Jane Addams

First published Wed Jun 7, 2006; substantive revision Thu Jul 7, 2022

Jane Addams (1860–1935) was an activist, community organizer,international peace advocate, and social philosopher in the UnitedStates during the late 19th century and early 20th century. However,the dynamics of canon formation resulted in her philosophicalwork being largely ignored until the 1990s.^[1] Addams is best known for her pioneering activism in the socialsettlement movement—the radical arm of the progressive movementwhose adherents so embraced the ideals of progressivism that theychose to live as neighbors in oppressed communities to learn from andhelp the marginalized members of society. Although her contemporarieswidely lauded her activism and accomplishments, commentators typicallymapped Addams’ work onto conventional gender understandings:male philosophers such as John Dewey, William James, and GeorgeHerbert Mead were regarded as providing original progressive thought,while Addams was seen as brilliantly administering their theories.Recent work by feminist philosophers and historians has revealed thatAddams was far more than a competent practitioner. Her dozen publishedbooks, and over 500 articles display a robust intellectual interplaybetween experience and reflection in the American pragmatisttradition. The near half-century that she lived and worked as theleader of the Chicago social settlement, Hull House, allowed her tobring her commitment to social improvement, feminism, diversity, andpeace into reflective practice. These experiences provided thefoundation for an engaging philosophical perspective. Addams viewedher settlement work as a grand epistemological endeavor, but in theprocess, she never forgot her neighbors’ humanity. Addams was a publicphilosopher who was not afraid to get her hands dirty.

Addams’ philosophy combined feminist sensibilities with anunwavering commitment to social improvement through cooperativeefforts. Although she sympathized with feminists, socialists, andpacifists, Addams refused to be labeled. This refusal was pragmaticrather than ideological. Addams’ commitment to social cohesionand cooperation prompted her to eschew what she perceived as divisivedistinctions. Active democratic social progress was so essential toAddams that she did not want to alienate any group of people from theconversation or the participation necessary for effective inclusivedeliberation. Addams carefully varied her rhetorical approach toengaging a variety of constituencies, which makes identifying hersocial philosophy challenging. Accordingly, Addams did not intend toengage in philosophical narratives removed from social improvement,nor did she intend to pursue social activism without theorizing aboutthe broader implications of her work. In this respect, through herintegration of theory and action, Addams carried pragmatism to itslogical conclusion through her integration of theory and action,developing an applied philosophy immersed in social action. ThusAddams’ writing is replete with examples from her Hull Houseexperience addressing atypical topics for philosophic discourse, suchas garbage collection, immigrant folk stories, and prostitution. It iseasy for those steeped in traditional philosophy to dismissAddams’ writings as non-philosophical if the full sweep of herprojects and subsequent analysis is not considered. For those whopersevere, Addams offers a rich social and political philosophy builton respect and understanding that is refreshing in its faith in thepotential for collective progress.

Identifying Jane Addams as a philosopher requires appreciating thedynamic between theory and action reflected in her writing.Furthermore, Addams was a voracious reader and purveyor of theintellectual ideas of her time, such as evolutionary theory.Therefore, her writing is nuanced, with references that require acontextual understanding of pertinent ideas of the time. ReadingAddams, one finds a wellspring of nascent feminist philosophicalinsight. Addams’ ethical philosophy was guided by the notion ofsympathetic knowledge that she described as “the only way ofapproach to any human problem” (NCA 7). Sympathetic knowledge isa mingling of epistemology and ethics: knowing one another betterreinforces the common connection of people such that the potential forcaring and empathetic moral actions increases. Addams not onlytheorized about this idea, but she lived it. Sympathetic knowledgeunderwrote Addams’ approach to the diversity and staggeringpoverty (HHM) that she confronted in the immigrant neighborhoodsurrounding Hull House and allowed her to develop a precursor tocontemporary feminist standpoint epistemology. Addams’leadership among the American pragmatists in understanding the poorand oppressed resulted in a more radical form of pragmatism than Deweyand James, a social philosophy imbued with a class and genderconsciousness.

1. Life

Compared to the many biographical accounts of Addams’ life, relativelyfew comprehensively consider her philosophy. However, herphilosophical insights are closely tied to her life experiences whichare briefly recounted below.

Laura Jane Addams was born in Cedarville, Illinois, on September 6,1860. She grew up in the shadow of the Civil War and during a timewhen Darwin’sOrigin of the Species achieved widespreadinfluence. Her childhood reflected the material advantage of being thedaughter of a politician and successful mill owner, John Addams. WhenJane was two years old, her mother, Mary, died giving birth to herninth child. Subsequently, the precocious Addams doted upon her fatherand benefited emotionally and intellectually from his attention.Although John Addams was no advocate of feminism, he desired highereducation for his daughter. Therefore, he sent her to theall-women’s institution, Rockford Seminary (renamed laterRockford College) in Rockford, Illinois. As a result, Addams becamepart of a generation of women that were among the first in theirfamilies to attend college. At Rockford, she experienced theempowerment of living in a women-centered environment, and sheblossomed as an intellectual and a social leader. Her classmates andteachers acknowledged this leadership. Ultimately, Addams spearheadedan effort to bring baccalaureate degrees to the school and, afterserving as class valedictorian, received the first one.

Like many women of her time, Addams’ prospects after collegewere limited. She made a failed attempt at medical school and then,precipitated by her father’s death, slipped into a nearly decade-longmalaise over the direction of her life. At first, the energy andspirit of her undergraduate college experience did not translate intoany clear career path, given that she had rejected both marriage andreligious life. Moreover, Addams’ malady was somewhat analogousto the unidentified illness that her later acquaintance, CharlottePerkins Gilman (as described inThe Yellow Wallpaper),suffered. As a member of the privileged class, her soul searchingincluded a trek to Europe, which Addams made twice during this period.On the second trip, she visited Toynbee Hall, a pioneering Christiansettlement house in London, which was to inspire her in a directionthat propelled her toward international prominence (TYH 53).

Toynbee Hall was a community of young men committed to helping thepoor of London by living among them. After engaging the leaders ofToynbee Hall, Addams was rejuvenated by the idea of replicating thesettlement in the United States. She enlisted a college friend, EllenGates Starr, in the plan. However, identifying their vague idea as a“plan” is a bit of hyperbole. There were very few specificblueprints for what the settlement would be other than a good neighborto oppressed peoples. Nevertheless, Addams found a suitablelocation in a devastatingly poor Chicago immigrant neighborhood, andon September 18, 1889, Hull House opened its doors. Working amidst oneof the most significant influxes of immigrants the United States hasever known, Hull House got off to a slow start as neighbors did notknow what to make of the residents and their intentions. However,Addams and Starr built trust, and in a short time, HullHouse became an incubator for new social programs and a magnetfor progressives wanting to make society a better place. Withoutformal ideological or political constraints, the settlement workersresponded to the neighborhood’s needs by starting project afterproject. The list of projects created at Hull House is astounding,including the first little theatre and juvenile court in the UnitedStates and the first playground, gymnasium, public swimming pool, andpublic kitchen in Chicago. In addition, the work of Hull Houseresidents would result in numerous labor union organizations, a labormuseum, tenement codes, factory laws, child labor laws, adulteducation courses, cultural exchange groups, and the collection ofneighborhood demographic data. Hull House was a dynamo of progressiveinitiatives, all of which Addams oversaw.

