull House has been
described in many different ways, reflecting the complexity and
diversity of its functions. Perhaps an overlooked descriptor is as a
pragmatist feminist "think tank." Although the
"Metaphysical Club" has taken on a mythical status among
some in American philosophical circles (Menand, 2001), the
intellectual, social, and political impact of the Hull House residents
dwarfs that of the Cambridge intellectuals. Hull House residents
dined, slept, did domestic chores, and engaged in social activism
together. They also discussed and debated ethics, political theory,
feminism, and culture while immersed in their tasks and stimulated by
the many speakers and visitors to Hull House. The prolonged contact
shared gender oppression and common mission made for a unique
intellectual collective that not only fostered action but also
theory.



Ostensibly, Hull House was the first co-educational settlement. Addams
recognized the need for male residents so that men in the neighborhood
could better relate to Hull House endeavors. However, it was clear to
visitors and residents that Hull House was a woman's space. Hull
House boasted some of the era's great minds and change agents. Alice
Hamilton (1869-1970), a physician who trained in Germany and the
U.S. and is credited with founding the field of industrial medicine,
lived at Hull House for 22 years. She went on to teach at Harvard,
becoming a nationally recognized social reformer and peace activist.
Julia Lathrop (1858-1932) was a Vassar graduate who, in 1912,
after residing at Hull House for 22 years, became the first woman to
head a federal agency, the Children's Bureau, which, in terms of
conduct, she modeled after Hull House. Rachel Yarros
(1869-1946), a twenty-year resident at Hull House, was also a
physician who taught at the University of Illinois. The university
created a position for Yarros to recognize her tremendous contribution
to social hygiene and sex education. Author and feminist theorist
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was a resident for a short
time. Gilman thought highly of Addams but had no stomach for
settlement existence amongst the oppressed. However, Gilman's
groundbreaking work on gender and economics likely influenced Addams.
Sophonisba Breckinridge (1866-1948) graduated from Wellesley and
obtained a Ph.D. in political science and a J.D. from the University
of Chicago. Her most significant contribution was in the area of
social work education. Edith Abbott (1876-1957) and her sister
Grace Abbott (1878-1939) joined Hull-House about the time as
Breckinridge (1907). Edith Abbott would obtain a Ph.D. in Political
Economy from the University of Chicago, while Grace Abbott earned a
Ph.D. from Grand Island College in Nebraska. Edith would have an
academic career at the University of Chicago prior to her appointment
as Chief of the Children's Bureau after Julia Lathrop's
departure. Mary Kenney (1864-1943) became a vital labor
organizer for Samuel Gompers' American Federation of Labor and
influenced Addams' sensitivity to the plight of organized labor,
something that all progressives did not share. Bessie Abramowitz
Hillman, a Russian immigrant who attended classes at Hull House,
founded the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) in 1910 at
the age of 20 and guided it for 60 years. Hillman referred to the
settlement as "a House of Labor", and she worked with and
admired Addams until the latter's passing. Another resident who became
a significant labor leader was Alzina Stevens. She headed the Dorcas
Federal Labor Union and became a member of the Council of Women's
Trade Unions of Chicago. Addams worked with and cultivated numerous
labor leaders during this nascent time of the American labor movement.
These are only a few of the more well-known residents, but numerous
feminists used their Hull House experience as a springboard to careers
in social reform or professions of various sorts. Addams engaged the
residents of Hull House in conversation and deliberation such that
they influenced her thoughts and she theirs.



Although Hull House was replete with extraordinary minds, no one was
likely to be as intellectually challenging to Addams as Florence
Kelley (1859-1932). A Cornell graduate, Kelley translated
Friedrich Engels' *The Condition of the Working Class in
England* and Karl Marx's *Free Trade* into English.
She was an active member of the Socialist Labor Party until the
leadership, threatened by Kelley's aggressive style, expelled
her. A single mother with three children, Kelley found a home at Hull
House, where she opened an employment center and began researching
sweatshops for the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kelley would
later become the general secretary of the new Consumer's League,
an organization dedicated to using consumer pressure to ensure that
safe and high-quality goods were manufactured. Kelley was one of the
most distinguished social reformers of the early 20th
Century.



