American pragmatism was developed in the 1870s by mathematician and philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce and expanded on by other classic pragmatists including William James and John Dewey. This uniquely American branch of philosophy was built on the concept of the “pragmatist maxim”, which supported the idea of looking at the contents of a hypothesis or of any concept by first acknowledging its practical consequences and rejecting all unpractical solutions. It became a study of ethics through the scientific method. Dewey's conceived his philosophy as a means of social criticism and as “an instrument of social improvement" aimed at the development of democratic ideals and self-development. Pragmatism was not applied and was not able to reach …show more content…
Dewey’s expectations, however, until it was used to justify the creation of settlement houses in the early 1900s by Jane Addams. Pragmatic ideology then resurfaced with the increase in humanitarian policy, such as the creation of the Peace Corps under the Kennedy administration and its centralization. These programs were justified through a pragmatic lense as they were adapted for changing experiences. Policymakers acknowledged the most they could do to help those in need as well as the consequences of such actions. In the post Cold War era, the US engaged in peacekeeping operations and missions from Cambodia to Somalia to Kovosco under the backing of pragmatic policies. Thus, the pragmatic maxim, initially disregarded for lacking practical use, became an instrument for social progress aimed at expanding democratic life both nationally and internationally, although its role in American policy The empirical foundations of pragmatism can serve as a way to understand social action. Dewey’s pragmatism is said to be uniquely American in its “struggle to incorporate the Enlightenment and the Romantic Counter-Enlightenment tradition [...] into a philosophy for an America whose national, legal, and cultural identity is in Enlightenment truth” This search for the truth, which has been a topic of interest since America’s earliest years, led to a philosophy which focuses on the practical applications of ideals instead of abstract and intricate moral concepts. The pragmatic maxim entails three basic foci: “institutionalism, rational choice theory, and a means-end interest foundation,” where social actors, through created institutions, recognize and account for the consequences of an action rationally. Thereby, they gain control over their own destinies. Pragmatist theory serves as a valuable heuristic, turning loosely tied situations, into a carefully thought out program of social action. This pragmatic approach to social action can be seen with Jane Addams's Hull House in the Progressive Era.
Addams created the first American settlement house in the densely packed immigrant neighborhoods of Chicago-- an industrial city. Settlement workers in the House provided services for poor immigrants and sought to remedy poverty. Her humanitarian action was continuous process grounded in her own experience. The social settlement did not have preset guidelines or fixed rules, but was flexible in its policies throughout Addam’s discovery of new community issues. Addams’s social settlement was “to be a part of its own immediate community, to approach its conditions with no preconceptions [...] but to find out what the problems of this community” In order to take into account the convictions of many, Addams visited women in Toynbee Hall. Toynbee Hall, founded in 1883, was situated in one of the poorest urban neighborhoods of East London. Here, she came face-to-face with a solution to the growing problem back home. Addams also tried to actively understand particularities of poverty and social provision in Chicago, visiting the Clybourne Avenue mission and the Armour mission, among others, to see what kind of services they offered the poor. She then took time to devise a plan of action after considering the "careful survey" of all variables influencing the situation and the what effects would have practical bearings on her plan of action. This lead to a flexible approach in which the settlement houses were constantly adjusted and practical in both goals and purpose. The houses had no concrete end goal. For instance, if settlement workers noticed that children in the houses were becoming too lethargic compared with children of comparable ages in the suburbs, the pragmatic creators of the houses would see it as a consequence of living in the house and would, “They will deliberate, explore, observe, and experiment, in order to zero in on the cause or causes so that