The reputation of the settlement rapidly grew, and women, primarilycollege-educated, came from all over the country to live and workat Hull House. Although Hull House was co-educational, it was awoman-identified space. There were male residents at Hull House, someof whom later became prominent leaders. However, the policies,projects, decision-making, and methodologies of the Hull Housecommunity were gynocentric—foregrounding women’sexperience, analysis, and concerns. Furthermore, although a fewresidents were married, most were single, and some were in committedrelationships with other women. Given the drastic shifts in sexualmores in the twentieth century, the contemporary understanding of whatit means to be lesbian cannot straightforwardly be mapped onto thelate and post-Victorian eras. Still, it can be argued that HullHouse was a lesbian-friendly space. Addams set the tone for thisidentification with her own long-term intimate relationships withwomen, first with Starr and then with Mary Rozet Smith (Brown,2004).

From the outset of its operation, Addams theorized about the natureand function of Hull House. The language she used reflected herphilosophical approach. For example, in one published essay, Addamsdescribes the application and reorganization of knowledge as thefundamental problem of modern life and then claims that settlementsare like applied universities: “The ideal and developedsettlement would attempt to test the value of human knowledge byaction, and realization, quite as the complete and ideal universitywould concern itself with the discovery of knowledge in allbranches” (FSS 187). This kind of reflective analysis and widerthematization of her work and the social settlement work was ahallmark of Addams’ writing. Because of her insightfulreflections on the Hull House community, Addams became a popularauthor and sought-after public speaker. Eventually, she extended hercosmopolitan analysis to race, education, and world peace issues.For Addams, local experiences were always a springboard for politicaltheorizing.

Addams became one of the most respected and recognized individuals inthe nation. She played a crucial role in numerous progressivecampaigns. Addams was a founding figure in the National Associationfor the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil LibertiesUnion, and the Women’s International League for Peace andFreedom. Her popularity was such that when Theodore Roosevelt soughtthe presidential nomination of the Progressive Party in 1912, he askedJane Addams to second the nomination, the first time a woman hadparticipated in such an act. There was a gendered dimension to thispopularity, however. Addams had challenged the borders of the publicand private spheres through her work at Hull House. Still, herforays into masculine domains were masked by the “socialhousekeeping” characterization of the settlement activism. AfterWorld War I broke out in Europe, her outspoken pacifism and refusal toendorse the war or the U.S. entry into it was more gender roletransgression than the public could tolerate from a woman.Addams’ popularity fell, and she became the victim of viciousgender-specific criticism. Biographer Allen Davis reports that onewriter indicated that what Addams needed to disabuse her of herpacifism was “a strong, forceful husband who would lift theburden of fate from her shoulders and get her intensely interested infancy work and other things dear to the heart of women who have homesand plenty of time on their hands” (240). A reporter for theLos Angeles Times quipped,

If Miss Addams and her peace mission are a sample of women in worldaffairs, I want to take it all back. I am sincerely sorry I voted forsuffrage. (Davis, 253)

Her new role as social outcast and critic allowed the publicphilosopher in Addams to reflect on the nature of citizenship andpatriotism in her many books and articles—some of which haddifficulty getting into print because she was perceived asanti-American. Although she had written on peace early in her publiccareer (NIP), from 1914 through the end of her life, Addams’publications became decidedly more focused on issues of peace and war,including two books exclusively dedicated to the topic (WH, PBT) andseveral books with sections devoted to the nature and politics of war(LRW, STY, MFJ). Although initially criticized, Addams’ pacifisttenacity was ultimately lauded with the Nobel Peace Price (1931). Inthe last years of her life, she spent less time at Hull House and moretime working for world peace and an end to racism. Addams died ofcancer on May 21, 1935, leaving a tremendous intellectual legacy thathas yet to be fully explored.

2. Influences

Addams was well-read and could claim numerous and varied influences.However, Addams was no one’s protégé. Addams choseintellectual resources that resonated with her notion of sympatheticknowledge in bringing about social progress. A few significantinfluences are recounted here. Addams read Thomas Carlyle’s(1795–1881) work while she was attending Rockford Seminary.Carlyle’s social morality held a particular appeal to Addams. Hebelieved the universe was ultimately good and moral and led by adivine will that worked through society’s heroes and leaders.Carlyle wrote biographies of social saviors that came in the form ofpoets, kings, prophets, and intellectuals, mixing in commentary thatexplicated his moral philosophy. However, Carlyle’s heroesreflect the evolution of society, as different contexts requiredifferent leadership. These heroes can recognize the social dynamicsat work and use them for the benefit of others. Carlyle’s heroesevolved. For Carlyle, everyone has a public duty and needs to findthemselves or realize their place in the world and what their work onbehalf of society should be. Because of his emphasis on powerfulindividuals, Carlyle was not particularly fond of democracy. AlthoughAddams shed Carlyle’s notion of individualistic heroism and hisdisdain for democracy, she retained the valorization of moral actionthroughout her career. Furthermore, Carlyle’s morality wasgrounded in social relations: to be moral is to be in right relationwith God and others. Carlyle’s relational ethic is a precursor toAddams’ notion of sympathetic knowledge.

Addams was also influenced by John Ruskin (1819–1900), whotheorized that art and culture reflected the moral health of society.Although Ruskin maintained a certain elitism in his view that greatpeople produced great art, he also saw such great cultural works as amanifestation of the well-being of society as a whole. The plight ofthe oppressed was tied to a sense of the aesthetic. Indeed,Addams’ valorization of art and culture, as exhibited in theappearance and activities of Hull House resonates with Ruskin’saesthetics. For Addams, “Social Life and art have always seemedto go best at Hull House” (STY 354). Addams viewed art andcultural activities as reinforcing essential human bonds (DSE 29).Ruskin also influenced Arnold Toynbee and other future settlementworkers by identifying the problems in large industrial cities andcalling for reforms foreshadowing the safety nets typical of laterwelfare states. Ruskin valued labor as a noble means ofself-actualization. This became a crucial concept for Addams as shesought meaningful labor for those in the Hull House neighborhood. Forexample, Addams expresses sympathy for laborers who skipped work orcame in late for work because “all human interest has beenextracted from it” (SYC 129). Although Addams valuedRuskin’s moral imagination, the concept of labor, and ideasabout transforming the city through infusing culture, she rejected hisromanticization of the preindustrial past. With a strong belief insocial progress, Addams did not desire a return to a previous era. ForAddams, society should grow and adapt to its conditions, evenregarding moral philosophy.

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was another type of hero to Addams.Unlike Carlyle, Tolstoy did not valorize individuals standing out fromthe crowd as exemplary moral paragons who wield socially ordainedpositions of power. Instead, he valued solidarity with the commonlaborer. Addams’ vast intellectual curiosity made such extremesin influences possible. Addams read Tolstoy’s works from thetime she graduated from college until the last years of her life, andshe often praised his writing in articles and book reviews.Tolstoy’s emphasis on working for and with the oppressed whilewriting novels and essays that influenced a wider audience resonatedwith Addams’ work and writings. However, Tolstoy was a moralidealist. He left everything behind to take up the plow and work as atypical farm laborer. Addams was moved by Tolstoy’s account,and—typical of her self-critical, thoughtful approach--shequestioned her leadership role in the social settlement, but only fora short time.

