Making Hegel Talk English" — America's First Women Idealists Dorothy G
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Montclair State University Montclair State University Digital Commons Department of Religion Faculty Scholarship and Department of Religion Creative Works 12-1997 "Making Hegel Talk English" — America's First Women Idealists Dorothy G. Rogers Montclair State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/religion-facpubs Part of the Religion Commons MSU Digital Commons Citation Rogers, Dorothy G., ""Making Hegel Talk English" — America's First Women Idealists" (1997). Department of Religion Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 5. https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/religion-facpubs/5 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Religion at Montclair State University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Department of Religion Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works by an authorized administrator of Montclair State University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BOSTON UNIVERSITY Dissertation "MAKING HEGEL TALK ENGLISH" — AMERICA'S FIRST WOMEN IDEALISTS by DOROTHY G. ROGERS B.A., Gordon College, 1986 M.T.S., Boston University, 1991 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 1997 © Copyright by Dorothy G. Rogers, 1998 Approved by First Reader: James W. Schmidt, Ph.D. University Professor and Chair, Political Science Department Boston University Second Reader: Hugh W. Baxter, Ph.D. Associate Professor, School of Law Boston University Third Reader: Klaus E. Brinkmann, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy and Associate Chair, Philosophy Department Boston University Note: Minor editorial changes were made to this document before posting online. Introduction This is the first philosophical examination of the women of the St. Louis and Concord philosophical movements -- both individually and as a group.1 The St. Louis Philosophical Movement (1866-1880) and the Concord School of Philosophy (1879-1888) were two branches of the same idealist movement which attempted to adapt German thought (primarily Hegel) to the American context; or "to make Hegel talk English," as its leader, William Torrey Harris (1835-1909) described the groups' objective. Toward this end, Harris and his colleagues applied their philosophical ideas to practical matters: social and political concerns -- education in particular. Many of the members of the movement during its early years in St. Louis, therefore, were educators in the public school system, and the majority of these were women.2 Although their influence waned greatly after the turn of the twentieth century, the lives and works of the men of the St. Louis and Concord movements were relatively well chronicled over the years. Biographies were published on four of the men in the movement, and over a dozen books or theses discuss their influence or aspects of their theory. In addition, there are over thirty articles and book chapters discussing the men and their ideas. The women who were part of these movements, on the other hand, have largely been ignored by historians of philosophy in America. Aside from this book, the following have been devoted to a discussion of America’s first women idealists: one thesis, one booklet, and one fairly lengthy unpublished manuscript; sixteen articles and book chapters. And the majority of these works focus on one woman in particular and her educational theory.3 One plausible reason for the near exclusion of women from the historical exploration of the American idealist movement is the fact that their work focused almost solely on education. As educational theory joined the several social sciences in becoming disciplines distinct from philosophy in the late 1800s, both 1 Short memorial or biographical sketches have been produced, and in some cases the St. Louis and Concord women have been recognized for their practical work, but they have not been discussed as philosophical thinkers. 2 Of the twenty-eight individuals who were active in the St. Louis movement, sixteen were public school teachers. Ten of these were women. See Appendix I for a list of these individuals. 3 The woman most widely recognized for her achievements was Susan E. Blow, who imported German kindergarten education theory into the U.S. The book and manuscript mentioned here discuss her life and work. Ten of the articles and book chapters also focus on Blow. Dorothy Rogers – “Making Hegel Talk English” © 1998 – page 3 of 243 the women idealists and their ideas were set aside by students of philosophy. Two are still recognized as important educators, but their theoretical work has never been admitted into the philosophical canon. Another likely explanation for their exclusion is the fact that they were women. This is not simply to charge philosophers and/or philosophical historians since 1900 with sexism. It is instead to point to a very significant reality in the professional development of women philosophers during this period: namely, academic opportunity. Although ‘female seminaries’ where young women could get a degree of academic training came into being in the 1820s and 1830s, more nearly equal educational opportunities did not become widely accessible until the 1870s when a number of state universities became co-educational. Even then, the more elite institutions barred admission to women. Therefore, the women discussed here did not have access to the duties, benefits, and privileges that come with entrance into the halls of higher knowledge. One of the five, Susan Elizabeth Blow (1843-1916), had no formal education to speak of but instead was privately tutored. The education of three of them, Anna Callender Brackett (1836-1911), Grace C. Bibb (1842-1912), and Ellen M. Mitchell (1838-1920), ended at the secondary school level, although this almost certainly included ‘normal school’ training for each. Only the youngest of them completed a bachelor’s degree. This was Marietta Kies (1853-1899) who then went on to earn the Ph.D. Unfortunately, even late twentieth-century feminist historians did not encounter the St. Louis and Concord women, perhaps because they were not political activists, although some were on the periphery of the suffrage movement. Yet these were accomplished women who participated in the early stages of the development of idealism in the U.S., and they deserve more attention than they have had in the past. In the pages that follow, a chapter is devoted to each of them. The first half of each chapter focuses on the subject’s life and practical work; the second half discusses her philosophical ideas. However, discussing the women alone would be to tell only half the story. Therefore, the book begins with a discussion of the St. Louis movement as a whole and its later incarnation in New England at the Concord School of Philosophy. Chapter one gives brief descriptions of the male leaders of the movement in St. Louis and Concord: William Torrey Harris (1835-1909), Henry C. Brockmeyer (1826-1906), Denton J. Snider (1841-1925), George H. Howison (1834-1916), Thomas Davidson (1841-1900), Louis Soldan (1842-1908), and George S. Morris (1840-1889). It might disappoint some readers that I have chosen to begin with a chapter on the Dorothy Rogers – “Making Hegel Talk English” © 1998 – page 4 of 243 male contemporaries of America's first women idealists. Yet, as with all thinkers, the women in St. Louis and Concord did not create their ideas ex nihilo, but instead were part of an intellectual community. Furthermore, while the women were quite well-known in their day, their male contemporaries received more lasting attention, thus more information is available about them than is the case with the women under discussion here. Therefore, this book necessarily opens with a look at those traditionally considered the "true leaders" of America's early idealist movement: the men. This points to a problem that constantly presented itself throughout my research on this group of women. Not only did male historians fail to chronicle the lives and work of this group; the women themselves failed to leave a decent paper trail. None of the women published a work comparable to Denton Snider's recollections, The St. Louis Movement. None produced an intellectual/biographical sketch of any of her female contemporaries. And the letters and unpublished manuscripts of this group have rarely been preserved. Only Susan Blow collected and preserved her correspondence, yet this contains few references to women in her philosophical circles. Thankfully, because men in the St. Louis movement were such good promoters and archivists, letters to Harris from Beeson, Bibb, and Blow and letters to Davidson from Beeson, Bibb, Brackett, Mitchell, and Sherman also remain. Particularly in St. Louis where the movement began, philosophy was thought to have practical significance, and education was its main focus. Not only was Harris the founder and editor of the nation’s first journal devoted to exclusively to philosophy, The Journal of Speculative Philosophy (1867-1893), he was also a principal in and then superintendent of the St. Louis public school system (1859-1867; 1867- 1880), an active member of the National Education Association (1872-1909), an officer of the American Social Science Association (ca. 1870-1900), organizer and primary lecturer of the Concord School of Philosophy (1879-1888), and finally U.S. Commissioner of Education (1890-1906). Other men in the movement were also committed to both philosophy and its practical applications. Each was either a member of the St. Louis Philosophical Society or a contributor to The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. In most cases, they were involved in both of these projects. To cite some examples, Soldan, Snider, and Davidson taught in the public schools in St. Louis. Soldan was also a member of and leader in Dorothy Rogers – “Making Hegel Talk English” © 1998 – page 5 of 243 the National Education Association. Both Soldan and Davidson joined the Missouri Equal Suffrage League with Harris.