Sidney Hook
Encyclopedia
Sidney Hook was an American pragmatic
philosopher known for his contributions to public debates.
A student of John Dewey
, Hook continued to examine the philosophy of history
, of education
, politics
, and of ethics
. After embracing Marxism in his youth, Hook was known for his criticisms of totalitarianism
(fascism
and Marxism–Leninism). A pragmatic social democrat
, Hook sometimes cooperated with conservatives, particularly in opposing communism
. After World War II, he argued that members of conspiracies, like the Communist Party USA
and other Leninist conspiracies
, ethically could be barred from holding offices of public trust because they called for violent overthrow of democratic governments.
to Jennie and Isaac Hook, who were Austria
n-Jewish
immigrants, Hook was a Socialist Party
supporter during the Debs
era when he was in high school. He earned his Bachelor's degree
at the City College of New York
in 1923, then his Ph.D.
at Columbia University
in 1927, where he was a student of the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey. Upon finishing his studies, Hook was hired by New York University
, which employed him until his retirement in 1972. From 1948 to 1969 he was head of the Department of Philosophy.
's philosophy and was himself a Marxist
. He attended the lectures of Karl Korsch
in Berlin in 1928 and did research at the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow
in the summer of 1929. At first, he wrote enthusiastically about the Soviet Union
. In 1932 he supported the Communist Party
's William Z. Foster
when he ran for President of the United States
. However, Hook broke completely with the Comintern
in 1933, holding its policies responsible for the triumph of Nazism
in Germany
. He accused Joseph Stalin
of putting "the needs of the Russian state" over the needs of the international revolution.
Hook remained, however, active on the far Left during the Great Depression
. In 1933, along with James Burnham
, Hook helped to organize the American Workers Party
led by the Dutch-born pacifist
minister A.J. Muste. Hook also debated the meaning of Marxism with radical Max Eastman
(who, like Hook, had studied under John Dewey at Columbia University
) in a series of public exchanges. In the late 1930s, Hook assisted Leon Trotsky
in his efforts to clear his name in a special Commission of Inquiry
headed by Dewey, which investigated Stalinist charges made against Trotsky during the Moscow Trials
.
prompted in Hook an increasing ambivalence toward Marxism. In 1939, Hook formed the Committee for Cultural Freedom, a short-lived organization that set the stage for his postwar politics by opposing "totalitarianism" on the left and right. By the time of the Cold War
, Hook was a prominent anti-Communist
, although he continued to consider himself both a democratic socialist
and a secular humanist throughout his life.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Hook helped found Americans for Intellectual Freedom, the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), and the American Committee for Cultural Freedom
. These bodies—the CCF was most central—were, in part, funded by the Central Intelligence Agency
through a variety of fronts, and sought to dissuade American Leftists from continuing to advocate cooperation with the Soviet Union
as some had previously.
In the 1960s, Hook was a frequent critic of the New Left
. Hook was opposed to a unilateral withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Vietnam War
. He defended California Governor Ronald Reagan
's removal of Angela Davis
from her professorship at UCLA because of her leadership role in the Communist Party USA
. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1965. He ended his career in the 1970s and 1980s as a fellow of the conservative Hoover Institution
in Stanford, California
.
selected Hook for the 1984 Jefferson Lecture
, the U.S. government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities
. Hook's lecture was entitled "Education in Defense of a Free Society."
On May 23, 1985 Hook was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
by President Ronald Reagan
.
Hook's memoirs, Out of Step, recount his life, his activism for a number of educational causes, his controversies with other intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky
, and his recollections of Morris Cohen
, John Dewey, Bertrand Russell
, Mortimer J. Adler and Albert Einstein
.
