From July 15 to 22, I attended
the Summer Institute on American Philosophy an annual program of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, in Eugene, OR. My paper, ”Reading
Dewey Reading Addams as Philosopher” (concerning John Dewey, the late nineteenth–early
twentieth-century philosophy professor, and Jane Addams, the famed co-founder
of the pioneering community center called "Hull House"), was scheduled in a
session titled “Feminist Pragmatism.” I pointed out (with specialized input from Charlene Seigfried of Purdue University in the audience and Marilyn Fischer of
the University of Dayton as the chair) how in his invited preface to a reprint
of Addams’ book on her pacifist activities in World War I, Peace and Bread in Time of War, Dewey shows how Addams’ pacifism
differed from that of her colleagues by being at bottom philosophical and
suggested that this was a way to get pacifist skeptics to reconsider her
argument in the book for giving up traditional political ways to organize international
government and replace them with democratic methods inspired by the immigrants’ organizations at Hull House.
My fellow presenter in the
session, Katherine Logan of the University of Oregon, gave a learned, relevant
paper around the topic of so-called work/life balance in the serious,
little-studied work of legal scholar Joan Williams. This presentation led to a
very suggestive discussion about how second wave–type feminism is now
marginalized in the academy despite the fact that its goals have only been
partially achieved. The session was the only session of eight on women
philosophers; however, one of the three sessions featuring
dissertations-in-progress, which is a regular feature of SIAP, included “The
Contested Environmental Voice: Pragmatism and Feminism,” by Tess Varner of the
University of Georgia. One of the three sessions featuring books in progress,
also a regular SIAP feature, showcased a textbook, to be titled American Philosophy: A Tradition of
Resistance, on American philosophy since the 1890s by Erin McKenna and
Scott Pratt. The text includes numerous women, familiar and unfamiliar, in
every chapter, including Sojourner Truth, Margaret Sanger, Martha Nussbaum,
Angela Davis, and Gloria Anzaldua. More importantly, one of the three plenary
sessions involved a woman philosopher: “Rereading Dewey through Addams,” with
Marilyn Fischer of University of Dayton and Amrita Banerjee of Oregon State
University. Fischer’s scholarly yet daring paper suggested among other things
that in some respects Dewey’s work was conservative, a claim that inspired
energetic discussion.
Most importantly of all from
the point of view of feminism, a woman philosopher by herself was the topic of
the two-part keynote by Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Purdue
University. Prof Seigfried, a
distinguished William James scholar who opened the discipline of American
philosophy to feminist scholarship in 1991 by asking the question, “Where are
all the Feminist Pragmatists?”, and by showing a way to answer it in 1996 with
her book Feminism and Pragmatism:
Reweaving the Social Fabric. Seigfried’s two-part address—“Claiming
Authority: Jane Addams Constructs a Social Self,” on the autobiographical
opening chapters of Twenty Years at Hull
House, and “The Social Self in Addams’ Prefaces and Introductions,” on
Addams’ other nine authored or co-authored books—was drawn from chapters of her
book in progress. Clearly, Jane Addams received a gratifying amount of attention
at the event; however, there was a general lack of attention to other women
philosophers.
A plenary seminar on Harlem
Renaissance philosopher Alain Locke,“Critical Pragmatism and Insurrectionist
Ethics,” did mention a few women, including Maria Stewart and Lydia Maria Child, as insurrectionists. Another book-in-progress session, by Professor Doug
Anderson of Southern Illinois University, was about Common Sense Saints: Fuller, Marley, Anzaldua, and Thoreau, a book
that includes Margaret Fuller and Gloria Anzaldúa as titular subjects on a level
with Marley and Thoreau. Unfortunately, my own paper was scheduled at the same
time so I was unable to attend. Although women presenters were unusually well
represented in the most dignified places, more female voices would have been
welcome in the sessions. There may be a connection between the lack of
visibility of women philosophers (other than Addams) and the comparative lack of
women who submit proposals. Male outnumbered female attendees twice over. Although not explicitly about women philosophers,
next year’s plenary sessions, “Feminist Interpretations of William James” by
Shannon Sullivan and “Indigenous Philosophy,” may inspire more proposals about
feminist philosophy and (indigenous) women philosophers respectively. Altogether, SIAP 2012 was an inspiring, educational, and enjoyable intellectual experience.
—Carol Bensick
Carol Bensick is a CSW Research Scholar. Her current
research project, titled “The Rise and Stall of Feminist Women's History of
Philosophy: Help from the Archives of Julia Ward Howe,” concerns a female
philosopher. Detailed primary and secondary texts pertaining to Julia Ward
Howe prove that the work of women who read, taught, discussed, and even
published on great texts of philosophy with elite university faculty could
vanish with their deaths not because their philosophy itself had been
discredited or refuted but for no other apparent reason than that their gender
caused discomfort, displeasure, or disapproval in their
contemporaries—including their own children. This project will document Howe's
work and legacy.
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