Motivated by Tolstoy’s troubling moral challenge to work insolidarity with the common laborer, Addams sought him out while shewas on vacation (and recovering from typhoid) in Europe in 1896. Themeeting made a lasting impression on Addams (TYH 191–195).Tolstoy came in from working the fields to be introduced to Addams andher partner Mary Rozet Smith. The meeting began with Tolstoyquestioning Addams’ fashion choice because the sleeves of herarms, consistent with the style of the time, had “enough stuffon one arm to make a frock for the girl” (TYH 192). Tolstoy wasconcerned that the trappings of material wealth alienated Addams fromthose she was working with. This criticism continued when Tolstoylearned that part of Hull House’s funding came fromAddams’ estate, which included a working farm: “So you arean absentee landlord? Do you think you will help the people more byadding yourself to the crowded city than you would by tilling your ownsoil?” (TYH 192) The remarks humbled Addams, and, on her returnto Hull House, she was determined to take up more direct labor byworking in the new Hull House bakery. However, reality demonstratedhow Tolstoy’s idealism was incompatible with her work in socialsettlements: “The half dozen people invariably waiting to see meafter breakfast, the piles of letters to be opened and answered, thedemand of actual and pressing human wants—were these all to bepushed aside and asked to wait while I saved my soul by twohours’ work at baking bread?” (TYH 197)

Theoretically, the shared experience of common labor would break downclass distinctions. Addams had experienced such camaraderie at HullHouse, and she never stopped appreciating Tolstoy’s socialcriticism. However, she saw the value of intelligent leadership.Someone had to organize the clubs, arrange for philanthropic support,and chair the meetings. Addams found Tolstoy’s labor demand tobe self-indulgent to a certain extent. If she engaged in the labor ofthe poor exclusively, she might alleviate her upper-class guilt.Still, she would no longer be working holistically toward changing thestructure of society. Addams’ philosophy of civic activismvalued engagement through ongoing presence and listening. Indeed, HullHouse had a very flat and responsive organizational structure.Nevertheless, Tolstoy’s absolutist moral demands failed toconsider context—a hallmark of Addams’ approach.

Addams found Tolstoy’s pacifism inspiring. She admired howTolstoy sympathized with revolutionaries in the 1870s but did notcompromise his moral convictions because of these sympathies. Tolstoyoffered a doctrine of non-resistance that sought to substitute moralenergy for physical force. Addams once again did not acceptTolstoy’s pacifist ideas uncritically. For example, shequestioned the clarity of the categories (moral energy versus physicalforce) that Tolstoy created in his doctrine of non-resistance (TYH195). Addams also asked whether Tolstoy reduced social issues toosimplistically, albeit eloquently. Despite her less than pleasantmeeting with him, Addams cited Tolstoy as a positive moral examplethroughout her life. However, like all her influences, she could notaccept Tolstoy’s philosophy uncritically. Addams had to adaptand infuse her insight to make it work for the society she was a partof.

As previously mentioned, Toynbee Hall was an inspiration for HullHouse, and Canon Barnett (1844–1913), who served as“warden” of the settlement for over twenty years, was theinspirational force. Before his service at Toynbee Hall, Barnettworked as Vicar of St. Judes, Whitechapel. He instituted manyimprovements to the slums surrounding the Church, including buildingeducational and recreational programs. It was St. Judes that studentsfrom Oxford would visit, working to help improve conditions forresidents of the surrounding community, all the while engaging indiscussions about how to institute social reforms. One of thosestudents was Andrew Toynbee.

Barnett describes a threefold rationale for the development and growthof settlements: First, a general distrust that government-sponsoredinstitutions could care for the poor. In particular, government andprivate philanthropy appeared to be failing the masses. Second,Barnett viewed the need for information as spurring the rise ofsettlements. Barnett believed there was widespread curiosity regardingoppression that he could satisfy with documented observationsregarding the circumstances of the poor. Finally, Barnett notes agroundswell of fellowship not driven by traditional “Charitiesand Missions” but by fundamental humanitarianism. Settlementsprovided an outlet for these fellow feelings.

Addams was familiar with Barnett’s writings and often referredto them. For example, when Addams wrote “The Function of theSocial Settlement,” Barnett’s philosophy played aprominent role. She agrees that settlements should not bemissions because if they become too ideological, they will fail to beresponsive to their neighbors (FSS 344–345). However, despiteacknowledging that the term “settlement” was borrowed fromLondon, she finds differences between the philosophies of Toynbee Halland Hull House: “The American Settlement, perhaps has not somuch a sense of duty of the privileged toward the unprivileged of the‘haves’ to the ‘have nots,’ to borrow CanonBarnett’s phrase, as a desire to equalize through social effortthose results which superior opportunity may have given thepossessor” (FSS 322–323). Addams is very concerned about asense of moral superiority attributed to settlement work. She alwayseschewed the notion that she was a charitable “ladybountiful.” Instead, she wanted to learn about others to developthe proper sympathies and strategies for assisting—sympatheticknowledge. For Addams, Hull House always combined epistemologicalconcerns with moral ones.

When Addams’ philosophy is considered, if at all, it is usuallyassociated with the work of John Dewey (1859–1952). Thisassociation is appropriate given their friendship and mutualinterests; however, her intellectual deference to Dewey is oftenoverstated. Dewey is considered one of the greatest Americanphilosophers. His name, along with William James, Charles SandersPeirce, and Josiah Royce, is included in the traditional list offounding fathers of what is labeled American Pragmatism. His workappealed to Addams because they shared many of the same commitments,including the value of a robust democracy as well as the importance ofeducation that engaged the student’s experience. Addams andDewey were intellectual soul mates from the moment they met in 1892.Dewey visited Hull House shortly after it opened and before he movedto Chicago to teach at the University of Chicago. Following themeeting, Dewey expressed to Addams an appreciation for HullHouse’s work, and he would become a frequent visitor. There wasmuch intellectual cross-fertilization between Hull House and theUniversity of Chicago andvice versa. Historian RosalindRosenberg describes Addams as ade facto adjunct professor atthe University of Chicago. Mary Jo Deegan documents that Addamstaught many college courses through the Extension Division of theUniversity of Chicago for a decade. In addition, she refused offers tojoin the undergraduate and graduate faculty (Deegan, 1988).Furthermore, Dewey assigned Addams’ books in his courses. Addamsand Dewey worked together personally and politically. When Hull Housewas incorporated, Dewey became one of the board members. He oftenlectured to the Plato Club, Hull House’s philosophy group. Deweydedicated his bookLiberalism and Social Action to Addams.Dewey named one of his daughters in her honor, and Addams wrote theeulogy for Dewey’s son Gordon (EBP).

Although Dewey and Addams gained celebrity status in their lifetime,their fame and legacies are characterized much differently. Dewey isframed as the great intellectual—a thinker—and Addams wasthe activist—a doer. As contemporaries, they represent classicarchetypes of gender: the male as mind generating theory and the womanas body experiencing and caring. However, there is much evidence thatsuch characterizations are inaccurate. Both John Dewey and hisdaughter, Jane, credit Jane Addams for developing many of hisimportant ideas, including his view on education, democracy, and,ultimately, philosophy (Schlipp, 1951). Despite the lack ofattribution in Dewey’s written work, many scholars documentAddams’ significant influence (Davis, 1973; Deegan, 1988;Farrell, 1967; Lasch, 1965; Linn, 2000; Seigfried, 1996)

Overshadowed by Addams’ relationship with the celebrityphilosopher, Dewey, was her strong tie to George Herbert Mead(1863–1931), who is considered the father of “symbolicinteractionism,” an approach to social inquiry that emphasizeshow symbols create meaning in society. Mead’s work ondevelopment through play and education influenced Addams, but, as withDewey, the influence was mutual. Addams maintained a long-term closepersonal relationship with Mead and his wife, Helen Castle Mead. Theyoften dined together and visited one another’s families. LikeAddams’, Mead’s intellectual legacy is not altogethersettled. Sociologists have recognized his works as significant, butmany philosophers have overlooked him.

