Little Prairie Ronde, Cass County, Michigan, where Amalie Hathaway lived and wrote her philosophy papers in the 1870s and 1880s.

10 SPRING 2015 Women Philosophers at the American Philosophical Association

A Personal Account of the 111th Meeting of the Eastern Division by Carol Bensick

S A MEMBER of the was on a lecture on Schopenhauer cal-sized audience. Society for the Study of by an immigrant woman at the In the hours since arriving for AWomen Philosophers and l881 session of the nineteenth-cen- the convention, I had been trying a new member of the American tury Massachusetts phenomenon, to broaden my paper in order the Philosophical Association, I recent- the Concord Summer School of better to bring out the great im- ly travelled to Philadelphia to pres- Philosophy and Literature. The portance I had come to attribute ent a paper on nineteenth-century program thus showed the great to Hathaway. As I see it, Amalie American Amalie Hathaway’s lec- variety among women philoso- Hathaway is important in two ture on famous German pessimist phers, as well as the range of genre respects. Intrinsically, her existence philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. characteristically accepted and ad- challenges the existing record Mine was to be the middle pre- vocated for by scholars of women’s of nineteenth century American sentation of three on the society’s philosophy. philosophy. It shows that Ger- theme of women philosophers. I arrived early, finding a business man-American women as well as Each was strikingly different. The meeting of the Society wrapping well-known German American first was a paper on contemporary up. Three members of the board men like Henry Brockmeyer edu- theorist of material culture and of directors were present and one cated their communities in German University of Georgia Professor of the presenters. As the start time philosophy not only on the East Beth Preston by Hector MacIntyre, drew closer, the other presenter ar- coast but in the American Midwest a doctoral student from the Uni- rived. Unless I misremember, there in the middle of the l9th century. versity of Ottawa, Canada. The were no other attendees. The chair As well, I wanted to show that not third was a performance by Sa- of the panel had written to us that all women philosophers before brina Misir-Hiralall, an adjunct our panel was scheduled against at Pragmatism were either quasi-Kan- professor from the Montclair State least one other panel of interest to tian admirers of Ralph Waldo University, New Jersey, of a Hindu the society’s members, including Emerson, neoPlatonist adherents dance about a princess who after at least one in which one of the of Bronson Alcott, Platonist fol- alienating her husband (really the directors was presenting. It is hard lowers of Hiram Jones, Hegelian god Krishna) attracts him back by to imagine and impossible to know protegees of , showing she admits and repents how different if at all the session Aristotelian followers of Thomas her unspiritual behavior. My paper would have been had it had a typi- Davidson, or personalist adherents

UCLA Center for the Study of Women 11 of George Holmes Howison. In ad- attention to other nineteenth-cen- scripts were not preserved by her dition, Hathaway adds to the num- tury German immigrant women, husband after she suddenly died ber of nineteenth-century women such as Olga Plumacher (a Hart- at the age of 40. This incited one who studied philosophy at the mann specialist), who published of the directors (Professor Dorothy university level: before Caroline and corresponded about German Rogers) to remark that the same Miles, Mary Sophia Case, or the philosophers; to spark interest in thing was true as far as her manu- better-known Eliza Sunderland and other nineteenth-century Ameri- scripts were concerned in the case Marietta Kies, there was already can women--such as Anne Lynch of Marietta Kies, a woman philos- a woman student in the Philoso- Botta--whom the history of philo- opher of her own rediscovery who phy Department at the University sophical has not yet claimed but actually became a college profes- of Michigan. Hathaway’s career whom it should, whom evidence sor. Otherwise, questions notably also brings to light the virtually shows read, wrote on, listened to, bypassed Hathaway’s philosophical unknown because virtually undoc- lectured on, or seriously thought claims about Schopenhauer (and umented existence of the Chica- about canonical and/or contem- Harvard Professor Francis Bow- go Philosophical Society. Finally, porary philosophy. Finally, I had en), but gravitated to the Concord Hathaway’s existence reveals that hoped to elicit feedback, from School of Philosophy. I attribut- there could exist in the nineteenth specialists on American philoso- ed this primarily to my failure to century a woman learned in Greek, phy, particularly on how Hathaway provide a handout of Hathaway’’s Continental, and British historical compares with German-American text and to the detailed, advanced, and contemporary philosophy; male philosophers such as Brok- and technical nature of much of talented and skilled in writing meyer; from specialists in Schopen- Hathaway’s presentation. But I was English expository, interpretative, hauer, regarding Hathaway’s struck by a rough similarity with and critical prose; and who based interpretation in contract with the situation when Hathaway gave on nothing but her personal stud- current views; and from specialists her lecture in 1881: the audience ies at the on women philosophers regarding looked to the (male, senior) faculty and her membership in a Chicago possible connections with women of the School (Hathaway’s was a self-described philosophy club, had from other eras and cultures and/ special lecture) for comments on the confidence to publicly call into or resonances with classic and con- the philosopher Arthur, avoiding question the Harvard, “official” temporary feminist philosophy, a Hathaway’s argument about his interpretation of a hotly controver- field in which I wasn’t well versed. philosophy. But again, this could sial European philosopher. This turned out to be asking be explained by the lack of any To accomplish this, I had hoped too much of myself. Announcing samples of the writing of Schopen- to add to my paper a mention, for for a new title “Rediscovering an hauer and the highly detailed example, of the Chicago Philo- Early German-American philoso- nature of her presentation. sophical Society where Hathaway pher,” I had to settle for my paper In retrospect, certain things lectured: of Rev. Benjamin Frank- as written, publicizing the striking stand out about the panel from the lin Cocker, her part-time teacher uniqueness of the second paper point of view of the Center of the at the University of Michigan in on Schopenhauer in English by a Study of Women. In regard to the 1871-76; of the various journalists woman and the surprising career dance, the fact is that the source and later authors, mainly women, of a prolific, educated, historically tradition is about a woman, but who mentioned or discussed her unknown woman philosopher in not apparently by one. It does rep- and her paper in newspapers and the 1870s. resent a woman expressing herself, magazines across the eastern half In a brief discussion after the pa- however, and being capable of of the United States in the 1880s pers I was led to reveal the shock- high spirituality, being a bride of and 1890s. I had also hoped to call ing fact that Hathaway’s manu- Krishna. And it was presented by

