Marietta Kies on idealism and good governance

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the political philosophy of Marietta Kies (1853–1899), a progressive-era thinker who gained recognition as both a professional academic philosopher and a public intellectual. Kies’ philosophy was grounded in neo-Hegelian theory, while also being responsive to the economic and social realities she observed in the world around her. She was one of the first women in the US to formally study philosophy and political theory at an advanced academic level. Yet she also gathered with fellow intellectuals, political activists, and feminists to discuss solutions to contemporary problems at chautauqua-style summer programmes. The paper introduces Kies in her intellectual and political context. It then examines distinctive elements of her thought: specifically her heightened notion of positive rights and her theory of public/political altruism. It also evaluates how effectively Kies intertwined a neo-Hegelian understanding of the state with her commitments to Christian socialism, to progressivism, and to a liberal conception of democracy.

KEYWORDS:

• Marietta Kies
• altruism
• justice
• neo-Hegelianism
• Christian socialism

Notes

1 For discussions of the ethic of care as related to social/political theory, see: Gilligan, Different Voice, especially 64–105, 128–50; Tronto, Moral Boundaries and Caring Democracy; Noddings, Caring; Held, Feminist Morality and Ethics of Care. I have previously discussed Kies, along with a contemporary as predecessors of care theorists, in “Before Care”.

2 As noted later in this essay, Kies drew on Hegel’s Philosophy of Right on this point, especially sections 240–5, until he affirms the practice in Scotland of leaving the poor “to their fate” rather than offering assistance. See Hegel, Philosophy of Right (Knox translation), 148–50. Kies fully asserted that it would be unethical for the state to ignore the needs of the poor: Ethical Principle, 79.

3 Rev. S. Sherberne Mathews’ Letter to James B. Angell [Nov. 3, 1900], from Marietta Kies’s necrology file, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.

4 I have discussed Harris and his circle of educators, activists, and philosophers in St. Louis elsewhere, and the men in the movement have been well-chronicled. See Goetzmann, American Hegelians; Harmon, St. Louis Hegelians; Pochman, German Culture in America; Snider, St. Louis Movement.

5 Undated letter from William Torrey Harris (from Concord, Massachusetts) to George Sylvester Morris, in papers of James B. Angell, at the time the president of the University of Michigan, in Bentley Library, University of Michigan.

6 Susan Blow was an educator in St. Louis who became prominent as an expert on early childhood education. She invited William Torrey Harris to give a series of lectures and suggested he discuss progressive economist Henry George so as to dismantle George’s left-leaning theory: Blow to Harris, 24 December 1886, in William Torrey Harris Papers, St. Louis Historical Society.

7 Lucia Ames Mead was a public intellectual and peace activist who corresponded with Harris, expressing her liberal/progressive views. Harris tried to convince her that a more conservative approach was preferable. See letters dated 9 June 1894 and 11 November 1894, in William Torrey Harris Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

8 Grace Bibb was an educator in St. Louis, then the first woman dean at the University of Missouri, Columbia. She discussed doing work on Rousseau in letters to Harris dated 28 January 1884 and 7 February 1884, in William Torrey Harris Papers, St. Louis Historical Society.

9 See Craig, Religion and Radical Politics, 116–25, discussing Woodbey, Slater, and Ransom, and their interactions with the like-minded Jane Addams. See Williams, “‘The Least of These’”, regarding Mary Church Terrell and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. See Smith, “Cooperative Commonwealth”, regarding Scudder and William D.P. Bliss in the Society of Christian Socialists in Boston.

10 Throughout the nineteenth century, a number of women affirmed what I prefer to identify as maternal feminism – the idea that women are innately suited for motherhood and caretaking work, the most vocal proponents of which were Sarah J. Hale and Catharine Beecher, but this strain of thought cut across races and cultures. See Rogers, Women Philosophers, 59–61.