John Dewey

John Dewey (October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He is regarded as one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century.

Early life and education

Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont to a family of modest means. He was one of four boys born to Archibald Sprague Dewey and Lucina Artemisia Rich Dewey. He obtained his early education in a public school and in the University of Vermont, where he graduated in 1879.

Career

After his graduation, Dewey taught high school and later joined the University of Michigan, where he held the chair of philosophy. In 1894, Dewey joined the newly founded University of Chicago where he developed his belief in an empirically based theory of knowledge, becoming associated with the newly emerging Pragmatic philosophy. His time at the University of Chicago resulted in four essays collectively entitled Thought and its Subject-Matter, which was published with collected works from his colleagues at Chicago under the collective title Studies in Logical Theory (1903).

Philosophy and works

Dewey's most significant writings were "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology" (1896), a critique of a standard psychological concept and the basis of all his further work; Democracy and Education (1916), his celebrated work on progressive education; Human Nature and Conduct (1922), a study of the function of habit in human behavior; The Public and its Problems (1927), a defense of democracy written in response to Walter Lippmann's The Phantom Public (1925); and Experience and Nature (1925), Dewey's most "metaphysical" statement.

Among his many other works are Experience and Education (1938); A Common Faith (1934); Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938); Freedom and Culture (1939); Knowing and the Known (1949), a book written in conjunction with Arthur F. Bentley; and his later works on philosophy of law and on ethics.

Legacy

Dewey's influence began to decline in the late 1940s and the 1950s as neoorthodoxy in theology and existentialism in philosophy arose in popularity. However, his ideas about education and democracy were highly influential, shaping the progressive education movement in the 20th century.

See also

• Progressive education
• Pragmatism
• Functional psychology

External links

• The Center for Dewey Studies
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry