Fast Forward: Arthur Dobrin

 

Arthur Dobrin

A new year seems like a time to shift activities a bit and, for me, to look a little closer to the current century.  I decided to reach out to two Ethical Culture Leaders with whom I have already discussed the Bibliography to see if they would be willing to provide me with lists of their publications.  I wrote to Arthur Dobrin, Leader Emeritus for the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island and Professor Emeritus of Management, Entrepreneurship, and General Business at Hofstra University, and to Joseph Chuman, a Leader at the New York Society for Ethical Culture and Professor of Human Rights at Columbia University.  Both responded positively.  

I have begun documenting Arthur Dobrin's publications, simply because his list(s) hit my inbox first.  In a long academic career, Dobrin has many publications.  As an Ethical Culture Leader he has taken an active role in public discussions that need "ethical clarification."  His lists include books, scholarly articles, opinion editorials for newspapers, human interest articles for newspapers, and more.  His books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Dutch.  His publishers span three continents.  He has also published fiction, poetry, and plays.

Dobrin is well-known in the Movement for his introduction of the style of meeting called "colloquy" in his book Spelling God with Two O's.  Most Ethical Culture Societies have now colloquies as one form of meeting.  As described on the AEU website:

A colloquy is a place to explore ethical values on a personal level. It is not: a discussion group, a political forum, a place to vent about the ills of society, a therapy group, an advice-giving or -seeking forum, a class. It is an opportunity to better understand and deepen your lived ethics through self-reflection and careful listening.

In his book, Dobrin lists a number of concepts as discussion prompts and elaborates on the Ethical issues with anecdotes and a central question.  Happily, he still continues to contribute to the Movement with monthly sessions demonstrating colloquy and providing a cross-Movement forum for individual members to meet and grow together.  

Dobrin also continues to write, with a monthly column in Psychology Today:  "Am I Right? How to Live Ethically."

Soon Dobrin will expand his service to our Movement with an online seminar based on his book:  The Lost Art of Happiness.  I have to confess that I have signed up for the seminar and have enjoyed reading this book.  It reminds us of the foundations of happiness (Hint:  not fun, money, or adult beverages) and shows how living Ethically is good for our well-being.  The seminar begins on the first Tuesday in February.

A couple of bibliographic issues arise from Dobrin's work.  He no longer writes an online blog it seems, but the blog is still available for reading and reference.  Joe Chuman and Hugh Taft-Morales are leaders who also have (active) blogs.  I am now thinking I need to create a new section for blogs (and maybe columns in periodicals?).  Another set of issues arises with translations.  And still another with the newspaper and magazine contributions that are not directly related to Ethical Culture but do reflect the viewpoints and interests of an active Ethical Culture leader.  Considering these issues and possibilities, it does seem reasonable also to consider that what was once a more or less simple list might need some additional structure to make it easier to use.  Or I could be overthinking it.  I am hopeful that there will be some relevant conversations about organization on my upcoming visit to NYSEC.

Algernon D. Black: 40 Addresses (1962-1966)

Algernon D. Black (1900-1993)

Last September, I spent some time in the archives of the New York Society for Ethical Culture.  While there I had the opportunity to focus attention on a single container--Box 9D--one of a few hundred such boxes.  It was my luck that this mostly random selection turned out to include three thick folders of lectures by Algernon D. Black.  OK, I saw his name on the box, but I could just as easily have chosen others.  This is all to say that I enjoyed finding more lectures from Black, since it was his 1944 lecture, "The Meaning of Hitler's Defeat," which I discovered on an auction site, that was a major part of my impetus to attempt this Bibliography.  But there are so many more yet to "discover" in the archives.  

In Box 9D, I found the aforementioned three folders.  The addresses were organized by date, from March 15, 1962, to December 25, 1966.  The topics ranged from current events to issues of war and peace to personal relationships and, of course, more.  The addresses were either in the format of a mimeographed bulletin (The Ethical Platform) or as a carbon copy or photocopy of a typescript, sometimes both.  Only in the period immediately after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were any of the addresses typeset and printed in the format of a numbered volume of the serial.

