Amalie J. Hathaway

Amalie Louise John Hathaway (born Amalie Louise John; 1839 – December 26, 1881) was a German-American philosopher and lecturer. She wrote on Arthur Schopenhauer and has been identified by Carol M. Bensick as a contributor to the German pessimism controversy.

Biography Early life and education Amalie Louise John was born in 1839 in Mühlhausen, Saxony, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia. When she was 12, her father, Karl John, moved the family to Wisconsin, and they later settled in Mendota, Illinois. From the age of 15, she ran a country school as a source of income. Hathaway was introduced to philosophy by Benjamin Cocker, who directed her to the writings of German metaphysicians and philosophers, including Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and von Hartmann, which she could read in German. The lecture also received coverage in other newspapers. The Republican described Hathaway as "probably by far the best grounded in philosophy among American women". Her unpublished papers included "Immanuel Kant", "The Hegelian Philosophy", "Hartmann", "Pessimism and the Hegelian Philosophy", and "Mental Automatism".

Death Hathaway died suddenly at her home in Prairie Ronde Township, Michigan, on December 26, 1881.

Reception Bensick has described Hathaway as a woman philosopher who had received little attention in work recovering the history of women philosophers. She has also described Hathaway as an unrecognised contributor to the German pessimism controversy and compared her work with that of Agnes Taubert and Olga Plümacher, contemporary women philosophers who also contributed to the controversy.

Bensick's article on Hathaway was included in The Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century.

Publications