Mead and Addams worked on several projects together, includingpro-labor speeches, peace advocacy, and the Progressive Party. WhenAddams was publicly attacked for not supporting the U.S. entry intoWorld War I, Mead defended her though he disagreed with her position.Like Dewey, Mead was a frequent lecturer at Hull House. Also, likeDewey, Mead could not help but be impressed with Addams’intellect. In 1916, Mead advocated awarding Addams an honorarydoctorate from the University of Chicago. The faculty supported theaward, but the administration overturned the decision (eventuallymaking the award in 1931).

Addams also maintained a friendship with William James(1842–1910), whose work she cites on many occasions. James was apragmatist whose vision of urban improvement would have been shared byAddams. James and Addams both valued experience, and among the“professional” pragmatists his writing style isclosest to Addams’ in terms of its readability and use oftangible examples.

Addams influenced and was influenced by the “ChicagoSchool,” an active collaboration of cross-disciplinary scholarsat the University of Chicago, including Dewey, Mead, James HaydenTufts, Robert E. Park, and others who had a significant impact onphilosophy, psychology, and sociology. Although she was oftenfrustrated with the abstract trajectory of the university, Addamsembraced reflective analysis. Through her Hull House experience,Addams took many opportunities to theorize about the interchangebetween theory and practice. For a time, American philosophy,sociology, and social work existed in a symbiotic harmony—eachnot differentiated from the other but benefiting from the interchange.Unfortunately, since the early 20^th century when Mead,Dewey, and Addams were together in Chicago, the intellectual genealogyof American philosophy, sociology, and social work has moredrastically diverged to a point where the crossover is less likely andperhaps less welcome. Lost in the compartmentalization of thesedisciplines is how Jane Addams played a role in each.

In addition to the Romantics (Carlyle and Ruskin), the socialvisionaries (Barnett and Tolstoy), and the pragmatists (Dewey andMead), Addams was influenced by the great collection of feminist mindswho came to work at the social settlement. Hull House has beendescribed in many different ways, reflecting the complexity anddiversity of its functions. Perhaps an overlooked descriptor is as apragmatist feminist “think tank.” Although the“Metaphysical Club” has taken on a mythical status amongsome in American philosophical circles (Menand, 2001), theintellectual, social, and political impact of the Hull House residentsdwarfs that of the Cambridge intellectuals. Hull House residentsdined, slept, did domestic chores, and engaged in social activismtogether. They also discussed and debated ethics, political theory,feminism, and culture while immersed in their tasks and stimulated bythe many speakers and visitors to Hull House. The prolonged contactshared gender oppression and common mission made for a uniqueintellectual collective that not only fostered action but alsotheory.

Ostensibly, Hull House was the first co-educational settlement. Addamsrecognized the need for male residents so that men in the neighborhoodcould better relate to Hull House endeavors. However, it was clear tovisitors and residents that Hull House was a woman’s space. HullHouse boasted some of the era’s great minds and change agents. AliceHamilton (1869–1970), a physician who trained in Germany and theU.S. and is credited with founding the field of industrial medicine,lived at Hull House for 22 years. She went on to teach at Harvard,becoming a nationally recognized social reformer and peace activist.Julia Lathrop (1858–1932) was a Vassar graduate who, in 1912,after residing at Hull House for 22 years, became the first woman tohead a federal agency, the Children’s Bureau, which, in terms ofconduct, she modeled after Hull House. Rachel Yarros(1869–1946), a twenty-year resident at Hull House, was also aphysician who taught at the University of Illinois. The universitycreated a position for Yarros to recognize her tremendous contributionto social hygiene and sex education. Author and feminist theoristCharlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) was a resident for a shorttime. Gilman thought highly of Addams but had no stomach forsettlement existence amongst the oppressed. However, Gilman’sgroundbreaking work on gender and economics likely influenced Addams.Sophonisba Breckinridge (1866–1948) graduated from Wellesley andobtained a Ph.D. in political science and a J.D. from the Universityof Chicago. Her most significant contribution was in the area ofsocial work education. Edith Abbott (1876–1957) and her sisterGrace Abbott (1878–1939) joined Hull-House about the time asBreckinridge (1907). Edith Abbott would obtain a Ph.D. in PoliticalEconomy from the University of Chicago, while Grace Abbott earned aPh.D. from Grand Island College in Nebraska. Edith would have anacademic career at the University of Chicago prior to her appointmentas Chief of the Children’s Bureau after Julia Lathrop’sdeparture. Mary Kenney (1864–1943) became a vital labororganizer for Samuel Gompers’ American Federation of Labor andinfluenced Addams’ sensitivity to the plight of organized labor,something that all progressives did not share. Bessie AbramowitzHillman, a Russian immigrant who attended classes at Hull House,founded the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) in 1910 atthe age of 20 and guided it for 60 years. Hillman referred to thesettlement as “a House of Labor”, and she worked with andadmired Addams until the latter’s passing. Another resident who becamea significant labor leader was Alzina Stevens. She headed the DorcasFederal Labor Union and became a member of the Council of Women’sTrade Unions of Chicago. Addams worked with and cultivated numerouslabor leaders during this nascent time of the American labor movement.These are only a few of the more well-known residents, but numerousfeminists used their Hull House experience as a springboard to careersin social reform or professions of various sorts. Addams engaged theresidents of Hull House in conversation and deliberation such thatthey influenced her thoughts and she theirs.

Although Hull House was replete with extraordinary minds, no one waslikely to be as intellectually challenging to Addams as FlorenceKelley (1859–1932). A Cornell graduate, Kelley translatedFriedrich Engels’The Condition of the Working Class inEngland and Karl Marx’sFree Trade into English.She was an active member of the Socialist Labor Party until theleadership, threatened by Kelley’s aggressive style, expelledher. A single mother with three children, Kelley found a home at HullHouse, where she opened an employment center and began researchingsweatshops for the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kelley wouldlater become the general secretary of the new Consumer’s League,an organization dedicated to using consumer pressure to ensure thatsafe and high-quality goods were manufactured. Kelley was one of themost distinguished social reformers of the early 20^thCentury.

At Hull House, Kelley altered the dynamics of the resident community.She brought a sense of class consciousness along with great strengthof conviction. After Kelley’s arrival (and Mary Kenny’scoming a year prior) Hull House became more deeply involved insupporting the labor movement, which men heretofore dominated. Kelleyalso learned from Addams, who she admired throughout her life. Perhapsthe legacy of the many accomplishments of the Hull-House residentssuffered because of the fame of their leader. Still, given theopportunity, each expressed their admiration and gratitude to Addamsfor making Hull House the hotbed of ideas and action. Addams was themost visible leader of a remarkable group of educated activists whosemutual respect allowed intellectual growth to flourish.

Finally, a few other influences are worthy of mention. Although shewas not personally religious, Addams’ Christian roots left theirmark. Addams was exceptionally well versed in the Christian bible andhad attended several religious courses during her time at RockfordSeminary. Addams occasionally used religious language to help get hermessage out to Christian constituencies. Addams was also wellacquainted with Greek philosophy and referenced Socrates, Plato, andAristotle in her work. Addams was attracted to the ability of Greekphilosophers to move between personal and social concerns rather thancompartmentalizing their philosophical analysis. Some have suggestedthat Addams was influenced by Auguste Comte (1798–1857) and thepositivists (Misheva 2019). Comte, who coined the term“sociology,” believed sciences need their own logic drawnfrom experience rather than Descartes’sa priori universalrationalism. Addams would have been attracted to his ideas aboutsocial progress and his development of a religion of humanity. Addamsalso read a great deal of literature, which influenced her ideasconcerning culture and sometimes seeped into her analysis, as it doeswhen she uses Shakespeare’sKing Lear to understandlabor-management relations. Although she did not believe that readingwas a substitute for direct experience, she did suggest more than oncethat reading great works of fiction as a means of developing asympathetic understanding.