they can also explore possible solutions”, eventually coming up with a solution with a long term view, not a “ merely a treatment of symptoms.” Through this, Addams was able to help the immigrants of Chicago in a practical way and constructed the women of Hull-House constructed new vocabularies of social change. Addams maintained pragmatic rhetoric when promoting her cause. To Addams, pragmatic rhetoric would only help rally the American public around settlement houses as they would see it as a practical solution to a seemingly unsolvable problem. In her 1907 book, Democracy and Social Ethics, Addams propagates her settlement house solution through the use of language free from moral precepts. She writes, “the processes of life are as important as its aims”, showing that ultimately, idealistic morals are only meaningful if translated into action. She furthers “We continually forget [...] that speculation in regard to morality is but observation and [...] that a situation does not really become moral until we are confronted with the question of what shall be done in a concrete case, and are obliged to act.” A similar rejection of idealism can be found in a her following works such as in, Newer Ideals of Peace, published in 1907. In her second work, Addams takes on a more aggressive idea of the application of pragmatism to social situations. She urges her readers to take into account minute details in situations and have a flexible response style to everyday events as she says that it is “the only hope for a genuine adjustment of our [...] present social and industrial developments”. By advancing the pragmatic maxim, Addams is able to make full use of America’s desire to focus on questions that have definitive answers and to figure out solutions to problems. This sentiment is part of what made her movement so popular: more than 100 settlement houses were opened by the 1900s in cities such as New York City and Boston. The same pragmatic approach applies to the rationale for the creation of the peace corps in the cold war era. Roughly from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s, the world's two superpowers-the United States and the Soviet Union-were locked in military, social, ideological, and economic struggles which constantly threatened, but ultimately fell just short of, all-out conventional, or hot, war.
Whittlesey, Robert B. The South End Row House and its Rehabilitation for Low-Income Residents. Boston:
Two Works Cited Victoria Bissell Brown's introduction to Twenty Years at Hull-House explains the life of Jane Addams and her commitment to insight social change to problems that existed during the turn of the 20th century. As a reaction to the hardships of a changing industrial society, Addams decided to establish a settlement house in the West side of Chicago to help individuals who had suffered from the cruelties of industrialization. Rejecting the philosophies that stemmed from the Gilded Age, such as social Darwinism and the belief that human affairs were determined by natural law, Addams was a progressive who wanted government to be more responsive to the people.
The 1890s-1920s is what is referred to today as the Progressive Era. This was a time in which many people rose to push their beliefs and create a better future for America. These people called themselves progressives and they would make America the place we know today. They addressed important issues such as women’s rights, working conditions, and temperance. One such reformer was a woman named Mary Harris Jones. Mary Jones, later known as Mother Jones, was one of the most successful and effective progressive reformers of all time due to her experiences, work in labor agitation, and effective speeches.
With limited career opportunities for women, she began searching for ways to help others and solve the country’s growing social problems. In 1888, Addams and her college friend, Ellen Gates Starr, visited Toynbee Hall, where the two women observed college-educated Englishmen “settling” in desperately poor East London slums where they helped the people. This gave her the idea for Hull House. In the years from 1860 through 1890, the prospect of a better life attracted nearly ten million immigrants who settled in cities around the United States. The growing number of industries produced demands for thousands of new workers and immigrants seeking more economic opportunities.
Why does Jane Addams think women should have the right to vote? Please summarize her argument in your own words.
As usual, women and blacks were taken away the chance of change from their original state. Women continued to endure suffrage by being perceived as an inferior and being pressed with the challenges in the home and workplace. Similarly, blacks continue to be obscured of rights, being treated as a non-humans and given the worst possible situations in any job or social matter. However, Jane Addams, founder of the Hull House, always seemed to have an open door to those in need. She worked to solve problems and provide better living and working conditions and advocating for workers. She also helped immigrants, setting an example for all people, regardless of the places they go (Doc 3).
Susan B. Anthony, a woman’s rights pioneer, once said, “Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done” (“Women’s Voices Magazine”). Women’s rights is a hot button issue in the United States today, and it has been debated for years. In the late 1800’s an individual named Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote literature to try and paint a picture in the audience’s mind that gender inferiority is both unjust and horrific. In her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman makes the ultimate argument that women should not be seen as subordinate to men, but as equal.
