William Mackintire Salter (January 30, 1853 – July 18, 1931) was the author of several books on philosophy and a critical and enduring major classic on

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...

. He was also a special lecturer for the Department of Philosophy in the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

Iowa: Its History and Its Foremost Citizens
1918 and a pioneer in the

Ethical movement The Ethical movement, also referred to as the Ethical Culture movement, Ethical Humanism or simply Ethical Culture, is an ethical, educational, and religious movement that is usually traced back to Felix Adler (1851–1933).

Life and work

William Mackintire Salter was born in Burlington, Iowa on January 30, 1853. Salter's parents were William Salter, a long-serving Congregational minister, and Mary Ann Salter (née Mackintire). Salter obtained his BA and MA degrees from Knox College in Illinois in 1871 and 1874 respectively. He also attended

Yale Divinity School Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has ...

, and received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1876. Over the following two years, Salter studied at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and later (1881-2) at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Salter married Mary Gibbens in 1885. Mary's sister, Alice Howe Gibbens, was the wife of philosopher and psychologist

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

. Their first child, Eliza Webb, was born on 20 January 1888. On 2 December 1889 she died of the measles, and they later adopted Frank Gray, renaming him John Randall Salter. Salter founded, and served as lecturer at, the Ethical Culture Society in Chicago. Between 1892 and 1897, following nearly a decade in Chicago, he was a lecturer for the Ethical Culture Society in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. From 1897 to 1907 he was again in Chicago where, from 1909 to 1913 he was a special lecturer in philosophy at the

Influence

The Ethical movement's founder Felix Adler, a friend and associate of Salter's, described him as 'one of the crown jewels of Ethical Culture'. With other Ethical Culture leaders, he signed the call for the 1909 National Negro Conference, which led to the founding of the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

. Salter's book, ''Ethical Religion,'' influenced Mohandas K. Gandhi, who published a summary in Gujarati in 1907. Salter has been called 'perhaps the most perceptive and prescient' of Nietzsche's early interpreters.

Death

Salter died on July 18, 1931, at his summer home in Silver Lake, New Hampshire. His wife, adopted son, and two brothers (Sumner and George Salter) survived him. He was cremated and his ashes buried at his New Hampshire ''Hilltop'' in Silver Lake.

Works

* ''Do the ethics of Jesus satisfy the needs of our time?'' (1882) *''Prayer and an ethical view of life'' (1882) *''The ethical movement; its philosophical basis; its general aims, etc. Three addresses'' (1884)
''Ethical religion''
(1889) * ''Anarchy or Government? An Inquiry in Fundamental Politics'' (1895) * ''The conflict of the Catholic Church with the French republic'' (1907)
''Nietzsche the thinker; a study''
(1917)
at Internet Archive

References

External links

Works by William Mackintire Salter
at

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Works by or about William Mackintire Salter
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Salter, William Mackintire 1853 births 1931 deaths Ethical movement American philosophers Knox College (Illinois) alumni Harvard Divinity School alumni