The scholarship of philosopher Marilyn Fischer has revealed howsignificant social evolutionary thinking was for Addams.TheOrigin of the Species was published in 1859, a year prior toAddams’ birth. By the time Addams became a public intellectual,evolutionary thinking had not only become influential but was beingapplied to social phenomena as an explanatory narrative. Fischerdescribes, “Recognizing Addams’s use of socialevolutionary discourse, set within imaginative forms, reveals thelogic and sensibility of her layered ethical analysis” (Fischer2019, 13).

Although Addams had a wide variety of influences, as we have seen, shewas not a derivative thinker, as many commentators suggest. She drewupon a number of great theorists to develop her ideas about socialmorality but never dogmatically followed in anyone’s footsteps.All the while, she influenced many others as she made her uniquecontributions to American and feminist philosophy.

3. Addams’ Standpoint Epistemology

Although writing long before the term “standpointepistemology” was named by feminist philosophers, Addams can beconsidered a forerunner of standpoint epistemology, given hercommitment to sympathetic knowledge. Feminist philosophers haveattended to the impact of context on theory more than mainstreamphilosophers. Although there are lively debates within feministphilosophical circles regarding the nature of objectivity, many,including Dorothy Smith, Nancy Hartsock, Hilary Rose, Alison Jaggar,and Sandra Harding, have developed the notion that knowledge is indeedsituated. In particular, feminist standpoint theorists valorize theperspectives and theories derived from oppressed societal positions,such as women’s experiences. Harding describes a feministstandpoint as something to achieve rather than a passive perspective.All women have lived experience in a woman’s body and thereforehave a woman’s perspective. Still, a feminist standpointrequires an effort at stepping back to gain a holistic picture ofpower struggles. Through the understanding of the perspectival aspectof knowledge claims, standpoint epistemology can create libratoryknowledge that can be leveraged to subvert oppressive systems. One ofthe challenges of standpoint theory is how to give voice to multiplepositions without falling back on hierarchies that favor certainstandpoints over others.

Jane Addams demonstrates an appreciation for the spirit of standpointtheory through her work and writing at Hull-House. Despite theprivileged social position she was born into, her settlement avocationimmersed her in disempowered communities. Addams poetically describesher moral mandate to meet, know, and understand others: “We knowat last, that we can only discover truth by a rational and democraticinterest in life, and to give truth complete social expression is theendeavor upon which we are entering. Thus the identification with thecommon lot that is the essential idea of Democracy becomes the sourceand expression of social ethics. It is as though we thirsted at thegreat wells of human experience because we know that a daintier orless potent draught would not carry us to the end of the journey,going forward as we must in the heat and jostle of the crowd”(DSE 9). One might object that although these are admirablesentiments, they are still spoken by an outsider. What constitutes anoutsider? Addams lived the better part of a half-century in thediverse immigrant neighborhood of Hull House in Chicago. Shedidn’t return home to the suburbs or return to a universityoffice with her data. She lived and worked amongst the crime, civiccorruption, prostitution, sweatshops, and other community ills. Whenthey started Hull House, Addams and Starr were involvedoutsiders—an oddity that neighbors looked upon suspiciously.However, time, proximity, and an earnest desire to learn and help wonthe trust and respect of the neighborhood. The outsiders becameinsiders. When Addams wrote or spoke about single women laborers,child laborers, prostitutes, or first and second-generationimmigrants, she employed first-hand knowledge gained from her socialinteractions. Addams leveraged her Hull House experiences to givevoice to standpoints marginalized in society. Simultaneously, sheworked to provide the oppressed their own voice through collegeextension courses, English language courses, and social clubs thatfostered political and social debate. Addams was self-conscious aboutspeaking for others: “I never addressed a Chicago audience onthe subject of the Settlement and its vicinity without inviting aneighbor to go with me, that I might curb my hasty generalization bythe consciousness that I had an auditor who knew the conditions moreintimately than I could hope to do” (TYH 80). Addams did not tryto arrive at universal moral truths but recognized that the standpointof Hull House neighbors mattered.

In an 1896 article inThe American Journal of Sociology,“A Belated Industry,” Addams addresses the plight of womenin domestic labor. These were the most powerless of laborers:predominantly women, many of them immigrants with limited Englishlanguage skills and in a job that afforded little legal protection ororganizing possibilities. Addams begins the article with a footnoteclaiming that her knowledge of domestic laborers comes from herexperience with the Woman’s Labor Bureau, one of the many HullHouse projects. Addams goes on to address the powerlessness ofdomestic work, particularly as it entails isolation and a highlyinequitable power relationship: “The householdemployé[sic] has no regular opportunity for meeting otherworkers of her trade, and of attaining with them the dignity ofcorporate body” (ABI 538). Addams identifies the gendereddimension of this oppressive work: “men would … resentthe situation and consider it quite impossible if it implied thegiving up of their family and social ties, and living under the roofof the household requiring their services” (ABI 540). Addamsextrapolates her experience of these workers to imaginatively inhabita standpoint and give them voice. She explicitly claims as much,“An attempt is made to present this industry [domestic labor]from the point of view of those women who are working in householdsfor wages” (ABI 536). Addams repeatedly recognized theexperiences of oppressed peoples that she came to know to havetheir concerns acknowledged in the social democracy she was trying tofoster.

Addams believed recognizing alternative standpoints was important inpromoting social progress through sympathetic understanding.Accordingly, if a voice is given to individuals inhabitingmarginalized positions in society, it fosters the possibility ofbetter understanding between people and actions that can lead toimproving their lot. Addams engaged in the tricky balance of honoringstandpoints while simultaneously seeking connections and continuitiesto build upon. This is exemplified in Addams’ books on youngpeople,Youth and the City Streets, and elderly women,The Long Road of Woman’s Memory. The latter work is atreatise on memory based on the memories of first-generation immigrantwomen. Rather than grounding her theory upon the experiences of famouswomen theorists or writers—and Addams knew most of the prominentwomen of her day—Addams based her analysis on the women who wereher neighbors at Hull House. Addams not only grounded herphilosophical work in experience but in the experiences of those onthe margins of society. Addams puts experience before theory. She didnot begin by positing a theory about these women. Instead, she retoldmany stories she had heard from them and then drew out conclusionsabout the function of memory. For Addams, theory follows experience.Addams was in the minority among her peers in philosophy or feminismto believe that working-class immigrant women not only should be givena voice but also had something important to contribute to thecommunity of ideas.

