William Mackintire Salter (January 30, 1853 – July 18, 1931) was the author of several books on philosophy and a critical and enduring major classic on
Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...
. He was also a special lecturer for the Department of Philosophy in the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
[Iowa: Its History and Its Foremost Citizens](_blank)
1918 and a pioneer in the
Ethical movement
The Ethical movement, also referred to as the Ethical Culture movement, Ethical Humanism or simply Ethical Culture, is an ethical, educational, and religious movement that is usually traced back to Felix Adler (1851–1933). .
Life and work
William Mackintire Salter was born in
Burlington, Iowa on January 30, 1853.
Salter's parents were
William Salter, a long-serving Congregational minister, and Mary Ann Salter (née Mackintire).
Salter obtained his BA and MA degrees from
Knox College in Illinois in 1871 and 1874 respectively. He also attended
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has ...
, and received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1876.
Over the following two years, Salter studied at the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, and later (1881-2) at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
Salter married Mary Gibbens in 1885. Mary's sister, Alice Howe Gibbens, was the wife of philosopher and psychologist
William James
William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
. Their first child, Eliza Webb, was born on 20 January 1888.
On 2 December 1889
she died of the
measles, and they later adopted Frank Gray, renaming him John Randall Salter.
Salter founded, and served as lecturer at, the
Ethical Culture Society in Chicago.
Between 1892 and 1897, following nearly a decade in Chicago, he was a lecturer for the Ethical Culture Society in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
.
From 1897 to 1907 he was again in Chicago where, from 1909 to 1913 he was a special lecturer in philosophy at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
.
Influence
The Ethical movement's founder
Felix Adler, a friend and associate of Salter's, described him as 'one of the crown jewels of Ethical Culture'.
With other Ethical Culture leaders, he signed the call for the 1909 National Negro Conference, which led to the founding of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
. Salter's book, ''Ethical Religion,'' influenced
Mohandas K. Gandhi, who published a summary in Gujarati in 1907.
Salter has been called 'perhaps the most perceptive and prescient' of Nietzsche's early interpreters.
Death
Salter died on July 18, 1931, at his summer home in
Silver Lake, New Hampshire. His wife, adopted son, and two brothers (Sumner and George Salter) survived him. He was cremated and his ashes buried at his New Hampshire ''Hilltop'' in Silver Lake.
Works
* ''Do the ethics of Jesus satisfy the needs of our time?'' (1882)
*''Prayer and an ethical view of life'' (1882)
*''The ethical movement; its philosophical basis; its general aims, etc. Three addresses'' (1884)
''Ethical religion''(1889)
* ''Anarchy or Government? An Inquiry in Fundamental Politics'' (1895)
* ''The conflict of the Catholic Church with the French republic'' (1907)
''Nietzsche the thinker; a study''(1917)
at Internet Archive
See also
*
American philosophy
*
Ethical movement
The Ethical movement, also referred to as the Ethical Culture movement, Ethical Humanism or simply Ethical Culture, is an ethical, educational, and religious movement that is usually traced back to Felix Adler (1851–1933).
*
Felix Adler (professor)
Felix Adler (August 13, 1851 – April 24, 1933) was a German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, influential lecturer on euthanasia, religious leader and social reformer who founded the Ethical Culture movemen ...
*
List of American philosophers
This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States.
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References
Further reading
*
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...
, ''Editors Study/Review — (IV)'',
Harpers, August 1889.
* Amy Kittelstrom, ''The Religion of Democracy: Seven Liberals and the American Moral Tradition.'' New York: Penguin, 2015.
External links
Works by William Mackintire Salterat
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
Works by or about William Mackintire Salterat
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salter, William Mackintire
1853 births
1931 deaths
Ethical movement
American philosophers
Knox College (Illinois) alumni
Harvard Divinity School alumni