In October 2002, a conference marking the centennial of Hook's birth was organized by Matthew Cotter and Robert Talisse
and held at the City University of New York
Graduate Center in Manhattan
.
and came to write a chapter in his book The Law of Social Revoluion entitled "The Russian Revolution of 1917" (1926). Friends from the Rand School included Nerma Berman Oggins, wife of Cy Oggins. She was a Communist Party member who was a "Fosterite" (i.e., she supported William Z. Foster
amidst Party factionalism in the last 1920s). She went on to work at the Labor Defense Council.
He married Ann Zinken in 1935, with whom he had two children: Ernest Benjamin Hook and Susan Ann Hook.
and Great Man
in history and influence of the outstanding persons.
Hook opposed all forms of determinism
and argued (as William James
did) that humans play a creative role in constructing social world and transforming the natural environment. Neither humanity nor its universe is determined, or finished. For Hook this conviction was crucial. He argues that when a society is at the crossroads choosing the direction of further development then an individual can turn to play a dramatic role and even become an independent power on whom depends the choice of the historical pathway.
In his book Hook gives a great number of examples of the influence of great people and these examples are mostly associated with some crucial moments in history (revolutions, crises). This makes some scholars criticize him because
Hook introduced a division of historic personalities and especially leaders into eventful man and event-making man depending on their influence on the historical process. For example, he considers Lenin
as an event-making man as in certain important respects he had changed the development direction not only of Russia
but of the whole world in the 20th century.
Hook attaches great importance to accidents and contingencies in history thus opposing, amongst others, Herbert Fisher
who made attempts to present history as ‘waves’ of emergencies following after another
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...
philosopher known for his contributions to public debates.
A student of John Dewey
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
, Hook continued to examine the philosophy of history
Philosophy of history
The term philosophy of history refers to the theoretical aspect of history, in two senses. It is customary to distinguish critical philosophy of history from speculative philosophy of history...
, of education
Philosophy of education
Philosophy of education can refer to either the academic field of applied philosophy or to one of any educational philosophies that promote a specific type or vision of education, and/or which examine the definition, goals and meaning of education....
, politics
Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
, and of ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
. After embracing Marxism in his youth, Hook was known for his criticisms of totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
(fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and Marxism–Leninism). A pragmatic social democrat
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
, Hook sometimes cooperated with conservatives, particularly in opposing communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. After World War II, he argued that members of conspiracies, like the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
and other Leninist conspiracies
Democratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
, ethically could be barred from holding offices of public trust because they called for violent overthrow of democratic governments.
Childhood
Born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
to Jennie and Isaac Hook, who were Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n-Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
immigrants, Hook was a Socialist Party
Socialist Party USA
The Socialist Party USA is a multi-tendency democratic-socialist party in the United States. The party states that it is the rightful continuation and successor to the tradition of the Socialist Party of America, which had lasted from 1901 to 1972.The party is officially committed to left-wing...
supporter during the Debs
Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor Debs was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World , and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States...
era when he was in high school. He earned his Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
at the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
in 1923, then his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1927, where he was a student of the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey. Upon finishing his studies, Hook was hired by New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, which employed him until his retirement in 1972. From 1948 to 1969 he was head of the Department of Philosophy.
Early career as Marxist
At the beginning of his career, Hook achieved prominence as an expert on Karl MarxKarl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
's philosophy and was himself a Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
. He attended the lectures of Karl Korsch
Karl Korsch
-Biography:Korsch was born in Tostedt, near Hamburg, to Carl August Korsch, a secretary at the cantonal court and his wife Therese. In 1898 the family moved to Meiningen, Thuringia and Korsch senior attained the position of a managing clerk in a bank...
in Berlin in 1928 and did research at the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in the summer of 1929. At first, he wrote enthusiastically about the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. In 1932 he supported the Communist Party
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
's William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster
William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...
when he ran for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. However, Hook broke completely with the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
in 1933, holding its policies responsible for the triumph of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. He accused Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
of putting "the needs of the Russian state" over the needs of the international revolution.