The format of the addresses raised some bibliographic issues.  With only a couple of numbered issues found in this box, most of the addresses were dated but unnumbered.  How to document this serial (a NYSEC publication)?  After some searching, I found the Chicago answer in the recommendation to treat the publication as a magazine if there is no volume number.  Following that recommendation, I have now entered in the Bibliography the 40 addresses that were individually printed in The Ethical Platform and filed in Box 9d.

I am now contemplating what to do about the typescripts in that box.  Some of them were typescripts of the published addresses.  The others seem to be lectures that were either not published in The Ethical Platform or for which the published version is simply missing from the archives.  Either way preserving this record is important for two reasons:

1. In some cases, there are clearly some differences between the typescript and the published version, a matter of some scholarly interest.
2. Without a published version, these typescripts may be our only record of these addresses.

It is not, however, generally (and as far as I know) typical bibliographic practice to document every manuscript in an archive.  Rather, the practice is to document the archive itself as the resource which would then be accessed directly.  In the interest of being as thorough as possible, I actually want to document these addresses, knowing that setting that precedent will lead to more dilemmas about archived items that are more relevant to history of events than to history of thought.

While I ponder the issue of how much to include (and how to document it), I also need to point out the sad fact that I didn't actually have time to read more than snippets of these addresses.  I made a note about the unpublished typescript of Black's "Civil Disobedience and Loyalty: Are They Contradictory?" (November 17, 1963).  Black said:  "If we have a good hell, a nice hot one, we'd have better attendance from our members."  It seems that these typescripts were transcriptions of audio tapes (so noted on at least one of the typescripts), and, in this instance, Black was casually mentioning a lack of attendance before moving on to the subject of his address.  In his address, "Peace Is Everybody's Responsibility," (June 27, 1965) I noted that he had referenced or quoted a poem about nuclear war by Stephen Vincent Benet to remind myself to look it up.  (*Reminding self again.*)  

My point is that I would like to have read them all.  

I will be returning to the NYSEC archives in March (I hope), but even that will not allow me much time to read these addresses by Algernon D. Black or those of the other leaders who have contributed their talents to the Ethical Culture Movement.  A bibliography is, of course, a good thing to have, but it eventually becomes a tantalizing hint of inaccessible delights, rather like looking through a store window at things we could only dream of having.  To me this means that we need to start digitizing the archives as soon as feasible.  Feasibility of course means a plan and the resources to implement it.  Great!  So now I'm looking for more hands, more eyes, and money.

In the meantime, more tantalizing delights are now included at the end of the Bibliography.  I am listing the typescripts as best I can and will figure out where they fit in later.  

Carnegie Lectures and Ethical Addresses

Octavius Frothingham, NYSEC Member

One step in determining whether and what to publish from the body of lectures presented at Carnegie Hall (1894 -1896) is checking whether an individual address has already been published elsewhere.  Using keywords to search between the list of Carnegie Lectures and a summary of the Contents of Ethical Record and Ethical Addresses, I have identified 9 Carnegie lectures that may have been published in EA&ER.  

1.    December 2, 1894, Felix Adler delivered the address "Prayer and Worship" at Carnegie Hall.  The same address was published in Ethical Addresses in 1895, First Series, pp. 159-176.

2.    February 17, 1895, William M. Salter delivered the address "The Ethics of Agnosticism" at Carnegie Hall.  The same address was published in Ethical Addresses, Second Series (1896), as "Ethical Agnosticism" (pp. 49-64).  

3.     April 14, 1895, Felix Adler delivered the address "The Teachings of Jesus" at Carnegie Hall.  An address with a similar title was published in Ethical Addresses, Sixth Series (1900), i.e., "The Teachings of Jesus in the Modern World," pp. 105-120.  The latter, however, carried the footnote that its text is from "An Easter discourse before the Society for Ethical Culture of New York, April 2nd, 1899."  A comparison of these texts might prove interesting.  Indeed, given the number of addresses that focus on the life, teaching, or ethics of Jesus given by various speakers and published over the years in various publications associated with the Movement, I daresay an article on "Four (or More) Ethical Views of Jesus" would be just as interesting as an indication of how thought has evolved--or not--regarding Jesus.