At Hull House, Kelley altered the dynamics of the resident community.
She brought a sense of class consciousness along with great strength
of conviction. After Kelley's arrival (and Mary Kenny's
coming a year prior) Hull House became more deeply involved in
supporting the labor movement, which men heretofore dominated. Kelley
also learned from Addams, who she admired throughout her life. Perhaps
the legacy of the many accomplishments of the Hull-House residents
suffered because of the fame of their leader. Still, given the
opportunity, each expressed their admiration and gratitude to Addams
for making Hull House the hotbed of ideas and action. Addams was the
most visible leader of a remarkable group of educated activists whose
mutual respect allowed intellectual growth to flourish.



Finally, a few other influences are worthy of mention. Although she
was not personally religious, Addams' Christian roots left their
mark. Addams was exceptionally well versed in the Christian bible and
had attended several religious courses during her time at Rockford
Seminary. Addams occasionally used religious language to help get her
message out to Christian constituencies. Addams was also well
acquainted with Greek philosophy and referenced Socrates, Plato, and
Aristotle in her work. Addams was attracted to the ability of Greek
philosophers to move between personal and social concerns rather than
compartmentalizing their philosophical analysis. Some have suggested
that Addams was influenced by Auguste Comte (1798-1857) and the
positivists (Misheva 2019). Comte, who coined the term
"sociology," believed sciences need their own logic drawn
from experience rather than Descartes's *a priori* universal
rationalism. Addams would have been attracted to his ideas about
social progress and his development of a religion of humanity. Addams
also read a great deal of literature, which influenced her ideas
concerning culture and sometimes seeped into her analysis, as it does
when she uses Shakespeare's *King Lear* to understand
labor-management relations. Although she did not believe that reading
was a substitute for direct experience, she did suggest more than once
that reading great works of fiction as a means of developing a
sympathetic understanding.



The scholarship of philosopher Marilyn Fischer has revealed how
significant social evolutionary thinking was for Addams. *The
Origin of the Species* was published in 1859, a year prior to
Addams' birth. By the time Addams became a public intellectual,
evolutionary thinking had not only become influential but was being
applied to social phenomena as an explanatory narrative. Fischer
describes, "Recognizing Addams's use of social
evolutionary discourse, set within imaginative forms, reveals the
logic and sensibility of her layered ethical analysis" (Fischer
2019, 13).



Although Addams had a wide variety of influences, as we have seen, she
was not a derivative thinker, as many commentators suggest. She drew
upon a number of great theorists to develop her ideas about social
morality but never dogmatically followed in anyone's footsteps.
All the while, she influenced many others as she made her unique
contributions to American and feminist philosophy.


## 3. Addams' Standpoint Epistemology



Although writing long before the term "standpoint
epistemology" was named by feminist philosophers, Addams can be
considered a forerunner of standpoint epistemology, given her
commitment to sympathetic knowledge. Feminist philosophers have
attended to the impact of context on theory more than mainstream
philosophers. Although there are lively debates within feminist
philosophical circles regarding the nature of objectivity, many,
including Dorothy Smith, Nancy Hartsock, Hilary Rose, Alison Jaggar,
and Sandra Harding, have developed the notion that knowledge is indeed
situated. In particular, feminist standpoint theorists valorize the
perspectives and theories derived from oppressed societal positions,
such as women's experiences. Harding describes a feminist
standpoint as something to achieve rather than a passive perspective.
All women have lived experience in a woman's body and therefore
have a woman's perspective. Still, a feminist standpoint
requires an effort at stepping back to gain a holistic picture of
power struggles. Through the understanding of the perspectival aspect
of knowledge claims, standpoint epistemology can create libratory
knowledge that can be leveraged to subvert oppressive systems. One of
the challenges of standpoint theory is how to give voice to multiple
positions without falling back on hierarchies that favor certain
standpoints over others.



