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Ellen M. Mitchell (1838–1920) was an American philosopher, educator and education reformer. She was one of the first women to be appointed lecturer in a university,^[1] in addition to writing philosophy, literature and literary criticism.

Biography

Ellen M. Smith was born in the Village of Geddes, New York to Harriet H. Rowland and Edwin R. Smith, the eldest of their four children. She graduated from the Cortland Academy, Homer, N.Y. in 1860, with a major in Classics. Ellen, also, taught school in Syracuse. During the Civil War her brother, Edwin R. Smith, Jr., served in New York's 149th Regiment. Edwin was killed in the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863. He was initially reported severely wounded; the family tried to determine whether the Confederates had captured him and treated him in the Confederate field hospital at Ellwood Manor. However, Edwin was lost without a trace. Ellen adopted the nom de plume "Ella Ellwood" in identification with Edwin, writing with the name Ellwood during the war. Following Edwin's death, Ellen resigned her teaching position in Syracuse and moved to Cairo, Illinois, where she lived with her uncle, Ward L. Smith and his wife, Anna.

During the war, Ellen moved to St. Louis, Missouri. She wrote for the Missouri Republican newspaper of St. Louis, continuing to use the nom de plume Ella Ellwood until the war's end. She married St. Louis attorney and Union civil war veteran Joseph W. Mitchell in the Presbyterian Church of Alton, Illinois in 1867. While in St. Louis, she attended the Hegelian philosophy lectures which had been organized there by William T. Harris. She and Joseph also contributed to a literary and philosophical discussion group called "The Pen & Pencil Club," often hosting the meetings in their home.

Ellen and Joseph moved to Denver, Colorado in 1878, seeking effective treatment for Joseph's illness (possibly tuberculosis). However, Joseph died in February, 1879. Ellen remained in Denver, where she taught school and, then, lectured on philosophy and literature in the University of Denver.^[2] Also, she actively contributed to the Kant Club, and to the Fortnightly Club, of Denver.

Ellen M. Mitchell attended the first session, in July 1879, of the Concord Summer School of Philosophy, which was hosted in Concord, Mass. by Bronson Alcott on his property. William T. Harris organized the school and its programs after leaving St. Louis, with the intention of unifying the Hegelian Idealism of the St. Louis Philosophical Society with the Transcendentalism of Concord. At that first 1879 session, Ellen became acquainted with many women from across the country who were leading the struggle for women's suffrage, as well as the efforts to improve educational and social policy standards. Among those she met while attending the 1879 Concord session was Julia Ward Howe who, later, became the president of the Association for the Advancement of Women. The Concord School played an important role in helping to build networks of policy reformers; more than one half of those who attended were women. Mrs. Mitchell participated in the annual Concord School of Philosophy every year, until its final session in 1888. She wrote, in 1880, a description of the lectures during the previous session, and she delivered a paper titled "Friendship in Aristotle's Ethics" during the Concord session of July, 1887.

Mitchell actively contributed to the Association for the Advancement of Women, regularly attending the annual congresses. At the 12th Woman's Congress in 1884, held at Baltimore, she delivered a paper titled "A Study of Hegel." By the A.A.W.'s 13th Congress, held at Des Moines, Iowa, she was Vice Pres. of the A.A.W. for Colorado. At that same 13th Annual Congress, Prof. Maria Mitchell, of New York, and Ellen M. Mitchell, of Chicago (Mrs. Francis Mitchell) also were serving the A.A.W. as V.P.'s for the states of New York and Illinois, respectively. At the A.A.W.'s 18th Women's Congress, at Toronto in 1890, Mitchell delivered a paper titled, "The Dramas of Henrik Ibsen." Continuing as V. P. of the A.A.W. for Colorado, she was "Chairman" of the A.A.W.'s Committee for Topics and Papers. For the A.A.W.'s 19th Woman's Congress in 1891, at Grand Rapids, Mich., she continued serving as V.P. for Colorado, as the Chair of the Topics & Papers Committee, and she delivered a paper titled "The Real and the Ideal in Art."

Throughout her career, Mitchell advocated, and endeavored to realize, the noble aspiration for American philosophy which was advocated by Walt Whitman in his great poetic essay manifesto of 1871, "Democratic Vistas".

After 1893, she permanently returned to Geddes (by then a part of Syracuse) to care for her parents. In Syracuse, she organized and led the Round-Table of Syracuse, a literary and philosophical community adult seminar group. The Round Table began in 1894 and continued for more than 20 years. To assist the participants in their studies and discussions, Mitchell wrote and privately published a series of essays on Dante, Tennyson, and Goethe. The title for one of the essays, "The Way of the Soul" is adapted from Hegel's introduction to his Phenomenology of Spirit. In her introduction to the essay, she wrote:

Ellen M. Mitchell died in Syracuse, N.Y. May 14, 1920 at the age of 81, three months before the 19th amendment to the constitution was ratified, finally establishing universal suffrage. She is interred beside her parents in the Myrtle Hill Cemetery of the Village of Geddes.

In her obituary, May 16, 1920, the Syracuse Herald newspaper commented: "The Herald records with sincere regret the death of Mrs. Ellen M. Mitchell, for many years the gentle preceptor and oracle of the Syracuse Round Table. The value of her services to the literary life of the city cannot easily be overestimated....Mrs. Mitchell's personality was singularly lovable, and it imparted a magnetic charm to her discourse and her teaching. On its intellectual side the City of Syracuse is much the poorer by her death."

Philosophy

"A Study of Greek Philosophy", Mitchell's book length philosophical discussion, was published in 1891 by S.C.Griggs & Co. The book contains 36 chapter essays, chronologically presenting the development of the classical Greek tradition in philosophy, extending from the pre-Socratics to the neo-Platonists. Her book is the first book length philosophical analysis to have been written in America by a woman scholar. It guides university students, philosophy specialists, educators, and adult scholars through a program of study of the ancient Greek tradition in philosophy. The book is, also, the first book to preserve the legacy of ancient Greek philosophy in the New World.

Reviews of the book were offered by prominent scholars and thought leaders when it was published in 1891:

Ellen Mitchell focused her writings on the philosophy of history, philosophy of art, political ethics, transcendentalism, and Phidias and Plato. While lecturing at the Denver University she was one of the first to introduce women to idealist thought,^[4] the other being Marietta Kies.

In “The Philosophy of Pessimism” she was one of the philosophers who resisted philosophical systems that grew out of the skeptical tradition. They were not interested in determining what is not true, possible, or real.^[5] She only believed in positive theories that relied on what God created, like nature rather than based on human reason and judgment, it was based on the God-given world. Mitchell was part of the idealist philosophers.

One of her larger successes was “A Study of Hegel.” This seventeen page article did not discuss Hegel’s theories in detail. It does discuss important issues for women; nature, art, and religion.^[6] There is a paragraph in the article that distorts Hegel’s thought by using her own thoughts;

This conflicts with Hegel’s belief as the mind must not be said to stand apart from the world as Mitchell here implies.^[6] This paragraph starts the same as Hegel's belief of communicating with the world through senses, but it changes to hers about how to gain the power of knowledge is through using these senses to your individual experiences in life. This shows that she did not always just state other philosopher beliefs, but also had her own philosophies. When it came to the person and society Mitchell said that someone being away from social order is impossible. She states that “social institutions play a critical role in individual self-determination",^[6] meaning that in order to rise above, an individual must become a part of society to be able to rise above it.

In her book A study of Greek Philosophy she claims the object of knowledge in philosophy is the human spirit itself, and truth is a living process which develops and advances in the civilizing course of humanity.^[7] Later in the book it reveals that we gain self-knowledge as we gain more experiences in life that affects our knowledge and become who we are.

Publications

References

1. ^{{cite web|last=Lindermann|first=Kate|title=Ellen Mitchell|url=http://www.societyforthestudyofwomenphilosophers.org/Ellen_Mitchell.html|work=Women Philosophers|publisher=Kate Lindermann|accessdate=10 April 2016}}
2. ^¹{{cite web|last=Lindermann |first=Kate |title=Ellen Mitchell |url=http://www.women-philosophers.com/Ellen-Mitchell.html |archive-url=https://archive.is/20130725202858/http://www.women-philosophers.com/Ellen-Mitchell.html |dead-url=yes |archive-date=25 July 2013 |work=Women Philosophers |publisher=Kate Lindermann |accessdate=24 July 2013 }}
3. ^{{cite book|editor1= John R. Shook |editor2= Richard T. Hull|title=The dictionary of modern American philosophers|year=2005|publisher=Thoemmes|location=Bristol|isbn=978-1843710370|edition=1. publ.}}
4. ^{{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Dorothy G.|title=America's first women philosophers : transplanting Hegel, 1860 - 1925|year=2005|publisher=Continuum|location=London [u.a.]|isbn=978-0826474759|page=106}}
5. ^{{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Dorothy G.|title=America's first women philosophers : transplanting Hegel, 1860 - 1925|year=2005|publisher=Continuum|location=London [u.a.]|isbn=978-0826474759|page=107}}
6. ^¹²³{{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Dorothy G.|title=America's first women philosophers : transplanting Hegel, 1860 - 1925|year=2005|publisher=Continuum|location=London [u.a.]|isbn=978-0826474759|page=109}}
7. ^{{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Ellen M.|title=A Study of Greek Philosophy: -1891|year=1891|publisher=Cornell University Library}}
8. ^{{cite book|last1=Wayne|first1=Tiffany K.|title=Women Thinking: Feminism and Transcendentalism in Nineteenth Century America|date=2005|publisher=Lexington Books|location=Lanham, Maryland|isbn=0-7391-0759-3}}
9. ^{{cite book|last1=Rogers|first1=Dorothy G.|title=Women in the St. Louis Idealist Movement, 1860-1925, Vol. 1|date=2003|publisher=Thoemmes Press|location=Bristol, England|isbn=1 84371 043 9}}