4.    November 24, 1895, Felix Adler delivered the address "The Attitude of the Modern Mind Toward the Belief in God" at Carnegie Hall.  An address (actually a compilation of three addresses) was published in Ethical Addresses, Tenth Series (1903) with the title "Changes in the Conception of God" (pp. 47-90).  A closer examination will be needed to determine whether the earlier address in incorporated into the later article or, indeed, whether and/or how Adler's thinking may have evolved over the years between these addresses.

5.    December 8, 1895, Edmund C. Stedman, George Haven Putnam, George C. Barrett, and Felix Adler provided addresses in honor of Octavius Brooks Frothingham at Carnegie Hall. The same addresses were published as "Octavius Brooks Frothingham Memorial Exercises" in Ethical Addresses, Second Series (1896), pp. 169 - 194. Reported in the New York Times on December 9, 1895, p. 6.

6.  January 5, 1896, Felix Adler delivered the address "The Monroe Doctrine and the War Spirit in the United States" at Carnegie Hall.  The same address was published in Ethical Addresses, Third Series (1897) pp. 1-20.  Reported in the New York Times (December 3, 1896), p. 3.

7.    May 10, 1896, Felix Adler, along with Camille Solomons and John Lovejoy Elliott, delivered the "Anniversary Exercises" at Carnegie Hall.  This address was followed by additional "exercises," also at Carnegie Hall on Friday, May 15.  The evening ceremony featured addresses by Alfred R. Wolff, William M. Salter, and M. M. Mangasarian as well as Adler.  The May 15 addresses were published in Ethical Addresses, Third Series (1897), pp. 99-116.  However, no typescript for these addresses seems to be included in the collection for Carnegie Hall.  Reported in the New York Times on May 16, 1896, p. 5.

8.    December 26, 1896, Felix Adler delivered the address "The Spiritual Meaning of Marriage" at Carnegie Hall.  A revised version of this address is published in Ethical Addresses, Sixth Series (1900), pp. 17-36.  Again, a textual comparison might prove interesting.

Since Ethical Addresses was being published at the same time as the Ethical Record before being merged into a single serial, both were succeeded by The Standard, and various books and collections of addresses were also being published around this period, more research is yet needed to confirm the publication history of these addresses.  At this point, my focus is on pushing forward with the Bibliography and entering the Carnegie Lectures.  More volunteers to assist in the publication research would be quite welcome!

The Carnegie Lectures

Carnegie Hall in 1895

Between November 1894 and December 1896, the New York Society for Ethical Culture held their Sunday meetings at Carnegie Hall, then still a fairly new building not far from Central Park.  The New York Times often reported on the content--and the large audiences--for the platform addresses presented in that venue.  We have two typewritten lists of  those addresses to consult and scanned versions of all but one of the addresses on those lists.  There are 57, all which will be entered in the Bibliography.  There is some hope that we can find a way to publish them so that they are accessible to more readers.  

Two problems confront us in the quest to publish these addresses.  (1) To publish the PDF files of the scanned typescripts on the web is simple enough, if we have a place to post them (not yet) and if we can create a PDF version that cannot be altered (not yet).  (2) To publish the PDF files in other formats is not so simple.  I have tried to convert the PDF files to MS Word, for example, using the conversion command available in my PDF software.  The result is gibberish.  The original document was in most cases a carbon copy of a typed script, likely made from a shorthand transcript of the oral address.  There are often penned or penciled corrections in the file.  The carbon sheet may be been reused multiple times, resulting in fainter and less clear type.  Some of the scans are basically whomper-jawed (see below).

Snip of "Nineteenth Anniversary Addresses"

Converting the files is necessary as a step toward having files that are more easily readable as well as more easily formatted and arranged for publishing using modern reproduction techniques.  

