Max Otto
From Philosopedia
Otto, Max (1876–1968)
A Unitarian source, quoting Frederick Burckhardt's The Cleavage in Our Culture, described Otto as follows:
- Under his wife’s critical eye, [Otto wrote] three books with significant titles: Things and Ideals (1924), Natural Laws and Human Hopes (1926) and The Human Enterprise (1940), together with a large sheaf of periodical articles, public lectures, reviews, and contributions to other critical volumes.
- His share in the controversial Is There a God? (1932), originally a running debate in The Christian Century with H. N. Wieman and D. C. Macintosh as his antagonists, reveals with clarity the antitheistic position he reached, as does his chapter in Religious Liberals Reply (1947). His address in the centenary volume, William James: The Man and The Thinker (1942), naturally discloses much of his own philosophical position, which is briefly but cogently set forth in his chapters in Philosophy in American Education (1945), a report by Brand Blanshard and four other members of the commission appointed by the American Philosophical Association to investigate the subject.
- Mr. Otto's service as a teacher of philosophy, and as chairman of the department of philosophy at Wisconsin since 1936, came to an end in 1947, when he became a professor emeritus. He has been honored with the presidency of the Western branch of the American Philosophical Association.
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Views
- The philosophy which Max Otto developed did not involved the abstract, deductive systems which ingenious minds have invented through the ages to explain the universe and man in whole or in part; it was not the sort of philosophy one finds in the older histories of the subject. Of course, he knows these systems, and he has been heard to say that he would give his right arm—"well, at least a little finger"—to read the lost treatise of Protagoras on Truth, for its possible anticipation of pragmatism, of which he himself is a representative. Pragmatism is, in fact, essentially an American product—native, democratic, homespun, redolent of the soil. It grows out of and is rooted in the common problems and common sense of men and women—refined common sense, of course, but still common sense, whether at work in business, agriculture, politics, economics, science, or religion. The underlying purpose of this philosophy is the enhancement of human life for all. "Humane, warm, and in the best sense simple," President Burkhardt of Bennington said of Max Otto, "his wisdom is pervaded by a profound sense of dedication to the enrichment of man's intellectual and spiritual life."
- Max Otto's philosophy was conceived—and born—in Wisconsin. Of course his native endowment of mind and heart, his experiences of life, and his struggles for clarity of purpose underlie the vision he caught at the university. One may also safely assert that the elder La Follette's program for social betterment had a part in Max Otto's philosophy, and that it was nurtured, enriched, and confirmed by the teachings of William James and John Dewey—especially of John Dewey, his good and great friend.
- Within the broad reaches of his philosophy, Max Otto, a man of genuine religious temper, places stress on the need of our age for a nontheistic faith. The writer ventures to quote from his own review of The Human Enterprise, written when that important book was published: "The theistic foundation of truth, goodness, beauty, and humane feeling being seriously weakened, it is an urgent requirement of the times that an alternative foundation be found for those who do not accept the theistic foundation. This other foundation the author finds in practical sympathy for the needs of mankind as they progressively reveal themselves in the working out of the actual problems which confront humanity."
Naturalism
- Max Otto's abandonment of supernaturalism, which he pushed to its extreme limits in the debate with Wieman and Macintosh, involved him in serious difficulties almost from the beginning of his career as a teacher at Wisconsin. For it inevitably colored what became his great and increasingly popular course, "Man and Nature," where he takes a frankly naturalistic view of the universe. The first attack came in 1912, when clerical critics and their sympathizers in Madison and elsewhere in the state demanded his elimination from the staff as an enemy of religion, and, strangely enough, as a violator of the state constitution, which forbids sectarian religious instruction in the university. The stamina of the young instructor was put to a very tough test. It would have been an easy way out to give up the course; but Max Otto, after prolonged reflection, declined to do so. His students and not a few of his colleagues—some of whom hardly knew him—stood by him, and Van Hise, the great president, irritated though he was by this additional disturbance, in effect backed him up in his forthright commencement address of that year (1912), entitled The Spirit of a University.
- Otto argued that unless we insist on limiting in some manner the acceptable meaning of God, it is easy to prove the existence of God by
- "dilution into vagueness”; through reducing the definition of the term “until it means no more than everyone, even the confessed atheist, will have to admit to exist. Thus the definition of God virtually proves his existence. . . . The word God is made to stand for so much that it loses all distinctive meaning. . . . Belief bought at this price costs too much. It not only impoverishes the religious life…but it tends to dissipate the mental discipline so laboriously and slowly achieved by men.
