Willystine Goodsell
From Philosopedia
Willystine Goodsell (8 January 1870 - 31 May 1962)
Goodsell, the daughter of Jacob and Jennie Clark Goodsell, was born in Wallingford, Connecticut.
She was educated at the Welch Normal Training School, New Haven, Connecticut, and Teachers College, Columbia University. John Dewey was teaching then at Columbia.
Her early interest in philosophy is shown in her master's dissertation, "The Relation of the Individual to Society in the Social Theories of Rousseau" (1906). The following year William James came to Columbia to give a highly successful lecture series on pragmatism.
Heavily influenced by Dewey and James, she wrote The Conflict of Naturalism and Humanism (1910), a history of philosophy that traces its relation to educational theory and practice in different periods. She described the division between humanists and natural scientists from the Renaissance, a period dominated by the humanists, to 1910, an era during which scientists were predominant in the U.S. In a final chapter, Goodsell proposes a pragmatic solution to the conflict, one that relates science (testing of knowledge) and the humanities (study of the past) to the appreciation of the depth and beauty of everyday human life.
A History of the Family as a Social and Educational Institution (1915, revised 1939), established the direction the rest of her books were to take. Her interest now moved toward anthropological or sociological topics. With The Education of Women (1923), feminist overtones became obvious. With the hopes that more attention would be given to the improvement of the education of women, Goodsell published Pioneers of Women's Education in the United States: Emma Willard, Catherine Beecher, and Mary Lyon (1931). In this volume Goodsell summarizes women's education before 1820, provides detailed biographical information on each woman studied, and also includes selections written by all three.
A History of Marriage and the Family (1935) is a meticulously detailed study of the family from primitive times through those of the patriarchal Greeks and Romans, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Because of the dominant cultural influence, the English family is studied in detail from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The greatest attention is given to the American family from colonial times to the present. An entire chapter outlines the difficulties of modern marriage, but Goodsell expresses optimism for improved family relationships. Her final chapter deals with governmental and social aid that may help "in the interest of [family] stability and happiness."
Writing of Goodsell's importance, Carole M. Shaffer-Koros described her:
- Since Goodsell expresses one of her goals as being "to reveal existing injustices and evils in the marriage relation," she deserves to be ranked as an early feminist. At the same time, the breadth and scope of her writing—philosophical, historical, and critical—earn her a place among scholars in the fields of the history of education and social anthropology.
