Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-13T20:18:32.962Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Feminist Pacifism of William James and Mary Whiton Calkins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Mathew A. Foust
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper, I accompany William James (1842–1910) and Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930) in the steps each takes toward his or her respective proposal of a moral equivalent of war. I demonstrate the influence of James upon Calkins, suggesting that the two share overlapping formulations of the problem and offer closely related—but significantly different—solutions. I suggest that Calkins's pacifistic proposal is an extension of that of her teacher—a feminist interpretation of his psychological and moral thought as brought to bear on the problem of war. Calkins's brand of pacifism widens the scope of James's “moral equivalent of war” in a way that is consonant with feminist ideals of inclusiveness and social justice. I conclude by commenting on how James's and Calkins's pacifism can continue to be extended fruitfully in contemporary feminist pacifist theory and practice.

Type
Open Issue Content
Information
Hypatia , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , Fall 2014 , pp. 889 - 905
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Previous versions of this paper were presented in February 2013 at the Committee for the Status of Women Session at the Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA) in New Orleans, Louisiana; and in December 2013 at the William James Society Session at the Eastern Division meeting of the APA in Baltimore, Maryland. The paper has improved as a result of exchanges with panelists and audience members at each of these presentations. I would like to gratefully acknowledge Scott L. Pratt, whose mentoring was indispensable in the early stages of writing this essay. I also thank two anonymous Hypatia reviewers for their helpful comments.

References

Addams, Jane. 1906/2007. Newer ideals of peace. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Bussey, Gertrude C. 1944. Calkins, Mary Whiton. In Dictionary of American biography, vol. 21 (supplement 1), ed. Star, H. E.New York: Scribner's.Google Scholar
Calkins, Mary Whiton. 1917. Militant pacifism. International Journal of Ethics 28 (1): 70–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calkins, Mary Whiton. 1918. The good man and the good. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Calkins, Mary Whiton. 1930. Mary Whiton Calkins. In The history of psychology in autobiography, vol. 1, ed. Murchison, Carl. Worcester, Mass.: Clark University Press.Google Scholar
Cotkin, George. 1990. William James, public philosopher. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Allen F. 1973. American heroine: The life and legend of Jane Addams. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dubos, René. 1980. The wooing of Earth. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Furumoto, Laurel. 1979. Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930) fourteenth president of the American Psychological Association. Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences 15 (4): 346–56.3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
American Psychological Association. 1980. Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930). Psychology of Women Quarterly 5 (1): 55–68.Google Scholar
American Psychological Association. 1991. From “paired associates” to a psychology of self: The intellectual odyssey of Mary Whiton Calkins. In Portraits of pioneers in psychology, ed. Kimble, Gregory A., Wertheimer, Michael and White, Charlotte. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
James, William. 1981. The works of William James: The principles of psychology, vol. 2, ed. Burkhardt, Frederick H., Bowers, Fredson and Skrupskelis, Ignas K.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
James, William. 1982. The works of William James: Essays in religion and morality, ed. Burkhardt, Frederick and Bowers, Fredson. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
James, William. 1983. The works of William James: Talks to teachers on psychology and to students on some of life's ideals, ed. Burkhardt, Frederick. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lea, Homer. 1909. The valor of ignorance. New York and London: Harper and Brothers.Google Scholar
Martin, Jane Roland. 1987. Martial virtues or capital vices? William James' moral equivalent of war revisited. Journal of Thought 22 (3): 32–44.Google Scholar
Mendieta, Eduardo. 2009. Transcending the “gory cradle of humanity”: War, loyalty, and civic action in Royce and James. In Pragmatism, nation, and race: Community in the age of empire, ed. Kautzer, Chad and Mendieta, Eduardo. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Noddings, Nel. 2012. Peace education: How we come to love and hate war. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Peace Corps. 2013a. About Peace Corps. http://www.peacecorps.gov/about/fastfacts/ (accessed October 17, 2013).Google Scholar
Peace Corps. 2013b. About Peace Corps safety. http://www.peacecorps.gov/learn/safety/ (accessed October 17, 2013).Google Scholar
Peace Corps. 2013c. About Peace Corps volunteers. http://www.peacecorps.gov/learn/whovol/ (accessed October 17, 2013).Google Scholar
Peach, Lucinda J. 1994. An alternative to pacifism? Feminism and just‐war theory. Hypatia 9 (2): 152–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, Dorothy G. 2005. America's first women philosophers: Transplanting Hegel, 1860–1925. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Roth, John K. 1971. Introduction. In William James, The moral equivalent of war and other essays and selections from Some Problems of Philosophy, ed. Roth, John K.New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Royce, Josiah. 1908/1995. The philosophy of loyalty. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press.Google Scholar
Royce, Josiah. 1914. War and insurance. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Royce, Josiah. 1916. The hope of the great community. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Scarborough, Elizabeth, and Furumoto, Laurel. 1987. Untold lives: The first generation of American women psychologists. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schott, Linda. 1993. Jane Addams and William James on alternatives to war. Journal of the History of Ideas 54 (2): 241–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searles, P. David. 1997. The Peace Corps experience: Challenge and change, 1969–1976. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Townsend, Kim. 1997. Manhood at Harvard: William James and others. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Warren, Karen J., and Cady, Duane L. 1994. Feminism and peace: Seeing connections. Hypatia 9 (2): 4–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, H. G. 1908. First and last things: A confession of faith and rule of life. London: Archibald Constable & Co.Google Scholar
Wentworth, Phyllis A. 1999. The moral of her story: Exploring the philosophical and religious commitments in Mary Whiton Calkins' self‐psychology. History of Psychology 2 (2): 119–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed