-
Birth and Education
John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont on October 20,1859. He had 3 other siblings, one who unfortunately passed away as an infant. He was quite an intellectual, graduating college at the age of 19; he even taught high school for 2 years. After teaching, he decided to go back to college to study philosophy. He went to John Hopkins University where he tutored under 2 powerful and influential men of his time, George Sylvester Morris and G. Stanley Hall. -
Dewey's Career
In 1884, Dewey was employed at the University of Michigan, where he soon began to publish books and writings focusing on psychology and the human sciences. Dewey's primary focus was to come up with a new meaning of epistemology. He rejected the traditional thoughts on epistemology, so he began to work on his own theory. He didn't even like the word epistemology, so he renamed his own the "theory of knowledge". However, many influences would then change his mind and his theory, including Darwin. -
Dewey's Theories
Dewey was one of the founders of pragmatism. This belief states that “things which are useful-meaning they work in a practical situation-are true and what does not work is false.” He came up with another theory on functionalism. This was based on human behaviors. Psychologists’ believed that human behaviors arose from their surroundings. Dewey disagreed. His theory was that humans were “active perceivers” instead of “passive” meaning humans played an active role in adapting to their environment. -
Dewey's Accomplishments
Throughout Dewey’s career he published many books, articles, and essays, including Reconstruction in Philosophy, Human Nature and Conduct, The Public and Its Problems, just to name a few. He gave many lectures around the world and had many accomplishments. He was even president to the American Psychological Association, and later, president of the American Philosophical Association. His work was very influential and still is even to this day. He passed away on June 1, 1952 in New York.