Hook remained, however, active on the far Left during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. In 1933, along with James Burnham
James Burnham
James Burnham was an American popular political theorist, best known for his influential work The Managerial Revolution, published in 1941. Burnham was a radical activist in the 1930s and an important factional leader of the American Trotskyist movement. In later years he left Marxism and produced...
, Hook helped to organize the American Workers Party
American Workers Party
The American Workers Party was a socialist organization established in December 1933 by activists in the Conference for Progressive Labor Action, a group headed by A.J. Muste.-Formation:...
led by the Dutch-born pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
minister A.J. Muste. Hook also debated the meaning of Marxism with radical Max Eastman
Max Eastman
Max Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet, and a prominent political activist. For many years, Eastman was a supporter of socialism, a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes...
(who, like Hook, had studied under John Dewey at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
) in a series of public exchanges. In the late 1930s, Hook assisted Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
in his efforts to clear his name in a special Commission of Inquiry
Dewey Commission
The Dewey Commission was initiated in March 1937 by the "American Committee for the Defense of Leon Trotsky." It was named after its Chairman, John Dewey...
headed by Dewey, which investigated Stalinist charges made against Trotsky during the Moscow Trials
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
.
Later years as Anti-Communist
The Great PurgeGreat Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
prompted in Hook an increasing ambivalence toward Marxism. In 1939, Hook formed the Committee for Cultural Freedom, a short-lived organization that set the stage for his postwar politics by opposing "totalitarianism" on the left and right. By the time of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, Hook was a prominent anti-Communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
, although he continued to consider himself both a democratic socialist
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
and a secular humanist throughout his life.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Hook helped found Americans for Intellectual Freedom, the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), and the American Committee for Cultural Freedom
American Committee for Cultural Freedom
The American Committee for Cultural Freedom was the U.S. affiliate of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an organization that, during the Cold War, sought to encourage intellectuals to be critical of the Soviet Union and Communism, and to combat, according to a writer for the New York Times, "the...
. These bodies—the CCF was most central—were, in part, funded by the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
through a variety of fronts, and sought to dissuade American Leftists from continuing to advocate cooperation with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
as some had previously.
In the 1960s, Hook was a frequent critic of the New Left
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
. Hook was opposed to a unilateral withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. He defended California Governor Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's removal of Angela Davis
Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party...
from her professorship at UCLA because of her leadership role in the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1965. He ended his career in the 1970s and 1980s as a fellow of the conservative Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
in Stanford, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Later years
The National Endowment for the HumanitiesNational Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
selected Hook for the 1984 Jefferson Lecture
Jefferson Lecture
The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities is an honorary lecture series established in 1972 by the National Endowment for the Humanities . According to the NEH, the Lecture is "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities."-History of...
, the U.S. government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
. Hook's lecture was entitled "Education in Defense of a Free Society."
On May 23, 1985 Hook was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
by President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
.
Hook's memoirs, Out of Step, recount his life, his activism for a number of educational causes, his controversies with other intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, and his recollections of Morris Cohen
Morris Raphael Cohen
Morris Raphael Cohen was an American philosopher, lawyer and legal scholar who united pragmatism with logical positivism and linguistic analysis. He was father to Felix S. Cohen....
, John Dewey, Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, Mortimer J. Adler and Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
.
In October 2002, a conference marking the centennial of Hook's birth was organized by Matthew Cotter and Robert Talisse
Robert B. Talisse
Background InformationRobert B. Talisse is Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He is also a Professor in Vanderbilt's Political Science Department...
and held at the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
Graduate Center in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
Personal life
Hook married Carrie Katz in 1924, with whom he had one son, John Bertrand Hook. They separated in 1933. Katz had studied at the Rand School in the early 1920s. There, she studied under Scott NearingScott Nearing
Scott Nearing was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, and advocate of simple living.-The early years:...
and came to write a chapter in his book The Law of Social Revoluion entitled "The Russian Revolution of 1917" (1926). Friends from the Rand School included Nerma Berman Oggins, wife of Cy Oggins. She was a Communist Party member who was a "Fosterite" (i.e., she supported William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster
William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...
amidst Party factionalism in the last 1920s). She went on to work at the Labor Defense Council.
