 Jane Addams (1860–1935) was an activist, community organizer, international peace advocate, and social philosopher in the United States during the late 19th century and early 20th century. However, the dynamics of canon formation resulted in her philosophical work being largely ignored until the  1990s.[1]  Addams is best known for her pioneering activism in the social settlement movement—the radical arm of the progressive movement whose adherents so embraced the ideals of progressivism that they chose to live as neighbors in oppressed communities to learn from and help the marginalized members of society. Although her contemporaries widely lauded her activism and accomplishments, commentators typically mapped Addams’ work onto conventional gender understandings: male philosophers such as John Dewey, William James, and George Herbert Mead were regarded as providing original progressive thought, while Addams was seen as brilliantly administering their theories. Recent work by feminist philosophers and historians has revealed that Addams was far more than a competent practitioner. Her dozen published books, and over 500 articles display a robust intellectual interplay between experience and reflection in the American pragmatist tradition. The near half-century that she lived and worked as the leader of the Chicago social settlement, Hull House, allowed her to bring her commitment to social improvement, feminism, diversity, and peace into reflective practice. These experiences provided the foundation for an engaging philosophical perspective. Addams viewed her settlement work as a grand epistemological endeavor, but in the process, she never forgot her neighbors’ humanity. Addams was a public philosopher who was not afraid to get her hands dirty.