Jane Addams demonstrates an appreciation for the spirit of standpoint
theory through her work and writing at Hull-House. Despite the
privileged social position she was born into, her settlement avocation
immersed her in disempowered communities. Addams poetically describes
her moral mandate to meet, know, and understand others: "We know
at last, that we can only discover truth by a rational and democratic
interest in life, and to give truth complete social expression is the
endeavor upon which we are entering. Thus the identification with the
common lot that is the essential idea of Democracy becomes the source
and expression of social ethics. It is as though we thirsted at the
great wells of human experience because we know that a daintier or
less potent draught would not carry us to the end of the journey,
going forward as we must in the heat and jostle of the crowd"
(DSE 9). One might object that although these are admirable
sentiments, they are still spoken by an outsider. What constitutes an
outsider? Addams lived the better part of a half-century in the
diverse immigrant neighborhood of Hull House in Chicago. She
didn't return home to the suburbs or return to a university
office with her data. She lived and worked amongst the crime, civic
corruption, prostitution, sweatshops, and other community ills. When
they started Hull House, Addams and Starr were involved
outsiders--an oddity that neighbors looked upon suspiciously.
However, time, proximity, and an earnest desire to learn and help won
the trust and respect of the neighborhood. The outsiders became
insiders. When Addams wrote or spoke about single women laborers,
child laborers, prostitutes, or first and second-generation
immigrants, she employed first-hand knowledge gained from her social
interactions. Addams leveraged her Hull House experiences to give
voice to standpoints marginalized in society. Simultaneously, she
worked to provide the oppressed their own voice through college
extension courses, English language courses, and social clubs that
fostered political and social debate. Addams was self-conscious about
speaking for others: "I never addressed a Chicago audience on
the subject of the Settlement and its vicinity without inviting a
neighbor to go with me, that I might curb my hasty generalization by
the consciousness that I had an auditor who knew the conditions more
intimately than I could hope to do" (TYH 80). Addams did not try
to arrive at universal moral truths but recognized that the standpoint
of Hull House neighbors mattered.



In an 1896 article in *The American Journal of Sociology*,
"A Belated Industry," Addams addresses the plight of women
in domestic labor. These were the most powerless of laborers:
predominantly women, many of them immigrants with limited English
language skills and in a job that afforded little legal protection or
organizing possibilities. Addams begins the article with a footnote
claiming that her knowledge of domestic laborers comes from her
experience with the Woman's Labor Bureau, one of the many Hull
House projects. Addams goes on to address the powerlessness of
domestic work, particularly as it entails isolation and a highly
inequitable power relationship: "The household
employe[sic] has no regular opportunity for meeting other
workers of her trade, and of attaining with them the dignity of
corporate body" (ABI 538). Addams identifies the gendered
dimension of this oppressive work: "men would ... resent
the situation and consider it quite impossible if it implied the
giving up of their family and social ties, and living under the roof
of the household requiring their services" (ABI 540). Addams
extrapolates her experience of these workers to imaginatively inhabit
a standpoint and give them voice. She explicitly claims as much,
"An attempt is made to present this industry [domestic labor]
from the point of view of those women who are working in households
for wages" (ABI 536). Addams repeatedly recognized the
experiences of oppressed peoples that she came to know to have
their concerns acknowledged in the social democracy she was trying to
foster.



Addams believed recognizing alternative standpoints was important in
promoting social progress through sympathetic understanding.
Accordingly, if a voice is given to individuals inhabiting
marginalized positions in society, it fosters the possibility of
better understanding between people and actions that can lead to
improving their lot. Addams engaged in the tricky balance of honoring
standpoints while simultaneously seeking connections and continuities
to build upon. This is exemplified in Addams' books on young
people, *Youth and the City Streets*, and elderly women,
*The Long Road of Woman's Memory*. The latter work is a
treatise on memory based on the memories of first-generation immigrant
women. Rather than grounding her theory upon the experiences of famous
women theorists or writers--and Addams knew most of the prominent
women of her day--Addams based her analysis on the women who were
her neighbors at Hull House. Addams not only grounded her
philosophical work in experience but in the experiences of those on
the margins of society. Addams puts experience before theory. She did
not begin by positing a theory about these women. Instead, she retold
many stories she had heard from them and then drew out conclusions
about the function of memory. For Addams, theory follows experience.
Addams was in the minority among her peers in philosophy or feminism
to believe that working-class immigrant women not only should be given
a voice but also had something important to contribute to the
community of ideas.