I have tried two other approaches to converting the files.  (1) I read the text aloud, using the Dictate command in MS Word.  This works well enough, since I have some long ago experience at a summer job as a proofreader at a Houston law firm.  In those days, word processors were a new thing and the size of a (large) mini-fridge.  To proofread a document, I would read the text aloud to another proofreader, who would scan the page for anything that did not match what I was reading.  What I read aloud was something like this:  

Open quote The Italic New York Times End Italic often reported the content M-dash and the large audiences M-dash for the platform addresses presented in that venue Period End Quote

I timed my reading and estimated that I could read 3 pages (with punctuation!) in 15 minutes.  There are almost 900 pages to be read.  (2)  I re-typed the text directly into Word.  I was less precise in my timing, but it took about the same time to type as to read aloud.  Again, there are almost 900 pages (now minus 12) to re-type.

Whatever approach we take, the goals for this set of documents are:

• Document the Carnegie Addresses in the Bibliography of Ethical Culture;
• Find a way to post the scans of the original typescripts for researchers and general readers;
• Find a way to convert the PDF files to formattable copy for easier reading and possible publication.

 

Tying Up Loose Ends: Ethical Addresses

I have now documented, as well as I can, the entire twenty-one volumes of Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record.  It is a satisfying moment to see the conclusion of what is, however, only the first phase of developing the Bibliography of Ethical Culture.  Nonetheless, there is yet some work to be done, so the true completion of this phase will require a few more steps.

One step is simple quality control to make sure that I haven't missed any addresses.  We've already seen one incidence of that with the Seventh Series!  While it is a bit tedious to do, I am comparing the Contents of each Series with the entries in the Bibliography to make sure that nothing has been inadvertently omitted.  (And done.)

Another step is tracking down the originals of addresses that have been reprinted from other publications.  When documenting the earlier volumes I tried to enter a "note" that indicated the source of the reprinted article.  Eventually I seem to have dropped that effort, which makes the search a bit more tedious, but not difficult.

As always, with such searches, the hunt yields more than expected.  In searching the index of The Forum (Vol. 1-32) for Felix Adler's article, his name appeared immediately after Jane Addams.  Now I have three more citations to consider for inclusion in the Bibliography.  Checking key words in the index, Adler's article appeared in the same entry as that of Paul Carus ("Dawn of a New Religious Era," The Forum. 16 [1893]: 388-96).  Knowing that Carus actively challenged the philosophical grounds of Ethical Culture in other contexts, I had it in mind that the juxtaposition of Adler and Carus in that issue of The Forum might be a debate of some point or other.  As it turns out, Carus had attended the first World Parliament of Religions and was writing about the religion of the future--not, as it happens, Ethical Culture, which was also not mentioned in his article.  Carus did later give three addresses at the Chicago Society, which were collected and published as The Ethical Problem:  Three Lectures on Ethics as a Science in 1899.  I expect there will be more from Dr. Carus.

The Hathi Trust provided the link to The Forum's early index and to the individual volumes that were the subject of the index.  While these could not be downloaded, they could generally be viewed in full and searched for names and key words.  The International Journal of Ethics is also fully available through the Hathi Trust.  As an AEU publication until 1914, the entire serial will eventually need to be searched for possible entries for the Bibliography.  For now, the search will be limited to those addresses that are duplicated in IJE and EA&ER.  One such address is Adler's "The Freedom of Ethical Fellowship," published in the Second Series.  A version of this address was first delivered to students at Cornell University (May 19, 1890) and then published in IJE's first issue (pp. 16 - 30) before it was reprinted in Ethical Addresses in 1896.  The titles are the same, although I have not done a textual comparison.  What I have done is run a keyword search on this volume of IJE for Adler's name.  I was quite surprised when the search turned up a rebuttal article in the same volume ("Moral Theory and Practice," pp. 183-203) by John Dewey.  This "exchange" merits further discussion.  Perhaps we will find such a discussion as we continue this work.