An example of Addams’ application of feminist standpoint theory(or at least a forerunner of it) can be seen in the “DevilBaby,” which recounts what transpired after three Italian womencame to Hull House to see a possessed infant. One can form a whimsicalimage from Addams’ account, “No amount of denial convincedthem that he was not there, for they knew exactly what he was likewith his cloven hoofs, his pointed ears, and diminutive tail; theDevil Baby had, moreover, been able to speak as soon as he was bornand was shockingly profane” (LRW 7–8). This would be anamusing anecdote if it stopped there, but Addams described a six-weekperiod when Hull House was inundated with stories about the allegedDevil Baby. Visitors even offered Hull House residents money to seethe creature despite adamant responses that there was no such baby.Multiple versions of how the Devil Baby arose in the neighborhood, andeventually the hysteria made the newspapers. One version of the storyclaimed that the Devil Baby was the offspring of an atheist and adevoted Italian girl. When the husband tore a holy picture from thewall claiming that he would rather have a devil in the house, his wishwas granted in the form of his coming child (LRW 8). Although afascinating social phenomenon, the Devil Baby story has littleapparent philosophical importance. It would be easy to dismiss thosewho perpetuated the story as simpletons caught up in the hysteria. Notfor Jane Addams. She applied a familiar approach by refusing to passjudgment, listening carefully, and developing a sympatheticunderstanding. Addams actively worked to grasp their subjectposition.

Although Addams dismissed the “gawkers” who came to seethe Devil Baby as a sensationalist-seeking mob, she wanted tounderstand the older women who had perpetuated the myth:“Whenever I heard the high eager voices of old women, I wasirresistibly interested and left anything I might be doing in order tolisten to them” (LRW 9). She found women who were solemn andhighly animated about the Devil Baby. They used the appearance of theDevil Baby and the excitement it created as an opportunity to discussimportant and troubling matters of their life. Addams, who neversought simple answers to complex issues, found a convergence of class,race, and gender dynamics fueling the Devil Baby phenomenon. Theseimmigrant women were in unfamiliar surroundings and had to adjust toforeign ideas and practices. They had been alienated by theirchildren, who adapted to the new country more quickly, keeping the oldways at arm’s length. Many of these women also had been victimsof domestic abuse long before such acts had a distinct label. Onewoman tells Addams, “My face has this queer twist for now nearlysixty years; I was ten when it got that way, the night after I saw myfather do my mother to death with his knife” (LRW 11). For theseforgotten and beaten women, the Devil Baby represented a connection toa past that made more sense to them: one that had clear moralimperatives. Another woman tells Addams, “You might sayit’s a disgrace to have your son beat you up for the sake of abit of money you’ve earned by scrubbing—your own man isdifferent—but I haven’t the heart to blame the boy fordoing what he’s seen all his life, his father forever went wildwhen the drink was in him and struck me to the very day of his death.The ugliness was born in the boy as the marks of the Devil was born inthe poor child up-stairs” (LRW 11). Addams’ recounting oftale after tale of violence provides a depressing view of immigrantwomen’s lives at the turn of the century. For women who hadlived such a hard life, the Devil Baby provided a momentaryopportunity for resistance. Husbands and children would listen to themand temporarily forsake beating them for fear of divine retribution asevinced by the Devil Baby. Addams describes memory as serving to“make life palatable and at rare moments even beautiful”(LRW 28). Although this is a specific explanatory analysis, itdemonstrates how Addams sought connections among the personal stories:“When these reminiscences, based upon the diverse experiences ofmy people unknown to each other, point to one inevitable conclusion,they accumulate into a social protest …” (LRW 29). Addamsproceeds to view the Devil Baby in light of the women’s movementand the fight against oppression. Given the position of the old women,the Devil Baby was the vehicle of resistance and an opportunity forAddams to interject feminist analysis.

4. Radical Meliorism

Meliorism is a hallmark of pragmatist philosophy, which we can see inAddams’ work with a more radical character than among other Americanpragmatists. If “radical” is defined as challengingexisting power structures, Jane Addams was the least elitist andthe most radical of the American philosophers of her era. Addamsconsistently took and eloquently supported inclusive positions thatsought the benefit of society. While pragmatists typically advocatedfor social progress, Addams radicalized the extent of that socialprogress. Rather than defining progress by the best and brightestachievements, Addams advocates the betterment of all in what she calls“lateral progress.” For Addams, lateral progress meantthat social advancement could not be declared through thebreakthroughs or peak performances of a few but could onlyauthentically be found in social gains held in common. Addams employsmetaphor to explain the concept:

The man who insists upon consent, who moves with the people, is boundto consult the feasible right as well as the absolute right. He isoften obliged to attain only Mr. Lincoln’s “bestpossible,” and often have the sickening sense of compromisingwith his best convictions. He has to move along with those whom herules toward a goal that neither he nor they see very clearly tillthey come to it. He has to discover what people really want, and then“provide the channels in which the growing moral force of theirlives shall flow.” What he does attain, however, is not theresult of his individual striving, as a solitary mountain climberbeyond the sight of the valley multitude, but it is underpinned andupheld by the sentiments and aspirations of many others. Progress hasbeen slower perpendicularly, but incomparably greater becauselateral.
He has not taught his contemporaries to climb mountains, but he haspersuaded the villagers to move up a few feet higher. (AML 175)

Whether one refers to them as “robber barons” or“captains of industry,” the rise of commerce in the UnitedStates was defined by the winners of the game: those who amassedwealth. The wealthy enjoyed tremendous progress in healthcare,education, and material well-being. Addams was not satisfied withnarrow social development and redefined progress according to thecommon person’s experience. This redefinition continues to eludeus today as class disparity in the United States grows. Ironically,Addams is often chastised for expounding middle-class values, whichwas her point of reference as she started Hull House.Still, Addams’ experiences pushed her to understand andappreciate the immigrant poor in the neighborhood more fully.

Addams applied the idea of lateral progress to numerous issues. Whenshe discusses the role of labor unions, she argues that in theirattempt to improve conditions for all workers, unions are fulfilling avital function that society has abrogated. Addams, who had a trackrecord of supporting labor, makes it clear that she does not viewcollective bargaining as an end in itself. Instead, Addams viewsunions as trailblazers who obtain working conditions that eventuallybenefit everyone in society: “trade unions are trying to do forthemselves what the government should secure for all its citizens;has, in fact, secured in many cases” (FSS 456). Addams is notinterested in improving the lot of one group of workers over another.“Any sense of division and suspicion is fatal in a democraticform of government, for although each side may seem to secure most foritself when consulting only its own interests, the final test must bethe good of the community as a whole” (FSS 461). For Addams,unions are important in as much as they improve working conditions,raise wages, reduce hours and eliminate child labor for allAmericans—lateral progress.

Although the first chapter of Addams’Democracy and SocialEthics is ostensibly a critique of charity workers and theirpreconceived notions of the needs of the destitute, it also revealsAddams’ disposition toward the poor and the oppressed. Shedecries the historical position of blaming the victim:“Formerly, when it was believed that poverty was synonymous withvice and laziness and that the prosperous man was the righteous man,charity was administered harshly with a good conscience; for thecharitable agent really blamed the individual for his poverty, and thevery fact of his own superior prosperity gave him a certainconsciousness of superior morality” (DSE 11–12). Such ajudgment serves to separate the wealthy from the poor. Accordingly,the rich can make progress intellectually, materially,technologically, etc., while the poor are thought to be left behindprimarily due to their own actions. Addams argues that the poor areoften victims of circumstance and that it is society’s responsibilityto first understand marginalized people and then develop means fortheir participation in lateral progress.

