Marietta Kies
1854-1899
Hegelian Idealism, 
Social, Moral & Political Philosophy

Marietta Kies was one of the few women among the St. Louis Hegelians who was able to secure college and university positions teaching philosophy itself.

Chronology

1854 Marietta Kies is born in Killingly, Connecticut. This small town is where she spent her early years.

It is known that she taught in some local schools until she entered college at the age of 24.

1878 She began her studies at Mt. Holyoke college.

1882 She started teaching at Colorado College, in Colorado Springs.

1885 She leaves Colorado College to take up a position at her alma mater, Mt. Holyoke college. Here she taught ethics, mental and moral philosophy. During these teaching years she was able to attend the lectures of William Torrey Harris at the Concord School of philosophy. She collected and edited these lectures which were published as, An Introduction to the Study of Philosophy .

She began work for her Phd at the University of Michigan while at Mt. Holyoke. At Michigan she studied with George Sylvester Morris, H. C. Adams and John Dewey.

1891 She graduates with her Ph.d. in philosophy. Later that year she leaves Mt. Holyoke for Mills College in Oakland, California.

1892 Mills dismissed Marietta Kies because they did not like her methods. Unable to obtain another appointment she heads for Europe. She travels to Leipzig and Zürich.

1893 She takes a job in Plymouth, Massachusetts at high school principal.

1896 In this year she goes to Butler College where she takes a position in the English department. Here she taught rhetoric and other courses.... despite having contracted a severe cough.

1899 Marietta Kies dies of tuberculosis in Colorado where she went to live after her health prevented her from teaching.

I am much indebted to Dorothy G. Rogers, America's First Women Philosophers Continnum, 2005. If you read this work, you will obtain much more information than given on this web site.

Works

1890 Introduction to the Study of Philosophy . New York: Appleton.

1892 The Ethical Principle and its Application to State Relations Ann Arbor, Inland Press.

1894 Institutional Ethics Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Secondary Sources

Dorothy Roger. Private Virtue in Public Life: Marietta Kies' challenge to Hegel

Photo of the philosopher at Mount Holyoke Archives

This page was last updated on 12/13/14.