Humanism
Otto was born in Zwickau, Saxony, and taken to the United States when he was five. His father had a restaurant in Wheeling, West Virginia, and his son diligently learned the Lutheran catechism during a time he served as a waiter in his father's restaurant. In 1906 he received his B.A. at the University of Wisconsin and his Ph. D. in 1911.
In the 1950s, Otto wrote book reviews for The Humanist. The journal's editor, Edwin H. Wilson, wrote about Otto's refusal to sign the American Humanist Association's "Humanist Manifest":
- Prior to 1933, Max Otto (professor of philosophy), Horace M. Kallen, and V. T. Thayer (a signer of the manifesto) were all young men on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. V. T. Thayer was an educator and editor who wrote extensively on church-state separation. At one time, Max Otto and Horace Kallen roomed with the Thayers. According to Dr. Thayer, there was an occasion when the three young men were the lone dissenters on an issue before the campus. This position would not be unusual for anyone whose thinking was generally categorized as radical, as was the case with this group.
The Humanist Manifesto
- Unfortunately, the manifesto editors did not contact Dr. Kallen in 1933 to seek his signature and advice. However, because he was continuously important to humanism, I have included him in this history. When asked in 1973 why he had not been invited to sign "A Humanist Manifesto" in 1933, Kallen wrote to me that John Dewey had once asked him to sign the document. He explained that he had responded to Dewey by saying that he had had stronger objections (left unspecified) to signing the 1933 document than "Humanist Manifesto II" in 1973.
- Max Carl Otto, although he declined to sign "A Humanist Manifesto," never wavered in his humanism and was the author of a series of important books and reference material on church-state and educational issues. In response to the request for his signature on the manifesto, Dr. Otto replied on April 4, 1933:
- I cannot believe that publishing the "Humanist Manifesto" will in the slightest degree "clarify the public mind" or "constitute a constructive work" in any significant sense. It will, on the contrary, I fear, be one of those theoretical gestures which leave with some persons a feeling that something has really been done when all that has been done is that something has been said. I am of the opinion that Humanism, as I understand the philosophy of it, cannot be "sold" to men and women; it must be attained by them, and that means slow, painstaking work. Much as I regret to say, No, to your request that I join you in a general announcement of ideas and aims, I do so with real conviction. Why must we, too, advertise?
- We published his subsequently amplified comments in the same issue of The New Humanist in which the manifesto appeared:
- Publication of the "Humanist Manifesto" will, in my opinion, serve no sufficient purpose. I cannot believe with you that it will clarify the public mind, or do constructive work for the cause. A set of fifteen principles, detached from the living experience which precipitated them and lacking the life and warmth of the interests they represent, can do little to inform the mind and nothing to stir the heart. Humanism—if I understand the philosophy of it—cannot be "sold" to people. If the "Manifesto" were a rallying cry issuing with glowing conviction from a group on the march together, or if it gave promise of gripping men and women of humanistic leanings, drawing them into closer, more understanding and more active unity, it would be a desirable signal. Unfortunately, I see no such service in it. And experience has taught me to beware of deceiving myself into thinking something has really been done when all that has been done is that something has been said. It would be easier for me to write, "Sure, go ahead, put me down." If I take the harder course and do not sign the document which I know will carry the names of men I greatly admire and respect, it is because of a deep conviction that the "Manifesto" will prove to be an ineffectual gesture, and a tactical error.
- It is not surprising that Otto refused to sign, given his view on humanism. In his 1949 book, Science and the Moral Law, he said: All Humanisms have one thing in common. It is the ideal of realizing man's completest development. From here on they diverge.
Dewey's Funeral
At John Dewey’s memorial service [[1]], held at the Community Church (Unitarian) in Manhattan, Dr. Otto told how he once had asked Dewey a question as they were walking on the campus. Dewey stopped. Dewey cogitated quietly. Time passed. More time passed. Much more time passed. Otto wondered after a few minutes if Dewey might be experiencing some physical problem. A stroke? Worse? Finally, and just as Otto started to interrupt Dewey’s seemingly comatose state, Dewey came to life and gave a thorough and profound answer to the question he had just been asked. The response took a long, long time, and it was painstakingly complete, logical, replete with examples, spoken without a pause. Otto observed, as everyone present chuckled, that he was very, very careful, from then on, what he asked Dewey. “Ask a question, and you deserve an answer, not just a response!”
Otto was a lifelong member of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wisconsin.