An example of Addams' application of feminist standpoint theory
(or at least a forerunner of it) can be seen in the "Devil
Baby," which recounts what transpired after three Italian women
came to Hull House to see a possessed infant. One can form a whimsical
image from Addams' account, "No amount of denial convinced
them that he was not there, for they knew exactly what he was like
with his cloven hoofs, his pointed ears, and diminutive tail; the
Devil Baby had, moreover, been able to speak as soon as he was born
and was shockingly profane" (LRW 7-8). This would be an
amusing anecdote if it stopped there, but Addams described a six-week
period when Hull House was inundated with stories about the alleged
Devil Baby. Visitors even offered Hull House residents money to see
the creature despite adamant responses that there was no such baby.
Multiple versions of how the Devil Baby arose in the neighborhood, and
eventually the hysteria made the newspapers. One version of the story
claimed that the Devil Baby was the offspring of an atheist and a
devoted Italian girl. When the husband tore a holy picture from the
wall claiming that he would rather have a devil in the house, his wish
was granted in the form of his coming child (LRW 8). Although a
fascinating social phenomenon, the Devil Baby story has little
apparent philosophical importance. It would be easy to dismiss those
who perpetuated the story as simpletons caught up in the hysteria. Not
for Jane Addams. She applied a familiar approach by refusing to pass
judgment, listening carefully, and developing a sympathetic
understanding. Addams actively worked to grasp their subject
position.



Although Addams dismissed the "gawkers" who came to see
the Devil Baby as a sensationalist-seeking mob, she wanted to
understand the older women who had perpetuated the myth:
"Whenever I heard the high eager voices of old women, I was
irresistibly interested and left anything I might be doing in order to
listen to them" (LRW 9). She found women who were solemn and
highly animated about the Devil Baby. They used the appearance of the
Devil Baby and the excitement it created as an opportunity to discuss
important and troubling matters of their life. Addams, who never
sought simple answers to complex issues, found a convergence of class,
race, and gender dynamics fueling the Devil Baby phenomenon. These
immigrant women were in unfamiliar surroundings and had to adjust to
foreign ideas and practices. They had been alienated by their
children, who adapted to the new country more quickly, keeping the old
ways at arm's length. Many of these women also had been victims
of domestic abuse long before such acts had a distinct label. One
woman tells Addams, "My face has this queer twist for now nearly
sixty years; I was ten when it got that way, the night after I saw my
father do my mother to death with his knife" (LRW 11). For these
forgotten and beaten women, the Devil Baby represented a connection to
a past that made more sense to them: one that had clear moral
imperatives. Another woman tells Addams, "You might say
it's a disgrace to have your son beat you up for the sake of a
bit of money you've earned by scrubbing--your own man is
different--but I haven't the heart to blame the boy for
doing what he's seen all his life, his father forever went wild
when the drink was in him and struck me to the very day of his death.
The ugliness was born in the boy as the marks of the Devil was born in
the poor child up-stairs" (LRW 11). Addams' recounting of
tale after tale of violence provides a depressing view of immigrant
women's lives at the turn of the century. For women who had
lived such a hard life, the Devil Baby provided a momentary
opportunity for resistance. Husbands and children would listen to them
and temporarily forsake beating them for fear of divine retribution as
evinced by the Devil Baby. Addams describes memory as serving to
"make life palatable and at rare moments even beautiful"
(LRW 28). Although this is a specific explanatory analysis, it
demonstrates how Addams sought connections among the personal stories:
"When these reminiscences, based upon the diverse experiences of
my people unknown to each other, point to one inevitable conclusion,
they accumulate into a social protest ..." (LRW 29). Addams
proceeds to view the Devil Baby in light of the women's movement
and the fight against oppression. Given the position of the old women,
the Devil Baby was the vehicle of resistance and an opportunity for
Addams to interject feminist analysis.


