James Hayden Tufts (1862–1942), an influential American philosopher, was a professor of the then newly founded

Chicago University The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the be ...

. Tufts was also a member of the Board of Arbitration, and the chairman of a committee of the social agencies of Chicago. The work ''Ethics'' in 1908 (with a second edition appearing in 1932) was a collaboration of Tufts and

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the fi ...

. Tufts believed in a conception of mutual influences which he saw as opposed in both

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

and

idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ...

. Tufts was an 1884 graduate of

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educati ...

; received a B.D. from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

in 1889 (where he won the

John Addison Porter John Addison Porter (March 15, 1822 – August 25, 1866) was an American professor of chemistry and physician. He is the namesake of the John Addison Porter Prize and was a founder of the Scroll and Key senior society of Yale University. Acade ...

Prize), an M.A. from

in 1890, and his Ph.D. from the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemb ...

under

Alois Riehl Alois Adolf Riehl (; 27 April 1844 – 21 November 1924) was an Austrian neo-Kantian philosopher. He was born in Bozen (Bolzano) in the Austrian Empire (now in Italy). He was the brother of . Biography Riehl studied at Vienna, Munich, Innsbruck ...

in 1892. With John Dewey and

George Herbert Mead George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 – April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded a ...

(both of whom Tufts was instrumental in bringing to the University), Tufts was a co-founder of the Chicago School of Pragmatism. Tufts was a longstanding chairman of the Department of Philosophy and at one time was the acting president of Chicago University.

Selected works

*''America's Social Morality'' (1933)

External links

James H. Tufts Papers, 1782-1942
at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center * *
Guide to the James Hayden Tufts Papers 1908-1942
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
1862 births 1942 deaths 20th-century American philosophers Amherst College alumni Yale University alumni University of Freiburg alumni American expatriates in Germany {{US-philosopher-stub