Who is the philosopher of American Progressivism?

PGA Weblog ^

[ProgressingAmerica]

In describing some of the history of American Progressivism, Dinesh D'Souza asks a very provocative question:

Think about this: we know the name of the philosopher of capitalism, Adam Smith. We also know the name of the philosopher of Marxism, Karl Marx. So, quick, what is the name of the philosopher of fascism? Yes, exactly. You don’t know. Virtually no one knows. My point is that this is not because there were no foundational thinkers behind fascism – there were several – but rather that the left had to get rid of them in order to avoid confronting their unavoidable socialist and leftist orientation. This is the big lie in full operation.

Now, what about Progressivism? Who is the foundational thinker behind that? Like Italian Fascism, American Progressivism has several. They are:

1) Henry George

2) Edward Bellamy

3) Herbert Croly

4) Woodrow Wilson (Prior to 1912)

Just as those behind fascism have been erased out of the history books, so too have these men - with the exception of Woodrow Wilson, but only because he was a president. Nobody hears the name of Wilson and considers his "philosophical" writings, despite just how impactful they really were when they started to be written in the late 1880s. If Wilson never would have been president, he would've been erased too.

Because people do not know the names of George, Bellamy, Croly, and Wilson, that is the big lie in action.

[ProgressingAmerica]

Ping.............

[Stirner]

John Dewey

[Jeff Chandler]

Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink.
- P. J. O’Rourke

[Buttons12]

Not a philosopher in the strict sense, but Charles Beard contributed his share of mischief.

[rlmorel]

I say it is Saul Alinsky.

[x]

In so far as Dewey actually was a philosopher, that's a good answer. Most of the other progressive thinkers were political scientists or sociologists or anthropologists or economists or historians, not actually philosophers.

Croly was probably the chief political theorist among the progressives, but much of what was done grew out of practical politics. In other words, Croly described what was happening as well as inspired what would happen.

Herbert Croly provided what the politicians were looking for, just as John Dewey provided a philosophy that the intellectuals could use if they wished, but progressivism didn't depend on any one philosopher in the way that Marxism did, and one could be progressive without having read Dewey or Croly.

The country had seen years of socialist and populist thought and activism, and those who led the progressive movement were already inclined towards social reform whether through Bellamy or George or William Jennings Bryan or Darwin or Hegel or Marx or Lester Ward or Veblen or Ruskin or the Social Gospel movement.

[rlmorel]

I should qualify-the foundational thinker for what “progressivism” exists as today.

And I take issue with the label. They are liberals and leftists. I am sick and tired of their appropriation of language.

[YogicCowboy]

What about Robert La Follette, the actual creator of the Progressive Party?

[GraceG]

2) Edward Bellamy

The Bellamy salute....

Another thing the left wants you all to forget.

[Mears]

I remember doing that.

.

[Excellence]

Doubtless the SJWs think they just invented it.

[jonrick46]

I believe the origins of the Progressive movement had intellectuals in the eugenics ideology that wanted a perfect human being. The only way that was possible came when the government had total control of the population. The autonomy of the individual became secondary. Submission to the government was the new direction they would take the world. The eugenics movement of the 20th Century emerged in the United Kingdom and spread around the world. It was based upon Darwin's Origin of Specis which described the survival of the fittest. That was the basis of British eugenicists Sir Francis Galton. His ideas were put forth in his Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development. His ideas made a impact on British intellectuals.

It was American, Charles Davenport, who expanded on Galton's scientific theories to make it a popular concept world wide. Margaret Sanger borrowed from these ideas to make them the basis of Planned Parenthood. These theories inspired the American Progressives working for an Utopian world through the might of Big Government. When life is subordinated to others, the ideology of fascism is born. When Democrats in America adopted the eugenics ideology to apply to American Indians and Blacks, they became fascists and what I call DemonRATS. The eugenics ideology had great influence on another monster of history: Adolf Hitler.

[Pelham]

John Dewey.

D’Sousza and some others have a fixation on Wilson. Dewey was far more influential as a philosopher.

[mrsmith]

From what I've seen it's...

[Pelham]

Joe Isuzu.

The Man for our Age.

[mrsmith]

“The Man for our Age.”

Seriously, that’s just what I think!
Everything we feared when TV arrived and created mass media has come true.
‘Progressivism’ strikes me as just a collection of precepts that lead to ‘improved’ consumers.
(But not gonna hijack a serious thread.)

[Art in Idaho]

The first people that came to mind were Croly, Dewey and Marcuse. Croly founded the New Republic, a perennial left wing propaganda arm. Outside of America, Gramsci and the founders of the Frankfurt School. Have to admit, I didn't know about George and Bellamy.

The more you know, the more you find out you don't know.

[itsahoot]

The more you know, the more you find out you don't know.

One thing I know for sure is we know very little for sure.

[BeauBo]

Giovanni Gentile was “Mussolini’s Philosopher” of Fascism.

FDR handed out Gentile’s book to his cabinet members.