## 4. Radical Meliorism



Meliorism is a hallmark of pragmatist philosophy, which we can see in
Addams' work with a more radical character than among other American
pragmatists. If "radical" is defined as challenging
existing power structures, Jane Addams was the least elitist and
the most radical of the American philosophers of her era. Addams
consistently took and eloquently supported inclusive positions that
sought the benefit of society. While pragmatists typically advocated
for social progress, Addams radicalized the extent of that social
progress. Rather than defining progress by the best and brightest
achievements, Addams advocates the betterment of all in what she calls
"lateral progress." For Addams, lateral progress meant
that social advancement could not be declared through the
breakthroughs or peak performances of a few but could only
authentically be found in social gains held in common. Addams employs
metaphor to explain the concept:



> 
> 
> The man who insists upon consent, who moves with the people, is bound
> to consult the feasible right as well as the absolute right. He is
> often obliged to attain only Mr. Lincoln's "best
> possible," and often have the sickening sense of compromising
> with his best convictions. He has to move along with those whom he
> rules toward a goal that neither he nor they see very clearly till
> they come to it. He has to discover what people really want, and then
> "provide the channels in which the growing moral force of their
> lives shall flow." What he does attain, however, is not the
> result of his individual striving, as a solitary mountain climber
> beyond the sight of the valley multitude, but it is underpinned and
> upheld by the sentiments and aspirations of many others. Progress has
> been slower perpendicularly, but incomparably greater because
> lateral.
> 
> 
> 
> He has not taught his contemporaries to climb mountains, but he has
> persuaded the villagers to move up a few feet higher. (AML 175)
> 
> 
> 



Whether one refers to them as "robber barons" or
"captains of industry," the rise of commerce in the United
States was defined by the winners of the game: those who amassed
wealth. The wealthy enjoyed tremendous progress in healthcare,
education, and material well-being. Addams was not satisfied with
narrow social development and redefined progress according to the
common person's experience. This redefinition continues to elude
us today as class disparity in the United States grows. Ironically,
Addams is often chastised for expounding middle-class values, which
was her point of reference as she started Hull House.
Still, Addams' experiences pushed her to understand and
appreciate the immigrant poor in the neighborhood more fully.



Addams applied the idea of lateral progress to numerous issues. When
she discusses the role of labor unions, she argues that in their
attempt to improve conditions for all workers, unions are fulfilling a
vital function that society has abrogated. Addams, who had a track
record of supporting labor, makes it clear that she does not view
collective bargaining as an end in itself. Instead, Addams views
unions as trailblazers who obtain working conditions that eventually
benefit everyone in society: "trade unions are trying to do for
themselves what the government should secure for all its citizens;
has, in fact, secured in many cases" (FSS 456). Addams is not
interested in improving the lot of one group of workers over another.
"Any sense of division and suspicion is fatal in a democratic
form of government, for although each side may seem to secure most for
itself when consulting only its own interests, the final test must be
the good of the community as a whole" (FSS 461). For Addams,
unions are important in as much as they improve working conditions,
raise wages, reduce hours and eliminate child labor for all
Americans--lateral progress.



Although the first chapter of Addams' *Democracy and Social
Ethics* is ostensibly a critique of charity workers and their
preconceived notions of the needs of the destitute, it also reveals
Addams' disposition toward the poor and the oppressed. She
decries the historical position of blaming the victim:
"Formerly, when it was believed that poverty was synonymous with
vice and laziness and that the prosperous man was the righteous man,
charity was administered harshly with a good conscience; for the
charitable agent really blamed the individual for his poverty, and the
very fact of his own superior prosperity gave him a certain
consciousness of superior morality" (DSE 11-12). Such a
judgment serves to separate the wealthy from the poor. Accordingly,
the rich can make progress intellectually, materially,
technologically, etc., while the poor are thought to be left behind
primarily due to their own actions. Addams argues that the poor are
often victims of circumstance and that it is society's responsibility
to first understand marginalized people and then develop means for
their participation in lateral progress.



Charity, although a good, is not lateral progress. While noble, a
temporary transfer in wealth does not constitute real progress in
alleviating economic disparity. Addams never viewed herself as a
charity worker, nor did she characterize the work of Hull House as
charity: "I am always sorry to have Hull House regarded as
philanthropy" (ONS 45). Addams sought lateral progress that
could be brought about by the collective will and manifested through
social institutions. She believes there would be no need for
settlements if "society had been reconstructed to the point of
offering equal opportunity for all" (ONS 27). Addams is not
advocating a *laissez-faire* capitalism version of equal
opportunity that is abstract and rights-based. Free market economics
influences modern understandings of democracy as merely assuring the
adequate opportunity to participate. Addams' approach to equal
opportunity is set in a context of vibrant democracy where citizens
and social organizations look out for one another because they all
have a stake in lateral progress or what today might be termed
democratic socialism.