Charity, although a good, is not lateral progress. While noble, atemporary transfer in wealth does not constitute real progress inalleviating economic disparity. Addams never viewed herself as acharity worker, nor did she characterize the work of Hull House ascharity: “I am always sorry to have Hull House regarded asphilanthropy” (ONS 45). Addams sought lateral progress thatcould be brought about by the collective will and manifested throughsocial institutions. She believes there would be no need forsettlements if “society had been reconstructed to the point ofoffering equal opportunity for all” (ONS 27). Addams is notadvocating alaissez-faire capitalism version of equalopportunity that is abstract and rights-based. Free market economicsinfluences modern understandings of democracy as merely assuring theadequate opportunity to participate. Addams’ approach to equalopportunity is set in a context of vibrant democracy where citizensand social organizations look out for one another because they allhave a stake in lateral progress or what today might be termeddemocratic socialism.

Addams’ radical pragmatism ultimately had a feminist dimension.She continually gave voice to women’s experiences, addressedwomen’s issues, and saw a vibrant social democracy as onlypossible if there was full participation by both men and women. Whenit came to issues such as women’s suffrage, Addams manifests afeminist pragmatism. “If women had no votes with which to selectthe men upon whom her social reform had become dependent, somecherished project might be so modified by uninformed legislaturesduring the process of legal enactment that the law, as finally passed,injured the very people it was meant to protect. Women had discoveredthat the unrepresented are always liable to be given what they do notwant by legislators who merely wish to placate them” (STY89–90). Note that Addams does not argue the application ofabstract human rights, but she instead makes a functional claim aboutthe role of voting in proper democratic representation. It is not thatAddams opposes rights, but she will continually opt for pragmatistarguments on feminist issues. Her male pragmatist colleagues weresympathetic to feminist positions but did not make the claims asforcefully or consistently as Addams (Seigfried, 1996).

Addams’ notion of lateral progress exemplifies again how she hasbeen misrepresented as merely a reformer. Radical discourse, a laMarx, has been associated with the call for extreme changes in socialinstitutions and systems. Although such changes may be arguablydesirable, they entail upheaval that will disrupt social relationshipsat significant potential personal cost. Addams sought substantialsocial progress through mutual agreement and tapping into communalintelligence. Her radical vision refused to give up on the individualsin society and their caring relationships. Mixing theoretical notionsof social change with concrete experiences of community organizing,Addams was a caring radical. Addams was interested in amelioratingsocial problems, but that does not preclude a broadly construedradical edge to her social philosophy.

5. Socializing Care

An analysis of Addams’ moral philosophy suggests at least threeclaims about her relationship to feminist care ethicsavant lalettre. One, Addams’ approach to the important socialissues of her day reflected the relationality and contextualizationthat are important to what is called care ethics today. Two, althoughAddams employed caring in response to the needs of others, shecontributes an active, even assertive, dimension to care ethics notcommonly found in feminist theory. Third, Addams advocates what mightbe called “socializing care”: systemically instantiatingthe habits and practices of care in social institutions.

Although care is a simple and widely invoked word, many feministtheorists have invested it with a particular meaning as it applies toethics. The original motivation for developing care ethics was anacknowledgment that traditional forms of morality, in particularprinciple-based and consequence-based ethics, did not adequatelyaddress the richness of the human condition. These approaches bracketout emotions, relationships, temporal considerations, reciprocity, andcreativity to focus on immediate adjudication of moral conflicts.Accordingly, the use of rules or consequences can become areductionist and formulaic response resulting in shortsighted answersto complex and systemic issues. For care ethicists, principles can beuseful, but a concern for interpersonal connection tempers them.Principles and consequences can be important in moraldeliberation, but care theorists seek a more robust and complex senseof morality that cannot ignore the context and people involved. Forexample, the claim that people who spray-paint graffiti on a buildingought to be punished because they have damaged someone else’sproperty (rule/principle violation) will likely receive widespreadassent. Care ethicists do not necessarily deny such an assertion, butthey want to know more. The person doing the spray-painting is a humanbeing whose motivations and circumstances may reveal other variablesnot sufficiently addressed by the mere recognition of rule violations.Systemic issues involving social opportunities, discrimination, orlack of voice may have contributed to this behavior. Care ethicistsshift the moral focus from abstract individuals and their actions toconcrete, situated people with feelings, friends, anddreams—persons who can be cared about. Care ethics demandseffort, experience, knowledge, imagination, and empathy to effectivelyunderstand the totality of the moral context. The result is not anexoneration of personal responsibility but a richer understanding ofthe human condition where we are all actors and acted upon.

Addams consistently moves beyond formulaic moral accounts ofprinciples or consequences to apply a kind of care ethics to herexperiences in the Hull House neighborhood. Proximity is once againcrucial as she has direct experience with individuals, providing theresources for a caring response. However, as a philosopher, Addamsextrapolates her experiences to theorize about others of similarcircumstances. For example, inThe Spirit of Youth and the CityStreets Addams addresses juvenile delinquency. She recountscharges against young men who were brought before the Juvenile Courtin Chicago (which Hull House had helped establish). These charges werecategorized by type, such as stealing, which included the pilfering ofpigeons, blankets, and a bicycle. Another category was disorderlyconduct which included picking up coal from railroad tracks, throwingstones at railroad employees, and breaking down a fence. There wasalso vagrancy, which included loafing, sleeping on the streets allnight, and wandering (SYC 56–57). Addams does not deny theseriousness of some of these infractions, but she does not rush tojudgment, instead choosing to investigate the context further. Shetalks to the young men and asks them about their motivations. Sheidentifies a listlessness, a desire for adventure not quieted by whatthe city has to offer: “their very demand for excitement is aprotest against the dullness of life, to which we ourselvesinstinctively respond” (SYC 71). Addams views the city as builtaround the possibility of factory production but ignores the needs offuture workers. Among “juvenile delinquents,” Adamsfinds many young people who simply seek adventure and excitementbecause their lives have little of it. Had Addams merely abstractedyouth as a category of individuals who seem prone to break the law,she could have easily found principles to judge them negatively.However, Addams saw them as humans, many of whom she witnessed growingup in the neighborhood, and she cared for them beyond the alienatinglabel of “troubled youth.”

More than merely prefiguring care ethics, Addams infuses a high socialresponsibility standard into this moral approach. Addams advocates aduty of social awareness and engagement, thus creating the potentialfor care. Many care ethicists are wary of the notion of duty as it hasbeen traditionally formulated. Moral duties have historically entailedclaims regarding actions that a person is required to offer on behalfof another. Because the “other” is an abstract other andthe requirements are universalized (I must act in such a way in allcases), duties toward others have tended toward moral minimums ofobligation. For example, a moral obligation to act is present ifsomeone’s life is in peril and minimal effort is required toprevent it, such as an infant drowning in 3 inches of bathwater.Although such cases get widespread agreement, it becomes morechallenging to ascertain what obligation one has to distant otherswith unclear expectations of success. For example, many Americans havedisposable income that could save the life of someone in apoverty-stricken country on a distant continent; do they have a moralobligation to give them money, and to what extent? Addams constructsthe duty to care differently. Hers is an epistemological demand.Addams claims that good citizens actively pursue knowledge ofothers—not just facts but a more profoundunderstanding—for the possibility of caring and acting on theirbehalf: “if we grow contemptuous of our fellows, and consciouslylimit our intercourse to certain kinds of people whom we havepreviously decided to respect, we not only tremendously circumscribeour range of life, but limit our scope of ethics” (DSE 8). ForAddams, care ethics must be actively pursued, not passively fostered.Addams’ language is more assertive than much of the current careethics discourse.

