524 Chapter 19 Intellectual and Cultural Trends in the Late Nineteenth Century
Evolution did not undermine the faith of any large
percentage of the population. If the account of the cre-
ation in Genesis could not be taken literally, the Bible
remained a repository of wisdom and inspiration. Such
books as John Fiske’sThe Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy
(1874) provided religious persons with the comforting
thesis that evolution, while true, was merely God’s way
of ordering the universe—as the liberal preacher
Washington Gladden put it, “a most impressive
demonstration of the presence of God in the world.”
The effects of Darwinism on philosophy were less
dramatic but in the end more significant. Fixed sys-
tems and eternal truths were difficult to justify in a
world that was constantly evolving. By the early
1870s a few philosophers had begun to reason that
ideas and theories mattered little except when applied
to specifics.
“Nothing justifies the development of abstract
principles but their utility in enlarging our concrete
knowledge of nature,” wrote Chauncey Wright, sec-
retary of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
This startling philosophy, known aspragmatism, was
further developed by William James, brother of the
novelist. James was one of the most remarkable per-
sons of his generation. Educated in London, Paris,
Bonn, and Geneva—as well as at Harvard—he stud-
ied painting, participated in a zoological expedition
to South America, earned a medical degree, and was a
professor at Harvard, successively of comparative
anatomy, psychology, and finally philosophy. His
Principles of Psychology(1890) may be said to have
established that discipline as a modern science. His
Varieties of Religious Experience(1902), which treated
the subject from both psychological and philosophical
points of view, helped thousands of readers reconcile
their religious faith with their increasing knowledge of
psychology and the physical universe.
James’s wide range and his verve and imagination
as a writer made him by far the most influential
philosopher of his time. He rejected the deterministic
interpretation of Darwinism and all other one-idea
explanations of existence. Belief in free will was one of
his axioms; environment might influence survival, but
so did the desireto survive, which existed independent
of surrounding circumstances. Even truth was relative;
it did not exist in the abstract but happenedunder par-
ticular circumstances. What a person thought helped
to make thought occur, or come true. The mind,
James wrote in a typically vivid phrase, has “a vote” in
determining truth. Religion was true, for example,
because people were religious.
The pragmatic approach inspired much of the
reform spirit of the late nineteenth century and even
more of that of the early twentieth. James’s hammerTable 19.1Key Figures and Intellectual CurrentsIntellectual Chief Accomplishment Major Ideas
Charles W. Eliot Elective system at Harvard Encouraged development of college majors and hiring
of specialized faculty
Daniel Coit Gilman Graduate education at Johns Hopkins Brought German standards of research to the United States
Richard Ely Founded “institutional school
of economics”Challenged theorists who focused on markets and advo-
cated laissez-faire governmental policy
John Dewey The School and Society(1899) Insisted that meaningful social change was impossible
without educational change
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The Common Law(1881) Demonstrated that law was not founded on historical
precedent; legal principles evolved with society
Frederick Jackson Turner “The Significance of the Frontier in
American History” (1893)Frontier conditions explained the individualism and
democracy that characterized American society
Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn(1884) Lampooned the sentimentality and hypocrisy of
Victorian culture
Charlotte Perkins Gilman Women and Economics(1898) Maintained that society was unjustly built upon women’s
economic dependence on men; social change depended
on women finding meaningful paid work
William Dean Howells A Hazard of New Fortunes(1890) Promoted a realistic, nonsentimental look at society
Henry James The Portrait of a Lady(1881) Showed how literature could probe the depths and
complexities of human relationships
Thomas Eakins The Gross Clinic(1875) Applied realistic perspectives to art
William James The Principles of Psychology(1890) Contended that the will, as influenced by psychological
factors, was an independent force in human affairs