Philosophy Faculty Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 2011
Publication Source
Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society
Abstract
In March 1908 the Chicago Police Chief shot Lazarus Averbuch, a young, Russian Jewish immigrant, claiming self-defense against an anarchist plot. Jane Addams refused to join the public's outcry of support for their chief, declaring that she had the obligation to interpret rather than denounce the incident. Her analysis of Averbuch's killing, given in her essay, ““The Chicago Settlements and Social Unrest,”” provides a focal point for seeing how interpretation functions as a unifying theoretical category for Addams, bringing together her activism, her style of writing, and her philosophy of social change. Addams's conception of interpretation is multi-faceted and dynamic; the interweaving lines of contrapuntal music give a fitting metaphor. I analyze the essay's presentation of interpretation in terms of three contrapuntal voice-lines: as dramatization, as mediation-advocacy, and as reconstruction.
Inclusive pages
482-506
ISBN/ISSN
0009-1774
Document Version
Published Version
Copyright
Copyright © 2011, Charles S. Peirce Society
Publisher
Indiana University Press
Volume
47
Issue
4
Peer Reviewed
yes
eCommons Citation
Fischer, Marilyn, "Interpretation's Contrapuntal Pathways: Addams and the Averbuch Affair" (2011). Philosophy Faculty Publications. 142.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/phl_fac_pub/142
Included in
Criminology Commons, Philosophy Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons
Comments
This document is provided for download in compliance with the publisher's policy on self-archiving. Permission documentation is on file.