Pragmatism, Feminism, and the Sentimental Subject

The author joins the company of Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Erin McKenna, and Shannon Sullivan in attempting to restore women to the history of pragmatism. Arguing that classical pragmatism emerged in postbellum America as an adaptation of antebellum sentimental discourse, the author identifies some of John Dewey, Jane Addams, and William James’s rhetorical innovations, using them to outline a theory of pragmatic subjectivity. The paper also advocates connecting pragmatism more deeply to moral sentimentalism, both to construct genealogies of pragmatist feminism and to help contemporary pragmatist feminists reflect on the lingering influence of sentimentalism on their own thought.