Marilyn Fischer
Biographic Data
| ID | 4591106 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marilyn Fischer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marilyn |
| FAMILY NAME | Fischer |
| SIGNATURE | FISCHER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Dayton |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1982 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Was Addams a Founder of Classical American Pragmatism? Or Even a Pragmatist at All: A Call to Either Write a New, Fantastically Enlarged Account of Pragmatism's Founding, or Reduce Pragmatism to a Min…
a short while ago, philosopher Judy D. Whipps, an excellent scholar and careful reader of my book on Addams's Democracy and Social Ethics, confronted me with a question I had been avoiding. She asked that since Addams is now recognized as one of the founders of classical American pragmatism, why didn't I talk about pragmatism in the book (Whipps 115–16)?At the time, I wasn't ready to formulate an answer. I had heard Charlene Haddock Seigfried pre…
Pluralismo culturale, migranti europei, e afro-americani. La prospettiva di Jane Addams
Addams wrote extensively on the significance and value of immigrant cultures of origin, both for immigrants themselves and for nonimmigrant Americans. Her theory of cul¬tural pluralism is democratic and cosmopolitan. However, in the few essays she wrote on African Americans, she does not extend her theory to encompass African American culture. In this paper I develop Addams's theory of cultural pluralism. I then point out resources in her theory …
An Evolving Democracy
This chapter draws out the evolutionary content of “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements,” Addams’s first published essay. Addams’s task in this essay is to show how social settlements can bring disparate groups into relations of healthy interdependence. Like her fellow social evolutionary theorists, Addams envisions society as a social organism and is concerned that its interdependent parts function in equilibrium. The chapter present…
The City’s Moral Geology
This chapter examines two essays Addams later revised as chapters in Democracy and Social Ethics titled “Political Reform” and “Charitable Effort.” The first analyzes corrupt politician Johnny Powers’ hold on Chicago’s immigrants; the second is about a charity visitor perplexed by the ethics of her immigrant clients. The chapter details Addams’s use of Wilhelm Wundt’s evolutionary history of ethics to portray Chicago at that time as a layered mor…
Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing: Constructing “Democracy and Social Ethics”
In Jane Addams’s Evolutionary Theorizing, Marilyn Fischer advances the bold and original claim that Addams’s reasoning in her first book, Democracy and Social Ethics, is thoroughly evolutionary. While Democracy and Social Ethics, a foundational text of classical American pragmatism, is praised for advancing a sensitive and sophisticated method of ethical deliberation, Fischer is the first to explore its intellectual roots. Examining essays Addams…
Science and the Social Settlement
This chapter examines Addams’s essay, “A Function of the Social Settlement.” Although Addams does not include the essay in Democracy and Social Ethics, it articulates how the book is a work of scientific investigation as well as literary and ethical analysis. The chapter gives historical backing to Addams’s claim that in defining the settlement’s function as the “application of science,” she positions its work as the culminating phase of scientif…
From Feudalism to Association
This chapter examines three essays Addams later revised as chapters in Democracy and Social Ethics titled “Household Adjustment,” “Industrial Amelioration,” and “Filial Relations.” In these essays Addams analyzes three pairs of relationships: a household mistress and her live-in domestic servant, industrialist George Pullman and his workers, and affluent parents and their educated, young adult daughters. The theoretical spine of Addams’s argument…
An Evolutionary Method of Ethical Deliberation
This chapter explores how Addams developed her method of ethical deliberation in her 1895 essay, “The Settlement as a Factor in the Labor Movement.” Following the pattern scientists used to study biological habitats, Addams examines the labor situation’s geographical habitat, with meticulous attention to the effects of industrial exploitation. She then tracks how the evolutionary history of labor is moving toward increasingly democratic relations…
Educating Immigrants
This chapter examines essays from the 1890s that Addams revised for the chapter in Democracy and Social Ethics titled “Educational Methods.” Although “Educational Methods” does not mention the Hull House Labor Museum, the chapter is essentially a generalized version of Addams’s proposal for the museum. The chapter shows how the Labor Museum and Addams’s conception of education were patterned on biologist and urban reformer Patrick Geddes’ Outlook…
Constructing Democracy and Social Ethics
This chapter examines how Addams revised previously written essays for Democracy and Social Ethics. Aside from the Introduction, little in the book is new. This chapter demonstrates that Addams’s principal revision was to replace the conceptual categories from British socialism and German anthropology she had used in the essays with “individual ethics” and “social ethics,” categories drawn from the German Historical School of Economics. The resul…
Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing: Constructing “Democracy and Social Ethics
In Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing, Marilyn Fischer advances the bold and original claim that Addams's reasoning in her first book, Democracy and Social Ethics, is thoroughly evolutionary. While Democracy and Social Ethics, a foundational text of classical American pragmatism, is praised for advancing a sensitive and sophisticated method of ethical deliberation, Fischer is the first to explore its intellectual roots. Examining essays Addams…
The Selected Papers of Jane Addams: Volume I, Preparing to Lead, 1860–81 (2003), and Volume II, Venturing into Usefulness 1881–1888
Addams's Internationalist Pacifism and the Rhetoric of Maternalism
approaches, this is a good time to examine Addams's theory and practice of pacifism. Swanwick's observation in the above epigraph gives a clue to Addams's method. Addams rarely argued directly against other people. She wanted to work with coalitions toward shared goals and did not want philosophical differences to hinder collaboration. She began with the beliefs and commitments people had and sought ways to work with them toward democratic, just,…
Tensions from technology in Marx's communist society
Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing: Constructing “Democracy and Social Ethics
In Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing, Marilyn Fischer advances the bold and original claim that Addams's reasoning in her first book, Democracy and Social Ethics, is thoroughly evolutionary. While Democracy and Social Ethics, a foundational text of classical American pragmatism, is praised for advancing a sensitive and sophisticated method of ethical deliberation, Fischer is the first to explore its intellectual roots. Examining essays Addams…
Tensions from technology in Marx's communist society
Addams's Internationalist Pacifism and the Rhetoric of Maternalism
approaches, this is a good time to examine Addams's theory and practice of pacifism. Swanwick's observation in the above epigraph gives a clue to Addams's method. Addams rarely argued directly against other people. She wanted to work with coalitions toward shared goals and did not want philosophical differences to hinder collaboration. She began with the beliefs and commitments people had and sought ways to work with them toward democratic, just,…
The Selected Papers of Jane Addams: Volume I, Preparing to Lead, 1860–81 (2003), and Volume II, Venturing into Usefulness 1881–1888
An Evolving Democracy
This chapter draws out the evolutionary content of “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements,” Addams’s first published essay. Addams’s task in this essay is to show how social settlements can bring disparate groups into relations of healthy interdependence. Like her fellow social evolutionary theorists, Addams envisions society as a social organism and is concerned that its interdependent parts function in equilibrium. The chapter present…
The City’s Moral Geology
This chapter examines two essays Addams later revised as chapters in Democracy and Social Ethics titled “Political Reform” and “Charitable Effort.” The first analyzes corrupt politician Johnny Powers’ hold on Chicago’s immigrants; the second is about a charity visitor perplexed by the ethics of her immigrant clients. The chapter details Addams’s use of Wilhelm Wundt’s evolutionary history of ethics to portray Chicago at that time as a layered mor…
Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing: Constructing “Democracy and Social Ethics”
In Jane Addams’s Evolutionary Theorizing, Marilyn Fischer advances the bold and original claim that Addams’s reasoning in her first book, Democracy and Social Ethics, is thoroughly evolutionary. While Democracy and Social Ethics, a foundational text of classical American pragmatism, is praised for advancing a sensitive and sophisticated method of ethical deliberation, Fischer is the first to explore its intellectual roots. Examining essays Addams…
Science and the Social Settlement
This chapter examines Addams’s essay, “A Function of the Social Settlement.” Although Addams does not include the essay in Democracy and Social Ethics, it articulates how the book is a work of scientific investigation as well as literary and ethical analysis. The chapter gives historical backing to Addams’s claim that in defining the settlement’s function as the “application of science,” she positions its work as the culminating phase of scientif…
From Feudalism to Association
This chapter examines three essays Addams later revised as chapters in Democracy and Social Ethics titled “Household Adjustment,” “Industrial Amelioration,” and “Filial Relations.” In these essays Addams analyzes three pairs of relationships: a household mistress and her live-in domestic servant, industrialist George Pullman and his workers, and affluent parents and their educated, young adult daughters. The theoretical spine of Addams’s argument…
An Evolutionary Method of Ethical Deliberation
This chapter explores how Addams developed her method of ethical deliberation in her 1895 essay, “The Settlement as a Factor in the Labor Movement.” Following the pattern scientists used to study biological habitats, Addams examines the labor situation’s geographical habitat, with meticulous attention to the effects of industrial exploitation. She then tracks how the evolutionary history of labor is moving toward increasingly democratic relations…
Educating Immigrants
This chapter examines essays from the 1890s that Addams revised for the chapter in Democracy and Social Ethics titled “Educational Methods.” Although “Educational Methods” does not mention the Hull House Labor Museum, the chapter is essentially a generalized version of Addams’s proposal for the museum. The chapter shows how the Labor Museum and Addams’s conception of education were patterned on biologist and urban reformer Patrick Geddes’ Outlook…
Constructing Democracy and Social Ethics
This chapter examines how Addams revised previously written essays for Democracy and Social Ethics. Aside from the Introduction, little in the book is new. This chapter demonstrates that Addams’s principal revision was to replace the conceptual categories from British socialism and German anthropology she had used in the essays with “individual ethics” and “social ethics,” categories drawn from the German Historical School of Economics. The resul…
Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing: Constructing “Democracy and Social Ethics
In Jane Addams's Evolutionary Theorizing, Marilyn Fischer advances the bold and original claim that Addams's reasoning in her first book, Democracy and Social Ethics, is thoroughly evolutionary. While Democracy and Social Ethics, a foundational text of classical American pragmatism, is praised for advancing a sensitive and sophisticated method of ethical deliberation, Fischer is the first to explore its intellectual roots. Examining essays Addams…
Pluralismo culturale, migranti europei, e afro-americani. La prospettiva di Jane Addams
Addams wrote extensively on the significance and value of immigrant cultures of origin, both for immigrants themselves and for nonimmigrant Americans. Her theory of cul¬tural pluralism is democratic and cosmopolitan. However, in the few essays she wrote on African Americans, she does not extend her theory to encompass African American culture. In this paper I develop Addams's theory of cultural pluralism. I then point out resources in her theory …
Was Addams a Founder of Classical American Pragmatism? Or Even a Pragmatist at All: A Call to Either Write a New, Fantastically Enlarged Account of Pragmatism's Founding, or Reduce Pragmatism to a Min…
a short while ago, philosopher Judy D. Whipps, an excellent scholar and careful reader of my book on Addams's Democracy and Social Ethics, confronted me with a question I had been avoiding. She asked that since Addams is now recognized as one of the founders of classical American pragmatism, why didn't I talk about pragmatism in the book (Whipps 115–16)?At the time, I wasn't ready to formulate an answer. I had heard Charlene Haddock Seigfried pre…
Sociology (12 works) · Democracy (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice (7 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education (5 works) · Social science (5 works)