12 SPRING 2015 a woman. So it was to this extent had actually left out Amalia Hatha- any audience to believe that this feminist. In regard to the paper way’s name. was possible. Unaware, I was still on Preston, it took for granted the Admittedly, my submission title defensive about women’s philo- worthiness and importance of her was long and cumbersome: some- sophical powers. thought--treated her, so to speak, thing had to be omitted. I expect- To see Hathaway’s brilliance like a man. Insofar it represented ed it to be The Concord School, needs knowledge of Schopenhau- the acceptance of women philoso- but in fact I had to admit it was er—and Kant, Plato, Hegel, Comte, phers as unproblematically equal more plausible to omit Hathaway, Spencer, if not Bowen. But the to men. If I remember correct- because her name is, after all, gender question (I take it) is why ly, there was no particular or no not known and that of the Con- did Hathaway—in Illinois, in the strong attempt to tie Preston’s cord School is. And so the sequel 1870s—choose to cultivate bril- ideas to her gender or to gender. showed. liance in Philosophy? And it does In my own case, I had also de- This suggests several thoughts. not require philosophical knowl- clined to make gender the point of Why did I put the Concord School edge to pursue that. my reading, although I stated, and in the title? Because I thought I Carol Bensick has been a CSW Research believe, that this can and should be had better include something that Scholar since 2010. She received done. Nor did audience questions scholars would recognize. The her Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Cornell University in take an especial feminist tack. But same reason the chair evidently 1982 after completing a dissertation then they had not been encour- foregrounded it in the program. We titled “La Nouvelle Beatrice: Renaissance aged to. didn’t trust the name of Hathaway Medicine and New England Theology.” To be sure, the Society for the to attract an audience. She has taught at University of Denver, Study of Women Philosophers has If this means anything, perhaps Cornell University, UCLA, University of Oregon, and UC Riverside. Her book, not historically always stressed it is that in presenting forgotten La Nouvelle Beatrice: Renaissance and scholarly politics, being primarily women philosophers, or women Romance in “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” historical and empirical. Other anything, it is critical to insist on was published in 1984. Her most groups in Philosophy, including the them by name and to be explicit recently published articles include “Esther Edwards Burr” in American worldwide Societies for Women in and forceful about their impor- National Biography (1999) and “Partly Philosophy, and the APA Commit- tance. This translates to belief in Sympathy, Partly Rebellion: May Ward, tee for the Status of Women, do them. If we don’t believe in the Hawthorne, and The Scarlet Letter,” in this. But I wondered, did this lack importance of our foundlings, we Hawthorne and Women (1999). She gave papers at the Summer Institute for of a feminist slant have anything to might almost as well leave the in 2012 and 2013 do with our lack of an audience? manuscripts uncollected. on and Jane Addams and Without this, the panel’s appeal In retrospect, it’s apparent that on and Women. was to scholars of material culture, I tried to present Hathaway as a Author’s note: At the conference, pessimism (or the Concord School Schopenhauerian. But if that was an editor from Lexington Press of Philosophy), or Hinduism. (That my goal, I should have tried to get made an appointment with me to there would be a dance wasn’t on a panel about Schopenhauer discuss a possible book. Thanks on the program.) It made perfect or at least German philosophy. For to CSW, I am now in touch with sense that the main question about the Society for the Study of Wom- their consulting editor of American my paper was about the Concord en Philosophers, I should have Philosophy to discuss doing a book School, because and as I had foregrounded gender. Why didn’t on Julia Ward Howe. forgotten, I had made the Concord I? Because I was anxious to show School a leading part of my sub- (off) how brilliant in her interpre- mission title. In fact, I was shocked tations Hathaway was. And why to belatedly discover, the program was that? Evidently I did not trust

UCLA Center for the Study of Women 13