* 2/3/98
 
I. Antiformalism: an overview
 
*Introduction: During the 1880s there occurred a fundamental reorientation of the intellectual climate, one comparable to that of the 1910s (which introduced the earliest strains of "modernism"), and again in the 1960s (postmodernism). The term "antiformalism" was popularized in a later history, Morton White's Social Thought in America: The Revolt Against Formalism. Related terms are " pragmatism" (philosophy), "functionalism" (psychology, architecture etc.). All were allied with "realism" in seeking to reorient thought around the standard of "science." However, the antiformalists-pragmatists-functionalists represented a protest or second wave within movements already seeking a "scientific" basis William James's psychology, for example, was in reaction to the "structuralism" of the so-called Wundt-Titchener tradition, just as the sociological jurisprudence of the jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes challenged the "case study" method of Langdell at Harvard Law School. As with "naturalism" in literature (an extension and protest within the "realist" tradition, antiformalism was more explicitly evolutionist in its underlying assumptions.
 

A. Philosophically. 1. was a reaction against the "formalism" of British empirical tradition, as described on outline; e.g. "economic man" of classical economics; the "happiness maximizer" of utilitarianism; the "power maximizer" of older political theory (e.g. Federalist papers) E.g. see James "Pragmatism," H&C, 3rd edn. 112-.

 *as such it is an example of new "realism" and "practicality" that had implications for "genteel tradition" although here differences occur.
 

2. but also against equation of "science" with simple "fact gathering," as in the narrowly inductive method preferred by mid-century American scientists (so called Baconian induction`)

 *rather stressed :(1) historicism, doctrine that things can only be understood in terms of their past; and (2) organicism: everything must be understood in terms of its relations to other things. Thus not possible to separate and segregate realism of "politics","economics," "social"

B. at the institutional level: antiformalism represented the professionalization of scholarship in various areas, whereby the social sciences take their "modern" shape. In each case, antiformalism was both an early stage of professionalization and a protest against it. Antiformalism, in turn , was challenged by new generation of "scientistic" practitioners after ca. 1909. (see sheet for generations) 

C. at the political/ideological level antiformalism had implications for "New Liberalism" that provided the basis of progressivism/New Deal. Here evaluation has changed as "progressivism" has been reassessed by several generations of historians. 

1. contemporaries hailed for supporting "reform" 

2. after the rise of fascism in the 1930s, the charge was that antiformalism introduced a "debilitating relativism," or (in another version) provided the basis for the "value free" expertise
 *e.g. attacks on Holmes by Catholic jurists was typical
 

3. recently , historians have been more sympathetic. Eg. James Kloppenberg, Uncertain Victory, and George Cotkin, William James: Public Philosopher.

1. C. S. Pierce. Inaugurated "pragmatism" in philosophy in an essay the "Fixation of Belief" and other that appeared in Popular Science Monthly in 1878-79. Argued for a conception of "science" later to be called the "hypothetico-deductive method." Arguing that the ongoing inquiry of a scientific community provided the surest basis for "belief", he attacked both (a) the abstract deductionism of which he characterized as "medieval." and (b)the narrow induction of so-called "Baconian" science" that reigned in the U.S. in the mid-19th century. See "Fixation of Belief," H&C 3rd 13--24

2. William James made his reputation with his Psychology (1890) before becoming the chief popularizer of "pragmatism" in a series of lectures at Columbia University in 1906. Within psychology, he opposed the abstract "elementalism" of the so-called Wundt-Titchener tradition; and (b) the narrow physicalism of the "somatic style that reduced all mental states to physical problems, and prescribed often draconian physical cures accordingly 

3. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in his Common Law (1882) also attacked (a) the abstract conceptions of "law" as being something more than what lawyers, courts and legislatures do; and (b) the inductionist "case study" method that Langdell had introduced at Harvard Law school in the 1870s. See H&C 3rd, 123-

***Note: in dealing with "pragmatism," is important to avoid easy generalizations
 

1. pragmatism was not simply the result of the application of Darwinism or science, but rather an attempt to get away from an overly strict empiricism by redefining "science." In fact, Peirce's thought had its roots in the neo-Kantian revival of the 1870s. His community of observers (scientists) was an attempt to actualize the Kantian categories as an ongoing community of inquiry. For elaboration of this theme see Bruce Kuklick, American Philosophy.

2. although sometimes accused of wanting only the "cash value" of ideas, and hence being an evidence of the growing "materialism" of late 19th century America, their goal was to make more room for the knowing, feeling, active subject.

3. Hence antiformalists, James especially, wished to make more room for "faith." See especially James Will to Believe" (1897) and his Varieties of Religious Experience (1902).

B. Institutional. In their careers, each was a transitional figure in the development of a new professionalism, which they shared but also suspected. Pierce, for example, never had a decent academic position; James, although a professor at Harvard, attacked the growing power of what he termed "The Ph.D. Octopus;" Ward obtained an academic position at Brown University only in the final years of his life (1906-13); and Holmes was a critic of the academic ritualism of Langdell's methods at Harvard. Their "half way" position within the emerging professional academic culture provides a key to many of their leading ideas.

C. Political\ideological. Although most of the leading antiformalists were theorists rather than activists, the ideological payoff of their approach can be seen in a number of reforms of the progressive era.

1. Pierce/James pragmatism in psychology-philosophy inspired John Dewey's theories of education, and the progressive emphasis on "leaning by doing."

2 Holmes joined the Supreme Court in 1901, and was soon a leading dissenter against the "conservative" actions of the Court as a hole, e.g. in Lochner v. New York, where he upheld a ten hours law passed by the state of NY.

*more generally, the antiformalists emphasis on "ideas" as taken shape through adaptation to environment broke down older defenses of property rights and "laissez faire" based on "laws of nature." 

III. Later developments within antiformalism. As a particular product of its time and place, the reformist antiformalism of the years 1880-1910 gradually grew more cautious and conservative.

A. Intellectually, the attempt to combine subjective feeling with objective conditions led some to turn to a sort of mysticism, (the "feel good" subjectivism that was always inherent in the "soft" side of William James's philosophy, e.g.) or objectivism (see lecture on scientism).

B. Professionally, the ongoing process of professionalization and the "organization of knowledge" turned academic opinion against the "arm chair" philosophizing (as it now seemed) of the older generation. In the classroom, professors increasingly encountered more narrowly trained students with neither knowledge of nor interest in synthesizing all realms of knowledge, the thrust of much 19th century evolutionary thinking.

3. socially-politically, progressivism itself became more increasingly interested in "controls," and manipulation--the product of fears of socialism, of immigrants, and of popular culture--all of which increased markedly after 1910. An early example of this reorientation was Edward A. Ross's Social Control (1901).

 
Written by Robert Bannister, 1/4/98.Latest revision 1/29/98. May be reproduced in whole or part for educational purposes, but not copied or distributed for profit.