Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing by Marilyn Fischer (Author Meets Critics)

It is not an exaggeration to say that Jane Addams’s Evolutionary Theorizing: Constructing “Democracy and Social Ethics” will transform the way academics read, teach, and apply Jane Addams’s work. In her analysis Fischer offers close readings of the essays revised by Addams for inclusion in Democracy and Social Ethics. In addition, Fischer also offers careful analysis and explication of three additional essays (“The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements”, “The Objective Value of a Social Settlement,” and “A Function of the Social Settlement”) as they are important to laying the groundwork for understanding Addams’s project and nuances of her work. Fischer points out how Addams formulated these essays along historical and geographical axes based on an evolutionary understanding of ethics. These axes and this notion of evolutionary development come into view, however, only with Fischer’s painstaking and detailed explication of the original essays. Fischer performs this explication in multiple ways, including at the level of key words (e.g. democracy, sympathy, religion, science, primitive, selfish, and property) and central concepts (e.g. community of universal fellowship, generosity of spirit, and capitalism as a feudal relation) as well as in connection with theories (e.g. Darwin’s theory of Evolution and Fabian socialism) employed implicitly and explicitly by Addams to rhetorically position her arguments and achieve incremental change. Fischer’s analysis gives the reader a more informed understanding of the body of Addams’s early work, especially Democracy and Social Ethics, and offers corrections to recognized and often cited contemporary scholarship on Addams. This panel, fueled by Fischer’s explication, offers a clear opportunity to consider the ameliorative potential of pragmatism through the lens of this nuanced understanding of one of Addams’s central works, Democracy and Social Ethics. We are confident that scholars and teachers of Jane Addams will come to see Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing: Constructing "Democracy and Social Ethics” as required reading and our panel will aim to show why this should be the case.

To this end, our panel of critics will ask and attempt to address various questions, including but not limited to the following: Recognizing the problematic nature of the notion of evolutionary ethical development, we will ask to what extent insights from Addams can nevertheless be fruitfully employed to ameliorate pressing issues of our time? How should Fischer’s reading of Addams’s work impact the current standing of Addams’s scholarship? How might contemporary scholar activists employ insights from Fischer’s explication of Democracy and Social Ethics, to ameliorate problems they are addressing today? What implications does Fischer’s analysis have for how we should teach and how we might best engage students with Democracy and Social Ethics? What adjustments must be made to this scholarship and what import will these corrections have? Does Fischer get it right when she explicates Addams’s work on the meaning of, for example, science and what implication does this have for the application of her work?

In addition, mindful of the theme of the SAAP 2020 conference, one thread of our panel’s contribution will focus on how Fischer’s work contributes to the amelioration of common shared problems of North and South America. Questions we will ask related to this theme will include some or all of the following: We will together consider in what ways Addams’s concepts of democracy, social ethics, and universal fellowship are currently manifest and to what extent we might argue that these are lacking in the Inter-American relations between, for example, Mexico and the United States? We will consider to what extent Inter-American relations and related policies align with what Addams refers to as the era of association? We will ask how might Addams’s work (now better understood through Fischer’s invaluable explication) help us address issues such as Inter-American immigration and undocumented workers in the United States. Our panelists are poised to address these questions and more, with the ultimate goal of affording panelist and session attendees alike the opportunity to engage with this important new and invaluable scholarship on Jane Addams.

Critics: Dr. Danielle Lake, Director of Design Thinking and Associate Professor, Elon University. As a feminist pragmatist, her research interests surround cross-institutional and transdisciplinary civic engagement efforts designed to address wicked problems. Lake is in a unique position to consider application and relevance of Fischer’s work to publicly engaged scholars and activists today. In particular, Lake will show how Fischer’s analysis of Addams’s place-based, boundary-spanning methods of engagement visualize how scholar-activists might build relationships across Inter-American conflicts and uncover opportunities for co-action.

Dr. Barbara J. Lowe, Associate Professor of Philosophy, St. John Fisher College. As a feminist-pragmatist philosopher and a teacher of philosophical ethics with interest in applied contemporary issues, Lowe will offer reflections on how the application of this improved understanding of Addams’s work informs how we might best address pressing issues of our time including, for example, Intra-American undocumented immigration and name changes and monument removal of historically Confederate buildings and structures. Lowe is also the convener of this panel.

Dr. Scott L. Pratt, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oregon. With research and teaching interests in American philosophy (including pragmatism, American feminism, philosophies of race, and Native American philosophy), philosophy of education, and history of logic, Pratt is positioned to consider the extent to which Addams’s work, as explicated by Fischer, helps to reveal core ideas that can help us address problematic social issues of today.

Dr. Judy D. Whipps, Professor, Department of Integrative, Intercultural and Religious Studies,Grand Valley State University. Whipps is a feminist pragmatist philosopher who is a recognized Jane Addams scholar. She is the co-editor (with Fischer) of Addams’ Writings on Peace. Dr. Whipps brings to the panel this expertise of both Addams’s and Fischer’s work. She is in a position to offer questions meant to clarify the arguments Fischer offers, contributing a valuable and sometimes alternative scholarly perspective from that of Fischer.