Addams' radical pragmatism ultimately had a feminist dimension.
She continually gave voice to women's experiences, addressed
women's issues, and saw a vibrant social democracy as only
possible if there was full participation by both men and women. When
it came to issues such as women's suffrage, Addams manifests a
feminist pragmatism. "If women had no votes with which to select
the men upon whom her social reform had become dependent, some
cherished project might be so modified by uninformed legislatures
during the process of legal enactment that the law, as finally passed,
injured the very people it was meant to protect. Women had discovered
that the unrepresented are always liable to be given what they do not
want by legislators who merely wish to placate them" (STY
89-90). Note that Addams does not argue the application of
abstract human rights, but she instead makes a functional claim about
the role of voting in proper democratic representation. It is not that
Addams opposes rights, but she will continually opt for pragmatist
arguments on feminist issues. Her male pragmatist colleagues were
sympathetic to feminist positions but did not make the claims as
forcefully or consistently as Addams (Seigfried, 1996).



Addams' notion of lateral progress exemplifies again how she has
been misrepresented as merely a reformer. Radical discourse, a la
Marx, has been associated with the call for extreme changes in social
institutions and systems. Although such changes may be arguably
desirable, they entail upheaval that will disrupt social relationships
at significant potential personal cost. Addams sought substantial
social progress through mutual agreement and tapping into communal
intelligence. Her radical vision refused to give up on the individuals
in society and their caring relationships. Mixing theoretical notions
of social change with concrete experiences of community organizing,
Addams was a caring radical. Addams was interested in ameliorating
social problems, but that does not preclude a broadly construed
radical edge to her social philosophy.


## 5. Socializing Care



An analysis of Addams' moral philosophy suggests at least three
claims about her relationship to feminist care ethics *avant la
lettre*. One, Addams' approach to the important social
issues of her day reflected the relationality and contextualization
that are important to what is called care ethics today. Two, although
Addams employed caring in response to the needs of others, she
contributes an active, even assertive, dimension to care ethics not
commonly found in feminist theory. Third, Addams advocates what might
be called "socializing care": systemically instantiating
the habits and practices of care in social institutions.



Although care is a simple and widely invoked word, many feminist
theorists have invested it with a particular meaning as it applies to
ethics. The original motivation for developing care ethics was an
acknowledgment that traditional forms of morality, in particular
principle-based and consequence-based ethics, did not adequately
address the richness of the human condition. These approaches bracket
out emotions, relationships, temporal considerations, reciprocity, and
creativity to focus on immediate adjudication of moral conflicts.
Accordingly, the use of rules or consequences can become a
reductionist and formulaic response resulting in shortsighted answers
to complex and systemic issues. For care ethicists, principles can be
useful, but a concern for interpersonal connection tempers them.
Principles and consequences can be important in moral
deliberation, but care theorists seek a more robust and complex sense
of morality that cannot ignore the context and people involved. For
example, the claim that people who spray-paint graffiti on a building
ought to be punished because they have damaged someone else's
property (rule/principle violation) will likely receive widespread
assent. Care ethicists do not necessarily deny such an assertion, but
they want to know more. The person doing the spray-painting is a human
being whose motivations and circumstances may reveal other variables
not sufficiently addressed by the mere recognition of rule violations.
Systemic issues involving social opportunities, discrimination, or
lack of voice may have contributed to this behavior. Care ethicists
shift the moral focus from abstract individuals and their actions to
concrete, situated people with feelings, friends, and
dreams--persons who can be cared about. Care ethics demands
effort, experience, knowledge, imagination, and empathy to effectively
understand the totality of the moral context. The result is not an
exoneration of personal responsibility but a richer understanding of
the human condition where we are all actors and acted upon.