The progressive era was a time of enormous changes that flourished in the United States. Activists demanded a reform in education, technology, science, and Democracy. Purification of government was the main goal, and it was during this time that progressives made “scientific” the social sciences, especially history, economics and political sciences (http://www.iep.utm.edu). It was also during this era (1890’s-1920’s) that the Federal Reserve System was founded. The 16th through 19th amendments, the Food and Drug Act, and Federal Trade Commission were also put into play. It wasn’t until World War I that such drastic change started to slow. Amidst all this change existed an amazing woman by the name of Jane Addams; a political activist and pragmatist whom made enormous social and economic changes to the United States. It wasn’t until the late 20th century however that she was properly recognized as one of the most influential philosophers and sociologists of her time (http://americanhistory.unomaha.edu).
The Hull House was an important step for the many Chicago immigrants needing help. Although it started out as a nursery, the mothers of the children would sit in a room to sit and talk. The house later developed into a larger house of education. Here, you could take classes, do activities, and learn English. The mansion had many options for one person to keep busy with. Many immigrants brought their children to the Hull House, too. Here, the children were taken care of and also paid very close attention to. Adults also found a warm welcome in this mansion. There were clinics, exhibits, and different typos of classes being taken to further their education.
In the 1890s, American women emerged as a major force for social reform. Millions joined civic organizations and extended their roles from domestic duties to concerns about their communities and environments. These years, between 1890 and 1920, were a time of many social changes that later became known as the Progressive Era. In this time era, millions of Americans organized associations to come up with solutions to the many problems that society was facing, and many of these problems were staring American women right in the face.
From the traditional masculine point of view, Manifest Destiny provided a strong argument for American imperialism. As “the great nation of futurity,” the United States for many imperialists had a fundamental duty to help heathen countries reach “the star-studded heavens,” and if expansionism also resulted in increased trade and market penetration, all the better. The bloody conflicts peppered throughout this path to heaven – the Spanish-American war, the Philippine-American war, the Boxer Rebellion – were but small hiccups to this fundamental goal, setbacks created by racial inferiors not yet aware of democracy’s beauty.
The communities were built with an abundance of houses that would allow families with all of the same interests to reside as one and work together as community. These communities would have community events to bring the community closer. The citizens of these communities were the typical American families with cars and children that lived in the house with the white picket fence. The citizens of the communities would compete to see who had the best decorated houses and win awards. It kept the community members involved in the community (Hales, Levittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb). This type of community helped camouflage the lives of
In Twenty Years at Hull-House, Jane Addams made the assertion that young people long to “socialize their democracy.” Throughout her autobiography she highlighted several reasons why socialization of American Democracy was necessary for the early twentieth century American cities; Among these reasons were the need for humanitarianism, unification, and justice. Although almost a hundred years have passed, I believe that American democracy today still shows evidence of similar needs for socializing and the young citizens of our country still exhibit the same longing to “socialize their democracy.”
Mary Wollstonecraft and Jane Addams were woman fighting for women’s rights, equality and equal education. Mary Wollstonecraft was “raised in the second half of the eighteenth century” (Gutek, 2013, pg 202). Mary was raised in a dysfunctional family, this was in results form an alcoholic father. “The effects of growing up in a violent household exerted a powerful formative influence in shaping Mary’s personality” (Gutek, 2013, pg. 204). She resented her older brother due to the fact he would inherit the families land all because he was male. “Mary learned to detest situations that seemed to resemble her childhood, in which she was powerless and controlled by a domineering person. Even though she
She helped turn the United States issues and concerns to mothers, such as the needs of children, public health, and world peace. Addams became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and is a founder of the social work profession. Many wealthy women became important long term donors to the house. Another thing Addams was well known for is co-founding the Hull-House, where new roles were developed for women such as social and educational opportunities. The Hull House was a center for research, empirical analysis, study, and debate, as well as a pragmatic center for living in and establishing good relations with the neighborhood. Residents of Hull-house conducted investigations on housing, midwifery, fatigue, tuberculosis, typhoid, garbage collection, cocaine, and truancy. Its facilities included a night school for adults, clubs for older children, a public kitchen and so on. Addams was born in 1860 so she was always around the fact of women not having rights, she had to fight for all women to have the equalities of men. After she completed that she decided to keep it going and help women in all sorts of