He married Ann Zinken in 1935, with whom he had two children: Ernest Benjamin Hook and Susan Ann Hook.
Hero in History
Sidney Hook's book The Hero in History was a noticeable event in the studies devoted to the role of the heroHero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
and Great Man
Great man theory
The Great Man Theory was a popular 19th century idea according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of "great men", or heroes: highly influential individuals who, due to either their personal charisma, intelligence, wisdom, or Machiavellianism utilized their power in a way that...
in history and influence of the outstanding persons.
Hook opposed all forms of determinism
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
and argued (as William James
William James
William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
did) that humans play a creative role in constructing social world and transforming the natural environment. Neither humanity nor its universe is determined, or finished. For Hook this conviction was crucial. He argues that when a society is at the crossroads choosing the direction of further development then an individual can turn to play a dramatic role and even become an independent power on whom depends the choice of the historical pathway.
In his book Hook gives a great number of examples of the influence of great people and these examples are mostly associated with some crucial moments in history (revolutions, crises). This makes some scholars criticize him because
he does not take into account that an individual's greatest influence can be revealed not so much in the period of old regime's collapse, but in the formation period of a new one (according to our model it is the fourth phase – see below). Besides, he does not make clear the situation when alternatives appear either as the result of a crisis or as the result of Great Man's plan or intention without manifested crisis.
Hook introduced a division of historic personalities and especially leaders into eventful man and event-making man depending on their influence on the historical process. For example, he considers Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
as an event-making man as in certain important respects he had changed the development direction not only of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
but of the whole world in the 20th century.
Hook attaches great importance to accidents and contingencies in history thus opposing, amongst others, Herbert Fisher
Herbert Fisher
Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher OM, FRS, PC was an English historian, educator, and Liberal politician. He served as President of the Board of Education in David Lloyd George's 1916 to 1922 coalition government....
who made attempts to present history as ‘waves’ of emergencies following after another
Books
- The Metaphysics of Pragmatism Chicago, The Open Court Publishing CompanyOpen Court Publishing CompanyThe Open Court Publishing Company is a publisher with offices in Chicago and La Salle, Illinois. It is part of the Carus Publishing Company of Peru, Illinois.-History:...
(1927) - Towards the Understanding of Karl Marx: A Revolutionary Interpretation New York: John Day CompanyJohn Day CompanyThe John Day Company was a New York publishing firm that specialized in illustrated fiction and current affairs books and pamphlets from 1926-1968. It published books by, among others, Pearl Buck, Irving Adler, Peggy Adler and Sidney Hook. It was founded by Richard Walsh in 1926 and named after...
, (1933) - Christianity and Marxism; a symposium New York, Polemic Publishers, 1934
- The Meaning of Marx (edited collection, 1934)
- From Hegel to Marx (1936)
- John Dewey: An Intellectual Portrait (1939)
- Reason, Social Myths, and Democracy (1940)
- The Hero in History, a study in limitation and possibility (1943)
- Education for Modern Man (1946)
- John Dewey: Philosopher of Science and Freedom (editor, 1950)
- Heresy, Yes; Conspiracy, No (1953)
- Marx and the Marxists: The Ambiguous Legacy (1955)
- Common Sense and the Fifth Amendment New York, Criterion Books, (1957)
- Political Power and Personal Freedom (1959)
- The Quest for Being, and Other Studies in Naturalism and Humanism (1961)
- "The Fail-Safe Fallacy" (1962)
- The Paradoxes of Freedom (1963)
- The Place of Religion in a Free Society (1968)
- Academic Freedom and Academic Anarchy (1970)
- Pragmatism and the Tragic Sense of Life (1974)
- Marxism and Beyond (1983)
- Out of Step (1987)
- Convictions (1990)
Articles
- "Karl Marx and Moses Hess," 1934
- "Marx's Criticism of 'True Socialism,'" 1935
- "Marx and Feuerbach," 1936
- "Heresy, Yes—But Conspiracy, No," New York Times, 1950
Selected bibliography by Hook
- Out of Step, Harper & Row, 1987. Autobiography
- Sidney Hook on Pragmatism, Freedom, and Democracy: The Essential Essays, ed. Robert B. TalisseRobert B. TalisseBackground InformationRobert B. Talisse is Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He is also a Professor in Vanderbilt's Political Science Department...
