Related Terms • humanism • pragmatism

Name:
John Dewey

Dates:
Born: October 20, 1859, in Burlington, Vermont
Died: June 1, 1952
Doctorate from John Hopkins University: 1884

Biography:
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educator who promoted the philosophies of both pragmatism and humanism. Although he started out as a liberal Protestant, after he moved to the University of Chicago in 1894 he abandoned his attempts to reconcile Christianity with modern society and modern values. Instead, he argued that true religion in the modern sense was best expressed through modern institutions like democracy, art, and the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

Select Quotes:

It (modern philosophy) certainly exacts a surrender of all supernaturalism and fixed dogma and rigid institutionalism with which Christianity has been historically associated. [source unknown]

Intellectually, religious emotions are not creative but conservative. They attach themselves readily to the current view of the world and consecrate it. [source unknown]

There is nothing left worth preserving in the notions of unseen powers, controlling human destiny, to which obedience and worship are due. [source unknown]

I believe that many persons are... repelled from what exists as a religion by its intellectual and moral implications. [source unknown]

Demons were once appealed to in order to explain bodily disease, and no such thing as a strictly natural death was supposed to happen. The importation of general moral causes to explain social phenomena is on the same intellectual level. Reinforced by the prestige of traditional religions, and backed by the emotional force of beliefs in the supernatural, it stifles the growth of... social intelligence. [source unknown]

Major Works:

My Pedagogic Creed (1897)
The School and Society (1900)
Child and the Curriculum (1902)
Democracy and Education (1916)
How We Think (1933)
Experience and Education (1938)

Also Known As: none

Alternate Spellings: none

Common Misspellings: none

Related Resources:

Biographies of Philosophers
This index of biographical index of famous philosophers throughout history includes many others who have contributed to our understanding of human nature and life - including sociologists, psychologists, scientists, and more.

What is the Philosophy of Education?
The field known as the Philosophy of Education is relatively self-explanatory - it deals with how children should be educated, what they should be educated in and what the ultimate purpose of education should be for society. This is an often neglected field of philosophy, and when it is addressed, it tends to only be in educational programs designed to train teachers - in this context, it is a part of pedagogy, which is learning how to teach.

What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?