Addams consistently moves beyond formulaic moral accounts of
principles or consequences to apply a kind of care ethics to her
experiences in the Hull House neighborhood. Proximity is once again
crucial as she has direct experience with individuals, providing the
resources for a caring response. However, as a philosopher, Addams
extrapolates her experiences to theorize about others of similar
circumstances. For example, in *The Spirit of Youth and the City
Streets* Addams addresses juvenile delinquency. She recounts
charges against young men who were brought before the Juvenile Court
in Chicago (which Hull House had helped establish). These charges were
categorized by type, such as stealing, which included the pilfering of
pigeons, blankets, and a bicycle. Another category was disorderly
conduct which included picking up coal from railroad tracks, throwing
stones at railroad employees, and breaking down a fence. There was
also vagrancy, which included loafing, sleeping on the streets all
night, and wandering (SYC 56-57). Addams does not deny the
seriousness of some of these infractions, but she does not rush to
judgment, instead choosing to investigate the context further. She
talks to the young men and asks them about their motivations. She
identifies a listlessness, a desire for adventure not quieted by what
the city has to offer: "their very demand for excitement is a
protest against the dullness of life, to which we ourselves
instinctively respond" (SYC 71). Addams views the city as built
around the possibility of factory production but ignores the needs of
future workers. Among "juvenile delinquents," Adams
finds many young people who simply seek adventure and excitement
because their lives have little of it. Had Addams merely abstracted
youth as a category of individuals who seem prone to break the law,
she could have easily found principles to judge them negatively.
However, Addams saw them as humans, many of whom she witnessed growing
up in the neighborhood, and she cared for them beyond the alienating
label of "troubled youth."



More than merely prefiguring care ethics, Addams infuses a high social
responsibility standard into this moral approach. Addams advocates a
duty of social awareness and engagement, thus creating the potential
for care. Many care ethicists are wary of the notion of duty as it has
been traditionally formulated. Moral duties have historically entailed
claims regarding actions that a person is required to offer on behalf
of another. Because the "other" is an abstract other and
the requirements are universalized (I must act in such a way in all
cases), duties toward others have tended toward moral minimums of
obligation. For example, a moral obligation to act is present if
someone's life is in peril and minimal effort is required to
prevent it, such as an infant drowning in 3 inches of bathwater.
Although such cases get widespread agreement, it becomes more
challenging to ascertain what obligation one has to distant others
with unclear expectations of success. For example, many Americans have
disposable income that could save the life of someone in a
poverty-stricken country on a distant continent; do they have a moral
obligation to give them money, and to what extent? Addams constructs
the duty to care differently. Hers is an epistemological demand.
Addams claims that good citizens actively pursue knowledge of
others--not just facts but a more profound
understanding--for the possibility of caring and acting on their
behalf: "if we grow contemptuous of our fellows, and consciously
limit our intercourse to certain kinds of people whom we have
previously decided to respect, we not only tremendously circumscribe
our range of life, but limit our scope of ethics" (DSE 8). For
Addams, care ethics must be actively pursued, not passively fostered.
Addams' language is more assertive than much of the current care
ethics discourse.



Finally, Addams extends care ethics to the public realm. She is not
content to compartmentalize personal and social morality. Caring is
what she desires for democracy and its various institutions. Addams
views the residents of social settlements, for example, as having
"an opportunity of seeing institutions from the
recipient's standpoint" because they are not distant
institutions but neighbors. She finds this perspective significant and
believes that it should ultimately "find expression in
institutional management" (OVS 39). Furthermore, she
differentiates the epistemological project of the settlement from the
university in language that acknowledges a caring element: "The
settlement stands for application as opposed to research; for emotion
as opposed to abstraction, for universal interest as opposed to
specialization" (FSS 189). While social settlements epitomize a
democratic endeavor for Addams, she applies the same caring values to
other institutions. The creation of the juvenile courts in Chicago
represented an example of caring because it mandated contextualized
regard for the context of young people. The creation of adult
education that addressed tangible and contemporary issues also
demonstrated a caring regard for the needs of Hull-House neighbors.
Perhaps most of all, the comportment of the Hull-House residents
manifested care ethics in their willingness to listen, learn and
respond. Addams viewed socializing care as participating in a rich
ideal of democracy.