and Robert Tempio, Prometheus BooksPrometheus BooksPrometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co-founded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is currently the chairman of all three organizations. Prometheus Books publishes a range of books, including many...
, 2002.
Further reading
- Cotter, Matthew J., ed., 2004, Sidney Hook Reconsidered, Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books.
- Diggins, John PatrickJohn Patrick DigginsJohn Patrick Diggins was a professor of history at the City University of New York Graduate Center, the author of more than a dozen books on widely varied subjects in American intellectual history.-Biography:...
, Up From Communism,, Columbia University PressColumbia University PressColumbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology,...
, then Harper & Row, 1975. - Kurtz, PaulPaul KurtzPaul Kurtz is a prominent American skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism." He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for...
, ed., 1968, Sidney Hook and the Contemporary World, New York: John Day and Co. - Kurtz, Paul, ed., 1983, Sidney Hook: Philosopher of democracy and humanism, Buffalo: Prometheus Books. [This festschriftFestschriftIn academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...
for Sidney Hook's eightieth birthday contains four essays on Hook's person and writings.]- Capaldi, Nicholas, 1983, “Sidney Hook: A Personal Portrait,” in Kurtz 1983, pp. 17-27.
- Konvitz, Milton R., 1983, “Sidney Hook: Philosopher of the Moral-Critical Intelligence,” in Kurtz 1983, pp. 3-6.
- Kristol, IrvingIrving KristolIrving Kristol was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism"...
, “Life with Sidney: A Memoir,” in Kurtz 1983. - Kurtz, Paul, 1983a, “Preface: The Impact of Sidney Hook in the Twentieth Century,” in Kurtz 1983.
- Levine, Barbara, ed. Sidney Hook: A Checklist of Writings, Southern Illinois University, 1989.
- Ryan, AlanAlan RyanAlan James Ryan, FBA was Warden of New College, Oxford, and Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford and currently a lecturer at Princeton University....
, 2002, Foreword to Sidney Hook, Sidney Hook on Pragmatism, Democracy, and Freedom: The Essential Essays, (Robert B. Talisse and Robert Tempio (eds.), Amherst: Prometheus Books, pp. 9-10. - Sidorsky, David, 2003, “Charting the Intellectual Career of Sidney Hook: Five Major Steps” in Partisan Review, Volume 70, Number 2, pp. 324-342.
External links
- Book review of new edition of Towards the Understanding of Karl Marx (1933)
- Paul Mattick pamphlet in opposition to Hook (1936)
- Meyer Shapiro's polemic against Hook, published in Fourth International under the pseudonym "Morrison" (1943)
- Julius Jacobson on Hook and Cold War liberalism
- Chronicle of Higher Education article on legacy of Sidney Hook
- "Left Hook, Right Hook: The Rules of Engagement," by Christopher Phelps
- Review of the 1995 Letters of Sidney Hook - by David Gordon (Fall 1998)
- Warning against Menachem Begin.
- John Patrick Diggins, "Sidney Hook, Robert Nozick, and the Paradoxes of Freedom," in Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred Dycus Miller, Jeffrey Paul, eds., Natural Rights Liberalism from Locke to Nozick (Social Philosophy and Policy, vol. 22, no. 1)(Cambridge University Press, 2005), ISBN 978-0-521-61514-3, pp. 200–220.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Sidney Hook by David Sidorsky