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John Dewey's beginning
John Dewey was born October 20th, 1859. John was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the 20th century. -
Pragmatism
Dewey contributed a sense of pragmatism to philosophy, despite not identifying as a pragmatist himself. Pragmatism teaches that things which are useful — meaning that they work in a practical situation — are true, and what does not work is false (Hildebrand, 2018). -
Pragmatism (continued)
Dewey held that value was not a function of purely social construction, but a quality inherent to events. Dewey also believed that experimentation was a reliable enough way to determine the truth of a concept. -
How it affected Modern Philosophy
Pragmatism rejected the threads of epistemology and metaphysics that ran through modern philosophy in favor of a naturalistic approach that viewed knowledge as an active adaptation of humans to their environment (Hildebrand, 2018). -
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Dewey's Death
John Dewey died of pneumonia in his home in New York City on June 1, 1952. He published more than 700 articles in 140 journals, and approximately 40 books during his life. -
Resources
Hildebrand, D. (2018). John Dewey. Hargraves, V. (2021). Dewey’s educational philosophy. Simpson, D. J. (2006). John Dewey (Vol. 10). Peter Lang
