Why I Wrote Margaret Fuller and the Philosophy of Human Dignity
By Brian AJ Newman LLB — Principal Employment and Human Rights Advocate
My book, Margaret Fuller and the Philosophy of Human Dignity, began with a discovery in my family tree. It developed into an examination of questions that reach into my professional work, my Aboriginal ancestry and my responsibilities as the father of four daughters.
What makes freedom meaningful when another person controls the conditions under which we can exercise it? How should we respond when someone uses authority to humiliate or intimidate? What does supporting another person’s independence require of us?
Margaret Fuller’s writing gives those questions a compelling historical setting. Her life brings them into contact with the practical responsibilities of education, employment, family care and political struggle.
The result is an illustrated book that connects family research with modern human rights philosophy and my own perspective as a former Queensland prison officer and employment and human rights advocate.
The family connection
My family tree records Margaret Fuller as my half fifth cousin, seven times removed. That places her on a distant collateral branch of my family.
The complete connection still requires documentary verification. In the book, I explain what the relationship label means, reproduce the branches shown in the family tree and distinguish the recorded connection from the evidence needed to establish every generation.
That distinction matters to me. Family history deserves careful treatment, particularly when a familiar name or a famous relative makes a connection especially appealing.
The relationship gave me a personal reason to investigate Fuller’s life. Her ideas supplied the substance of the book.
A woman whose mind demanded room to develop
Born in Massachusetts in 1810, Fuller became a writer, editor, teacher, journalist and advocate for women’s freedom. She challenged restrictions on women’s education and their opportunities to develop lives beyond prescribed social roles.
In Woman in the Nineteenth Century, published in 1845, she wrote:
“We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down.”
The statement raises a demanding question: what justifies a barrier placed in another person’s path?
It is a question that can be asked of educational opportunities, employment practices and the expectations imposed within families. An arrangement does not become fair simply because it has been customary or convenient for those who benefit from it.
The book also examines the household in which Fuller developed her intellectual abilities.
Her father, Timothy Fuller, was a lawyer and congressman who gave his daughter access to unusually demanding study. She later recalled both the opportunities that education provided and the pressures of his methods.
Her mother, Margarett Crane Fuller, belongs in that account too. Understanding an intellectual life requires attention to the care and relationships that helped sustain it.
I have included an account of Fuller’s eight known siblings and photographic pages from the early memoirs, allowing readers to examine some of the historical material behind the discussion.
Conviction and practical responsibility in Rome
Fuller’s commitment to freedom extended into her European correspondence and her support for the Roman Republic.
During the conflict of 1849, she condemned French intervention in Rome and helped organise hospital care for wounded men. Her involvement joined public criticism with practical responsibility for people suffering the consequences of war.
That combination matters to the argument of my book. A conviction acquires further demands when someone needs assistance, protection or care.
Fuller’s European experience also exposes a problem that remains recognisable: governments and institutions can proclaim admirable principles while acting in ways that undermine them. Their conduct deserves examination alongside their declarations.
Dignity at work and in custody
My background in the Queensland prison service gives these questions a particular significance.
Custodial institutions exercise concentrated authority over people’s daily lives. Staff also work within hierarchies, demanding conditions and systems of accountability. A serious account of dignity must consider how power operates across those relationships.
My subsequent employment and human rights advocacy brings related questions into workplaces and complaints processes.
A policy may promise that a person can raise a concern. Whether they can do so meaningfully depends on the circumstances: the risk of retaliation, access to records, their opportunity to answer allegations and the fairness of the response.
The book reads Fuller alongside modern thinkers who help examine these conditions. Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen direct attention to people’s effective opportunities. Philip Pettit provides a way of examining dependence on another person’s arbitrary power. Miranda Fricker helps explain how prejudice can diminish someone’s credibility before their account has received a fair hearing.
These are comparisons developed in the book. They offer ways to think carefully about present responsibilities through writings from different periods.
Standing up to bullying requires fairness
My stance against bullying is central to this discussion.
Standing up to intimidation involves identifying the conduct, examining the evidence and supporting the affected person’s ability to speak and participate. It also requires a response that remains open to scrutiny.
An advocate’s confidence can help someone navigate a difficult process. That confidence carries responsibilities. It should help the person understand their position, consider their options and retain a meaningful voice in decisions affecting them.
My motto, “Play hard but fair,” expresses the discipline I want to bring to that work. Preparation, persistence and difficult questions belong alongside accuracy, proportion and fair treatment.
The standard must remain applicable when my own judgment is challenged.
Fatherhood and the freedom to grow
I have never married, and I am the father of four daughters.
Fuller’s writing about women’s development gives the book an intensely personal dimension.
Her life invites reflection on how education and care can support another person’s independence.
As a father, I want my daughters to inherit opportunities to develop their abilities and make choices about their futures. Supporting that development includes listening, allowing disagreement and recognising that their ambitions may take forms I could not have anticipated.
The book considers Fuller’s responsibilities toward younger siblings and her later motherhood within this broader inquiry into care. Each relationship has its own circumstances, but each raises questions about responsibility and the freedom of the person being cared for.
Ancestry and the responsibility to remember
I acknowledge my Anaiwan, Ngarigo and Wiradjuri ancestors and the oppression our peoples have faced.
The book recognises the hurt associated with concealed identity, imposed shame and pressures that made ancestry difficult or dangerous to acknowledge. Recovering family history can help restore knowledge and belonging, while also requiring care with records created by institutions that misunderstood or diminished the people they described.
My ancestry also makes a critical reading of Fuller essential. Some of her writing carries racial and colonial assumptions that deserve examination. A meaningful family connection strengthens my responsibility to read her honestly.
I want my children and future generations to inherit a history they can question, understand and speak about with confidence.
What readers will find in the book
The 84-page revised illustrated edition includes:
Thirteen chapters connecting Fuller’s life and writing with human dignity, care, institutional power and advocacy.
An assessment of her parents, her father’s educational influence and her eight known siblings.
A detailed timeline containing 56 entries.
Historical portraits and photographic facsimiles with captions and source credits.
A 66-entry bibliography, a dictionary of key terms and a subject index.
A dedication, acknowledgement of Aboriginal ancestry, author biography and epilogue.
I have dedicated the book to my children, my ancestors and future generations.
Through its history and philosophical discussion, I ask what dignity requires in the relationships we hold today. That question belongs in our institutions and workplaces, and it belongs in the care we give the people closest to us.
I invite you to read Margaret Fuller and the Philosophy of Human Dignity and consider those responsibilities alongside me.
Brian AJ Newman LLB
Principal Employment and Human Rights Advocate
Play hard but fair.
Purchase, download and read the eBook
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