The Chicago School
of Pragmatism
Pragmatism Cybrary
The Chicago School
of Pragmatism
Pragmatism Cybrary
John Dewey founded the Chicago School of Pragmatism during his ten years at the University of Chicago, from 1894 to 1904. The original group included his philosophy colleagues: George H. Mead, James H. Tufts, James R. Angell, Edward Scribner Ames (Ph.D. Chicago 1895), and Addison W. Moore (Ph.D. Chicago 1898). Jane Addams, the Founder of Hull House in Chicago, was a social activist and writer associated with this group. Among the many graduates of Chicago who were influenced by pragmatism during Dewey's time there, several were pragmatists in their own right: Simon F. MacLennan (Ph.D. Chicago 1896, professor at Oberlin College), Ernest Carroll Moore (Ph.D. Chicago 1898, professor at University of California, Berkeley) Arthur K. Rogers (Ph.D. Chicago 1899, professor at Yale University), Ella Flagg Young (Ph.D. Chicago 1900, professor of pedagogy, University of Chicago), H. Heath Bawden (Ph.D Chicago 1900, professor at Vassar College and University of Cincinnati), Henry W. Stuart (Ph.D. Chicago 1900, professor at Stanford University), Irving E. Miller (Ph.D. Chicago 1904, Professor of Psychology and Pedagogy, State Normal School of Wisconsin), Irving King (Ph.D. Chicago 1905, professor of religion, State University of Iowa), and William K. Wright (Ph.D. Chicago 1906, professor at Dartmouth University). More philosophy dissertations here.
Closely associated with Dewey in his retirement years was Arthur F. Bentley, who had attended two of Dewey's courses on logic and ethics while both of them were teaching at Chicago in the late 1890s. Years later their convergent views resulted in a collaborative effort, Knowing and the Known (1949).
Under the leadership of department chair James Tufts, the Chicago School continued to produce pragmatic philosophers long after Dewey had left for Columbia in 1904. These include Matilda Castro (Ph.D. Chicago 1907, professor of philosophy and education at Bryn Mawr College), Anna L. Strong (Ph.D. Chicago 1908), Douglas C. Macintosh (Ph.D. Chicago 1909, professor at Yale University), Frederick G. Henke (Ph.D. Chicago 1910, professor at Alleghany College), Ernest L. Talbert (Ph.D. Chicago 1910), Ellsworth Faris (Ph.D. Chicago 1914, professor of sociology at Chicago), George Counts (Ph.D. Chicago 1916, professor at Columbia University Teachers College), Joseph R. Geiger (Ph.D. Chicago 1916, professor at Antioch College), Clarence E. Ayres (Ph.D. Chicago 1917, professor of economics at Chicago and University of Texas), Jacob R. Kantor (Ph.D. Chicago 1917, professor of psychology, Indiana University), Edwin T. Mitchell (Ph.D. Chicago 1922, professor at University of Texas), and Thomas V. Smith (Ph.D. Chicago 1922, professor at Chicago).
SOCIOLOGY
Mead exerted considerable influence in sociology. Two of his students,
Ellsworth Faris and Herbert Blumer, continued his work. Other sociologists at Chicago,
especially W. I. Thomas
and Robert Park, who with
Mead, Faris, and Blumer could be loosely identified as the "Chicago School of
Sociology," shared some common outlooks on the nature and purpose of sociology.
Another prominent pragmatist sociologist who shared many of the Chicago School's
principles was Charles
Horton Cooley at the University of Michigan. For an overview of the place of the
Chicago School in the history of American sociology, see “American
Trends” by Lewis Coser in A History of Sociological Analysis (1979).
ECONOMICS
Pragmatic themes can also be seen in the work of Thorstein Veblen, Frank H. Knight, and
the "Chicago School of
Economics."
RELIGION
The "Chicago School of Theology" was another manifestation of the enormous
influence of James and Dewey. Professors of religion and
theology during 1900-1930 that formulated pragmatic standpoints towards religion
were Edward Scribner Ames, George Burman Foster, Shirley Jackson Case, Gerald
Birney Smith, and Shailer Mathews.
PHILOSOPHY
Moore died in 1930, Mead died in 1931, and the other original Chicago pragmatists were
scattered by department strife. The most prominent pragmatist at Chicago in later years
was Charles W. Morris (Ph.D. Chicago 1925, professor at Chicago), who
advanced semiotics and his own "neo-pragmatism" which sought cohesion with the
new logical empiricism. Charles Hartshorne (Ph.D. Harvard 1928) joined
the department in 1928. One of his students, Richard Rorty (M.A. Chicago
1952, Ph.D. Yale 1956, professor at Princeton, Virginia, and Stanford), became a
renowned pragmatist. Other pragmatists from Chicago include Donald A.
Piatt (Ph.D. Chicago 1925, professor at University of California, Los Angeles), Theodore
T. Lafferty (Ph.D. Chicago 1928, professor at University of South Carolina), Wayne A. R.
Leys (Ph.D. Chicago 1930, professor at Southern Illinois University), Leslie M. Pape
(Ph.D. Chicago 1930), George V. Gentry (Ph.D. Chicago 1931, professor at University of
Texas), David L. Miller (Ph.D. Chicago 1932, professor at University of
Texas), Stephen S. White (Ph.D. Chicago 1938, professor at Olivet Nazarene College),
Ricardo R. Pascual (Ph.D. Chicago 1939, professor at Bradley University), Manley H.
Thompson (Ph.D. Chicago 1942, professor at University of Chicago), Knox C. Hill (Ph.D.
Chicago 1954, professor at University of Chicago), Darnell Rucker (Ph.D. Chicago 1957,
professor at Colorado College), S. Morris Eames (Ph.D. Chicago 1958,
professor at Southern Illinois University), Joseph J. Zeman (Ph.D. Chicago 1964, professor
at University of Florida), King J. Dykeman (Ph.D. Chicago 1969, professor at Fairfield
University), J. Wesley Robbins (Ph.D. Chicago 1969, professor at Indiana University South
Bend), and Joseph M. Betz (Ph.D. Chicago 1973, professor at Villanova University).
Since the retirements of Manley Thompson and Knox Hill, American philosophy was occasionally taught by Charles Larmore during the 1980s and 1990s. The arrival of James Conant (Ph.D. Harvard 1991) in 1999 brought a second scholar knowledgeable about pragmatism to the Chicago faculty.
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John Dewey (1859-1952) John Dewey page by John Shook |
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George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) George H. Mead page by John Shook George's Page at Brock University, by Lloyd G. Ward George Herbert Mead by George Cronk George H. Mead at Dead Sociologists Index |
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Jane Addams (1860-1935) Hull
House in Chicago |
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James Hayden Tufts (1862-1942) James H. Tufts by John Shook |
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Addison Webster Moore (1866-1930) Addison W. Moore by John Shook |
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James R. Angell (1869-1949) Selected writings of Angell at The Mead Project (picture courtesy of Van Meter Ames and the Ames family) |
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Edward Scribner Ames (1870-1958) Edward S. Ames by John Shook |
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Charles W. Morris (1901-1979) Charles W. Morris page by John Shook |
