Jane Addams : ideali di pace (vecchi e nuovi) : un approccio tragico

The refusal of violence has been a constant in Jane Addams's life and work. Her pacifism parallels her commitment to the ‘woman's question'. Jane Addams' argumentation is grounded in the progressivist social philosophy, according to which the historical stages of militarism and industrialism are to remain in the past in order to enter a new democratic era.

Our current problems are due to the fact that we find ourselves in the transitions between ethical claims that belong to different social and historical standards. To illustrate these conflicts, Addams used to recall the examples of tragic heroines. In this paper, the evolution of Jane Addams's feminist pacifism is exemplified by Nora, Cordelia, and Antigone. They are pointing out the paths of a new social contract that will imply more egalitarian relations between sexes, nations, and social classes. [Publisher's text]