Editing John Dewey (section)

=== Philanthropy, women and democracy ===
[[File:John Dewey and Nuri Ja'far - 1949.jpg|thumb|upright|Dewey with his Iraqi friend and student, [[Nuri Ja'far]], 1949]]
Dewey founded the University of Chicago [[laboratory school]], supported educational organizations, and supported settlement houses especially [[Jane Addams]]' Hull House.<ref name="muse.jhu.edu">{{cite journal |last1=Stengel |first1=Barbara |year=2008 |title=Dewey's Pragmatic Poet: Reconstructing Jane Addams's Philosophical Impact |journal=Education and Culture |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=29–39 |doi=10.1353/eac.0.0008 |s2cid=144588268}}</ref> John Dewey and Jane Addams influenced each other's expansive theory of democracy.<ref>Ralston, Shane, (2023) 'Jane Addams and John Dewey', in Patricia M. Shields, Maurice Hamington, and Joseph Soeters (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Jane Addams pp. 169-186. Oxford Academic.  https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197544518.013.34</ref>

Through his work at the [[Hull House]] serving on its first board of trustees, Dewey was not only an activist for the cause but also a partner working to serve the large immigrant community of Chicago and women's suffrage. Dewey experienced the lack of children's education while contributing in the classroom at the Hull House. There he also experienced the lack of education and skills of immigrant women.<ref name="jstor.org">{{cite journal |last1=Upin |first1=Jane S. |year=1993 |title="Charlotte Perkins Gilman": Instrumentalism beyond Dewey:Hypatia |journal=Hypatia |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=38–63 |doi=10.1111/j.1527-2001.1993.tb00090.x |jstor=3810336 |s2cid=144210854}}</ref> Stengel argues:

{{blockquote|Addams is unquestionably a maker of democratic community and pragmatic education; Dewey is just as unquestionably a reflector. Through her work at Hull House, Addams discerned the shape of democracy as a mode of associated living and uncovered the outlines of an experimental approach to knowledge and understanding; Dewey analyzed and classified the social, psychological and educational processes Addams lived.<ref name="muse.jhu.edu"/>}}

His leading views on democracy included:
<blockquote>
First, Dewey believed that democracy is an ethical ideal rather than merely a political arrangement. Second, he considered participation, not representation, the essence of democracy. Third, he insisted on the harmony between democracy and the scientific method: ever-expanding and self-critical communities of inquiry, operating on pragmatic principles and constantly revising their beliefs in light of new evidence, provided Dewey with a model for democratic decision making ... Finally, Dewey called for extending democracy, conceived as an ethical project, from politics to industry and society.<ref name="John Dewey and American Democracy">{{cite journal |last1=Westbrook |first1=Robert B. |year=1992 |title=John Dewey and American Democracy |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=97 |issue=3 |pages=919–20 |doi=10.2307/2164912 |jstor=2164912}}</ref>
</blockquote>
This helped to shape his understanding of human action and the unity of human experience.

Dewey believed that a woman's place in society was determined by her environment and not just her biology. On women he says, "You think too much of women in terms of sex. Think of them as human individuals for a while, dropping out the sex qualification, and you won't be so sure of some of your generalizations about what they should and shouldn't do".<ref name="jstor.org" /> John Dewey's support helped to increase the support and popularity of Jane Addams' Hull House and other settlement houses as well. With growing support, involvement of the community grew as well as the support for the women's suffrage movement.

As commonly argued by Dewey's greatest critics, he was not able to come up with strategies in order to fulfill his ideas that would lead to a successful democracy, educational system, and a successful women's suffrage movement. While knowing that traditional beliefs, customs, and practices needed to be examined in order to find out what worked and what needed improved upon, it was never done in a systematic way.<ref name="jstor.org" /> "Dewey became increasingly aware of the obstacles presented by entrenched power and alert to the intricacy of the problems facing modern cultures".<ref name="John Dewey and American Democracy" /> With the complex of society at the time, Dewey was criticized for his lack of effort in fixing the problems.

With respect to technological developments in a democracy:

{{blockquote|Persons do not become a society by living in physical proximity any more than a man ceases to be socially influenced by being so many feet or miles removed from others.}}

His work on democracy influenced [[B. R. Ambedkar]], one of his students, who later served as a Law and Justice Minister of India.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ambedkar |first=Bhimrao |title=Annihilation of castes |year= 2007 |publisher=Critical Quest |isbn=978-81-89524-21-0 |page=64}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Behar |first=Anurag |date=2016-03-31 |title=Ambedkar's teacher |url=http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/VGJT8kkl9dGnqWpkgft9QM/Ambedkars-teacher.html |website=livemint.com |access-date=April 9, 2016 |archive-date=April 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403032535/http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/VGJT8kkl9dGnqWpkgft9QM/Ambedkars-teacher.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2017-05-19 |title=The like-mindedness of Dewey and Ambedkar |language=en-US |work=Forward Press |url=https://www.forwardpress.in/2017/05/john-dewey-pragmatism-communication-and-bhimrao-ambedkar/ |access-date=2018-05-17 |archive-date=May 17, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180517223639/https://www.forwardpress.in/2017/05/john-dewey-pragmatism-communication-and-bhimrao-ambedkar/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2018-01-05 |title=Ambedkar's pragmatism drew heavily on the 1908 'Ethics' |language=en-US |work=Forward Press |url=https://www.forwardpress.in/2018/01/ambedkars-pragmatism-drew-heavily-on-the-1908-ethics/ |access-date=2018-05-17 |archive-date=May 17, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180517223819/https://www.forwardpress.in/2018/01/ambedkars-pragmatism-drew-heavily-on-the-1908-ethics/ |url-status=live }}</ref>