Finally, Addams extends care ethics to the public realm. She is notcontent to compartmentalize personal and social morality. Caring iswhat she desires for democracy and its various institutions. Addamsviews the residents of social settlements, for example, as having“an opportunity of seeing institutions from therecipient’s standpoint” because they are not distantinstitutions but neighbors. She finds this perspective significant andbelieves that it should ultimately “find expression ininstitutional management” (OVS 39). Furthermore, shedifferentiates the epistemological project of the settlement from theuniversity in language that acknowledges a caring element: “Thesettlement stands for application as opposed to research; for emotionas opposed to abstraction, for universal interest as opposed tospecialization” (FSS 189). While social settlements epitomize ademocratic endeavor for Addams, she applies the same caring values toother institutions. The creation of the juvenile courts in Chicagorepresented an example of caring because it mandated contextualizedregard for the context of young people. The creation of adulteducation that addressed tangible and contemporary issues alsodemonstrated a caring regard for the needs of Hull-House neighbors.Perhaps most of all, the comportment of the Hull-House residentsmanifested care ethics in their willingness to listen, learn andrespond. Addams viewed socializing care as participating in a richideal of democracy.

Bibliography

Primary Literature

Abbreviations of Addams’ principal works referred to in thisarticle appear in brackets.

Books

[DSE]: Addams, Jane.Democracy and Social Ethics, 1902;Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
[NIP]: –––.Newer Ideals of Peace,1906; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2007.
[SYC]: –––.The Spirit of Youth and the CityStreets, 1909; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press,1972.
[TYH]: –––.Twenty Years at Hull House,1910; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1990.
[NCA]: –––.A New Conscience and an AncientEvil, 1912; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
[LRW]: –––.The Long Road of Woman’sMemory, 1916; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press,2002.
[PBT]: –––.Peace and Bread in Time ofWar, 1922; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
[STY]: –––.Second Twenty Years at HullHouse, New York: Macmillan, 1930.
[EBP]: –––.The Excellent Becomes thePermanent, New York: Macmillan, 1932.
[MFJ]: –––.My Friend, Julia Lathrop,1935; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
[WH]: Addams, Jane, Emily G. Balch and Alice Hamilton.Womenat The Hague: The International Congress Of Women And ItsResults, 1915; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press,2003.
[HHM]: Residents of Hull-House.Hull-House Maps and Papers,1895; Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2007.

Selected Articles

[ABI]: Addams, Jane. “A Belated Industry,” 1896,American Journal of Sociology, 1 (5) (March).
[FSS]: –––. “A Function of the SocialSettlement,” 1899; reprinted in Christopher Lasch (ed.),TheSocial Thought of Jane Addams, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-MerrillCompany, Inc., 1965.
[AML]: –––. “A Modern Lear,” 1912;reprinted in Jean Bethke Elshtain (ed.),Jane Addams and the Dreamof American Democracy, New York: Basic Books, 2002.
[OVS]: –––. “The Objective Value of theSocial Settlement,” 1893; reprinted in Jean Bethke Elshtain(ed.),Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy, NewYork: Basic Books, 2002.
[SNS]: –––. “The Subjective Necessity forSocial Settlements,” 1893; reprinted in Jean Bethke Elshtain(ed.),Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy, NewYork: Basic Books, 2002.

Collections

Bryan, Mary Lynn McCree, Barbara Bair, and Maree De Angury (eds.),The Selected Papers of Jane Addams (Volume 1: Preparing toLead, 1860–1881), Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press,2003.
–––.The Selected Papers of JaneAddams (Volume 2: Venturing into Usefulness, 1881–88),Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009.
Bryan, Mary Lynn McCree, Barbara Bair, Maree De Angury, and EllenSkerrett (eds.),The Selected Papers of Jane Addams (Volume3: Creating Hull-House and an International Presence, 1889-1900),Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2018.
Condliffe Lagemann, Ellen (ed.),Jane Addams OnEducation, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1994.
Cooper Johnson, Emily (ed.),Jane Addams: A CentennialReader, New York: Macmillan, 1960.
Davis, Allen F. (ed.),Jane Addams on Peace, War, andInternational Understanding, New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.,1976
Elshtain, Jean Bethke (ed.),The Jane Addams Reader, NewYork: Basic Books, 2002.
Fischer, Marilyn, and Judy D. Whipps (eds.),JaneAddams’ Writings on Peace, 4 volumes, Bristol: ThoemmesPress, 2003 (facsimile edition).
–––.Jane Addams’ Essays andSpeeches, New York: Continuum, 2005.
Lasch, Christopher (ed.),The Social Thought of JaneAddams, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1965.

Selected Secondary Literature

Cracraft, James, 2012.Two Shining Souls: Jane Addams, LeoTolstoy, and the Quest for Global Peace, Lanham, MD: LexingtonBooks.
Deegan, Mary Jo, 1988.Jane Addams and the Men of theChicago School, 1892–1918, New Brunswick, NJ: TransactionBooks.
Elshtain, Jean Bethke, 2002.Jane Addams and the Dream ofAmerican Democracy, New York: Basic Books.
Fischer, Marilyn, 2004.On Addams, Belmont, CA:Wadsworth.
Fischer, Marilyn. 2019.Jane Addams’s EvolutionaryTheorizing: Constructing ‘Democracy and SocialEthics’. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Fischer, Marilyn, Carol Nackenoff, and Wendy Chmielewski (eds.),2009.Jane Addams and the Practice of Democracy,Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Hamington, Maurice, 2004.Embodied Care: Jane Addams,Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Feminist Ethics, Urbana, IL:University of Illinois Press.
–––. 2009.The Social Philosophy ofJane Addams, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
–––. (ed.), 2010.FeministInterpretations of Jane Addams, University Park, PA: PennsylvaniaState University Press.
Hamington, Maurice, and Celia Bardwell-Jones (eds.),2012.Contemporary Feminist Pragmatism, London:Routledge.
Lasch, Christopher, 1965.The Social Thought of JaneAddams, Indianapolis, IN: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
Misheva, Vessela, 2019. “Jane Addams and the Lost Paradigmof Sociology.”Qualitative Sociology Review 15:2,216-228.
Schaafsma, David, 2015.Jane Addams in theClassroom, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Schlipp, Paul Arthur, 1951.The Philosophy of John Dewey,New York: Tudor Publishing.
Schneiderhan, Erik, 2015.The Size of Others’Burdens: Barack Obama, Jane Addams, and the Politics of HelpingOthers, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Seigfried, Charlene Haddock, 1996.Pragmatism and Feminism:Reweaving the Social Fabric, Chicago: University of ChicagoPress.
Shields, Patricia, 2017.Jane Addams: Progressive Pioneerof Peace, Philosophy, Sociology, Social Work and PublicAdministration, New York: Springer.
Shields, Patricia, Maurice Hamington, and Joseph Soeters (eds.),2022.Oxford Handbook of Jane Addams, New York: OxfordUniversity Press.

Biographies

Brown, Victoria Bissell, 2004.The Education of JaneAddams, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Davis, Allen F., 1973.American Heroine: The Life andLegend of Jane Addams, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Diliberto, Gioia, 1999.A Useful Woman: The Early Life ofJane Addams, New York: Scribner.
Farrell, John C., 1967.Beloved Lady: A History of JaneAddams’ Ideas on Reform and Peace, Baltimore: The JohnHopkins Press.
Joslin, Katherine, 2004.Jane Addams: A Writer’sLife, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Knight, Louise, 2005.Citizen: Jane Addams and theStruggle for Democracy, Chicago: University of ChicagoPress.
–––. 2010.Jane Addams: Spirit inAction for Democracy, New York: W.W. Norton.
Linn, James Weber, 2000.Jane Addams: A Biography,Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

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