Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2006 Optimistic Liberals: Herbert Spencer, the Brooklyn Ethical Association, and the Integration of Moral Philosophy and Evolution in the Victorian Trans-Atlantic Community Christopher R. Versen Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES OPTIMISTIC LIBERALS: HERBERT SPENCER, THE BROOKLYN ETHICAL ASSOCIATION, AND THE INTEGRATION OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND EVOLUTION IN THE VICTORIAN TRANS-ATLANTIC COMMUNITY By CHRISTOPHER R. VERSEN A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006 Copyright © 2006 Christopher R. Versen All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Christopher R. Versen defended on March 15, 2006. ______________________________ Neil Jumonville Professor Directing Dissertation ______________________________ Joseph McElrath Outside Committee Member ______________________________ Michael Ruse Committee Member ______________________________ Albrecht Koschnik Committee Member ______________________________ Frederick Davis Committee Member The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii To my father, Greg Versen, whose example has always lighted my way. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have willingly (and on occasion desperately) grasped a number of helping hands along the way to finishing this dissertation. Though all those people and institutions that provided help should not be blamed for the errors herein, they do deserve credit for encouraging it to a successful conclusion. First among them are my family and friends. Susan and Alexander have been my constant support and inspiration. My parents, Greg and Susie Versen, and my siblings, Jill and Stephen never wavered in their faith that I could finish this thing, and they buoyed me through some tough times. My closest friends, Patrick Alley and Matthew Walter, too, have been constantly supportive and kept me well grounded in the world outside academia. My deepest intellectual and professional debts have been accumulated among the faculty and staff at Florida State University. My advisor, Neil Jumonville, has helped to shepherd me through courses, comps, writing, and defense. Jonathan Grant, though not directly involved in my course work or research, was the most unselfish, helpful, enthusiastic, and wise mentor I had in the program. My work with him in the Preparing Future Faculty Program and time with him personally has been invaluable. Paul Elliott, emeritus member of the Biology faculty, became a good friend over the years and lent me his wit and wisdom throughout the process. V. J. Connor, Joe Richardson--both now safely retired from the department--and Jim Jones, were wonderful examples of scholars, teachers, and mentors. Several scholars arrived after I had begun the program and lent me their direction as recent graduates, their fresh insights, and their enthusiastic support to my work: Albrecht Koschnik, Fritz Davis, and Michael Creswell. Joe McElrath and Michael Ruse were invaluable to me as both instructors and as dissertation advisors despite the many demands on their time. Lucy Patrick, director of Special Collections at Strozier Library was an ever-helpful resource who ran the best section of the university’s library system. Too often overlooked are the people who make a department run and smooth the way for students. Special thanks go to Chris Pignatiello, Debbie Perry, and Julie Barrett, who took care of this fumbling student far better than he deserved. Faculty members outside FSU also deserve credit for the help and direction that they lent me. The faculty at James Madison University, especially Michael Galgano, Lee Congdon, Jack Butt, David Owusu-Ansah, and Chris Arndt, gave me an excellent preparation for my doctoral work. Above all, I thank Henry Myers who directed my master’s thesis and represents the iv gentleman and scholar I hope to be. I must mention, too, Ron Numbers, whose suggestion that somebody should write a history of Spencer’s influence in America led me into this quagmire. I acquired even more debts on my research trips. Susan Abram at the Brooklyn Public Library was knowledgeable, efficient, and remarkably helpful even after I had returned to Tallahassee. Frances O’Donnell, Russell Pollard, and Clifford Wunderlich at Andover-Harvard Theological Library were very accommodating and instructive, particularly regarding the connections between John W. Chadwick, Lewis G. Janes, and Charles Lyttle. The rest of the staff at Andover-Harvard, too, were as professional and efficient as anyone could hope. Finally, without Amy Rupert, director of the archives and special collections at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute library, and her staff I doubt that I could have ever plowed through and copied the Skilton Family Papers that made this dissertation possible. Generous financial support, too, was crucial for my research trips north. The most generous support came from the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana--Bloomington in the form of a Helm Research Fellowship. The Maurice M. and Patricia V. Vance Scholarship in Intellectual History provided an important means of support through my last year of writing. The department of history, though a J. Leitch Wright Dissertation Research Travel Award, provided funds for a preliminary trip to the Library of Congress, and it partially funded a trip to the American Historical Association annual conference in Philadelphia to present my research. Finally, I would like to thank those among my peers with whom I have had most helpful and enjoyable relationships. Eric Tenbus became a good friend in the short time that our paths ran together at FSU and since he left for Central Missouri State University. He and his family have been a pleasure to know. Susan and I have shared the many trials and celebrations of school and family life over the past few years with our new friends Jennifer and Tom Henderson. Karen Spierling and Scott Levi, who have recently settled into life in Louisville, have given me a great deal of useful advice on how to handle the tumultuous final years of graduate school. And a big high five to Lee Willis, my close compatriot in this our ultimate year of education; WOO HOO, were done! My deepest thanks go out to all of these people and organizations for their generous support and guidance through a very difficult process. If I have missed anyone, I am sincerely sorry and my only excuse is that I am doing this at the last minute. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract vii PREFACE 1 INTRODUCTION 4 CHAPTER 1: HERBERT SPENCER AND SOCIAL DARWINISM: A WRONGFUL CONVICTION 17 CHAPTER 2: HERBERT SPENCER’S INTELLECTUAL HERITAGE, EARLY WRITINGS, AND PROTO-EVOLUTIONISM 39 CHAPTER 3: SPENCER’S EVOLUTIONISM AND THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY 92 CHAPTER 4: BRINGING SPENCER TO AMERICA 154 CHAPTER 5: THE BROOKLYN ETHICAL ASSOCIATION 193 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 254 BIBLIOGRAPHY 257 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 273 vi ABSTRACT The farther history has moved beyond Herbert Spencer’s ideas the harder it has been for contemporary readers to understand either his thought or his striking popularity, particularly in America. As a result Spencer’s ideas and his historical context are badly in need of revision. The work of and his association with the Brooklyn Ethical Association (BEA) offer an excellent subject in which to pursue such a revision. By analyzing Spencer’s intellectual background, the structure and beliefs of the American Unitarian community that offered Spencer’s ideas a welcoming home, and the activities of the BEA between 1881 and 1891, this dissertation arrives at an explanation for Spencer’s popularity and precipitous decline. The explanation has six major components: 1) Spencer’s thought was distinctly eighteenth-century rather than nineteenth- century in its origins; 2) his ideas were part of an optimistic liberal current within the broader flow of post-Enlightenment liberalism that was overwhelmed in the twentieth century by pragmatic liberalism; 3) he and his followers and fellows often shared a common Arminian Christian heritage that believed in and looked to progressive human moral development; 4) ethics and human ethical development were at the center of his philosophy; 5) the evolutionism he developed from this background, and which was taken up by the members of the BEA, was based on an a priori belief in a law-bound universal order that was predictable, progressive, and beneficent; and 6) the social and political philosophy, and the reconciliation of individualistic liberalism and traditional conservatism it embodied, failed to resonate in a twentieth century dominated by rising urbanism, industrialism, militarism, and imperialism, in which pragmatic liberalism seemed to offer a better philosophical approach to such modern problems. In addition to providing a reinterpretation of Spencer’s ideas and a history of a key group of supporters, this dissertation demonstrates the importance of the trans-Atlantic intellectual community and traces important connections within it in the Victorian era. It also helps to frame the broader evolution debates by showing how Spencerian evolution was adapted and used by Americans late in the nineteenth century. vii PREFACE When I began this project, I intended