John Dewey 1859-1952

By bibbyr14

  • Birth

    Birth
    John Dewey is born in Burlington, Vermont.

  • The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology

    The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology
    Dewey published his first major work. Psychological study at the time considered "stimulus" and "response" to be two separate events. Dewey described stimulus and response as a circle where there is constant interaction between stimulus and response where reaction is dependent on the individual and their environment.
    Dewey, John. "The Reflex Arc in Psychology." Psychological Review 3.4 (1896): 357-370.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHiiGu1xiD4

  • The Quest for Certainty

    The Quest for Certainty
    After a long stay in Asia, Dewey returns and publishes several works, one called “The Quest for Certainty." Expanding upon his naturalistic views that nature determines our actions and responses, Dewey wrote “Intelligence . . . is not ours originally or by production. ‘It thinks’ is a truer psychological statement than ‘I think.’ ...They come from deep unconscious sources.” (Martin 358)
    Martin, Jay. The Education of John Dewey. New York City: Columbia University Press, 2003.

  • Logic and Naturalism

    Logic and Naturalism
    Dewey publishes his book "Logic" in which he says that claims about good and bad practices are similar to farming. Some farming techniques are better than others at achieving the usual sorts of goals that farmers have but there is no philosophical problem with making value judgments and that the same is true of value judgments in epistemology. (Godfrey-Smith 153)
    Godfrey-Smith, Peter. Theory and Reality : An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

  • Knowing and the Known

    Knowing and the Known
    One of Dewey’s final works, Knowing and the Known, divides understanding of nature and creatures into three categories. Self Action: the basic interaction of living and non-living things under their own power. Interaction: a balance between things acting and the system of interaction. Transaction: the modern method of using systems rather than instances to describe the interaction of nature and individuals.
    Dewey, John and Arthur Bentley. Knowing and the Known. Boston: Beacon Press, 1949.

  • Death

    Death
    John Dewey dies in New York City and is buried on campus at the University of Vermont next to his wife.