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The Beginning
John Dewey was Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont on October 20, 1859
He became an American philosopher and educator who was a founder of the philosophical movement known as pragmatism, a pioneer in functional psychology, and a leader of the progressive movement in education in the United States. -
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THE LIFE OF JOHN DEWEY
Work Cited: Hildebrand, David. “John Dewey.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 1 Nov. 2018, plato.stanford.edu/entries/dewey/. -
His Thoughts
The career launching question that Dewey set out to answer- Was the world fundamentally biological, functional, and material or was it, rather, inherently creative and spiritual? His earliest attempts to create a “new psychology” (aimed at merging experimental psychology with idealism) sought a method by which experience could be understood as integrated and whole. Dewey completed graduate school in 1884 with a dissertation criticizing Kant from an Idealist position. -
Family
In 1886, Dewey married Harriet Alice Chipman; they had six children and adopted one. Two of the boys died tragically young (two and eight). Chipman had a significant influence on Dewey’s advocacy for women and his shift away from religious orthodoxy. During this period, Dewey wrote articles critical of British idealists from a Hegelian perspective; he read and taught James’ Principles of Psychology (1890), and called his own view “experimental idealism” -
University of Chicago
In 1894, Dewey accepted the position of head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Chicago, which at that time included both Psychology and Pedagogy. He also published the seminal “Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology” and broke from transcendental idealism and from his church. At Chicago, Dewey founded The Laboratory School, which provided a site to test his psychological and educational theories. Dewey’s wife Alice was the school’s principal from 1896–1904. -
The reflex Arc Model
Dewey wrote the “reflex arc” model of behavior was an increasingly influential way to explain human behavior empirically and experimentally using stimulus-response (cause-effect) pairings. It sought to displace other, less observable and testable approaches that relied upon “psychic entities” or “mental substance”.https://youtu.be/Nn2RHLWST-k -
Columbia University
In 1904, conflicts related to the Laboratory School lead Dewey to resign his Chicago positions and move to the philosophy department at Columbia University in New York City; there, he also established an affiliation with Columbia’s Teacher’s College. Dewey remained at Columbia until retirement 1930, going on to produce eleven more books -
"Experience and Nature"
In 1904, Dewey resigned from Chicago and moved to the philosophy department at Columbia University in New York City; there, he wrote the book "Experience and Nature" explaining his development of a metaphysics that examined characteristics of nature that encompassed human experience but were either ignored by or misrepresented by more traditional philosophers. Three such characteristics—what he called the “precarious,” “histories,” and “ends”—were central to his philosophical project. -
Death and Legacy
Dewey published more than 1,000 works, including essays, articles and books. His writing covered a broad range of topics: psychology, philosophy, educational theory, culture, religion and politics. Through his articles in The New Republic, he established himself as one of the most highly regarded social commentators of his day. Dewey continued to write prolifically up until his death on June 1, 1952 from pneumonia.
