Editing John Dewey (section)

==Views==

=== Education and teacher education ===
{{Main|Democracy and Education}}

{{Education in the U.S.}}
Dewey's educational theories were presented in ''[[My Pedagogic Creed]]'' (1897), ''The Primary-Education Fetich'' (1898), ''[[The School and Society]]'' (1900), ''The Child and the Curriculum'' (1902), ''[[Democracy and Education]]'' (1916), [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001117418 ''Schools of To-morrow''] <ref>{{Cite book |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001117418 |title=Catalog Record: Schools of to-morrow &#124; Hathi Trust Digital Library |isbn=978-0-524-00258-2 |access-date=May 6, 2018 |archive-date=May 6, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180506173542/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001117418 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> (1915) with [[Evelyn Dewey]], and ''[[Experience and Education (book)|Experience and Education]]'' (1938). Several themes recur throughout these writings. Dewey continually argues that education and learning are social and interactive processes, and thus the school itself is a social institution through which social reform can and should take place. In addition, he believed that students thrive in an environment where they are allowed to experience and interact with the curriculum, and all students should have the opportunity to take part in their own learning.

The ideas of democracy and social reform are continually discussed in Dewey's writings on education. Dewey makes a strong case for the importance of education not only as a place to gain content knowledge, but also as a place to learn how to live. In his eyes, the purpose of education should not revolve around the acquisition of a pre-determined set of skills, but rather the realization of one's full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good. He notes that "to prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities" (''My Pedagogic Creed'', Dewey, 1897).

In addition to helping students realize their full potential, Dewey goes on to acknowledge that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform. He notes that "education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction".

In addition to his ideas regarding [[Definitions of education|what education is]] and what effect it should have on society, Dewey also had specific notions regarding how education should take place within the classroom. In ''The Child and the Curriculum'' (1902), Dewey discusses two major conflicting schools of thought regarding educational pedagogy. The first is centered on the curriculum and focuses almost solely on the subject matter to be taught. Dewey argues that the major flaw in this methodology is the inactivity of the student; within this particular framework, "the child is simply the immature being who is to be matured; he is the superficial being who is to be deepened" (1902, p.&nbsp;13).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/childandcurricu00dewegoog|quote=The Child and the Curriculum+google+1902.|last=Dewey|first= John |year=1902|title=The child and the curriculum|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}</ref> He argues that in order for education to be most effective, content must be presented in a way that allows the student to relate the information to prior experiences, thus deepening the connection with this new knowledge.

At the same time, Dewey was alarmed by many of the "child-centered" excesses of educational-school pedagogues who claimed to be his followers, and he argued that too much reliance on the child could be equally detrimental to the learning process. In this second school of thought, "we must take our stand with the child and our departure from him. It is he and not the subject-matter which determines both quality and quantity of learning" (Dewey, 1902, pp.&nbsp;13–14). According to Dewey, the potential flaw in this line of thinking is that it minimizes the importance of the content as well as the role of the teacher.

In order to rectify this dilemma, Dewey advocated an educational structure that strikes a balance between delivering knowledge while also taking into account the interests and experiences of the student. He notes that "the child and the curriculum are simply two limits which define a single process. Just as two points define a straight line, so the present standpoint of the child and the facts and truths of studies define instruction" (Dewey, 1902, p.&nbsp;16).

It is through this reasoning that Dewey became one of the most famous proponents of [[hands-on learning]] or [[experiential education]], which is related to, but not synonymous with [[experiential learning]]. He argued that "if knowledge comes from the impressions made upon us by natural objects, it is impossible to procure knowledge without the use of objects which impress the mind" (Dewey, 1916/2009, pp.&nbsp;217–18).<ref>Dewey, J. (2009). ''Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education''. New York: WLC Books. (Original work published 1916)</ref> Dewey's ideas went on to influence many other influential experiential models and advocates. [[Problem-Based Learning]] (PBL), for example, a method used widely in education today, incorporates Dewey's ideas pertaining to learning through active inquiry.<ref>Savery, J.R. (2006). "Overview of Problem-based Learning: Definitions and Distinctions". ''Journal of Problem-based Learning'', 1(1).''</ref>

Dewey not only re-imagined the way that the learning process should take place, but also the role that the teacher should play within that process. Throughout the history of American schooling, education's purpose has been to train students for work by providing the student with a limited set of skills and information to do a particular job. The works of John Dewey provide the most prolific examples of how this limited vocational view of education has been applied to both the K–12 public education system and to the teacher training schools that attempted to quickly produce proficient and practical teachers with a limited set of instructional and discipline-specific skills needed to meet the needs of the employer and demands of the workforce.

[[File:The School and Society - Cover.jpg|thumb|upright]]
In ''The School and Society'' (Dewey, 1899) and ''Democracy of Education'' (Dewey, 1916), Dewey claims that rather than preparing citizens for ethical participation in society, schools cultivate passive pupils via insistence upon mastery of facts and disciplining of bodies. Rather than preparing students to be reflective, autonomous and ethical beings capable of arriving at social truths through critical and intersubjective discourse, schools prepare students for docile compliance with authoritarian work and political structures, discourage the pursuit of individual and communal inquiry, and perceive higher learning as a monopoly of the institution of education (Dewey, 1899; 1916).

For Dewey and his philosophical followers, education stifles individual autonomy when learners are taught that knowledge is transmitted in one direction, from the expert to the learner. Dewey not only re-imagined the way that the learning process should take place, but also the role that the teacher should play within that process. For Dewey, "The thing needful is improvement of education, not simply by turning out teachers who can do better the things that are not necessary to do, but rather by changing the conception of what constitutes education" (Dewey, 1904, p.&nbsp;18).

Dewey's qualifications for teaching—a natural love for working with young children, a natural propensity to inquire about the subjects, methods and other social issues related to the profession, and a desire to share this acquired knowledge with others—are not a set of outwardly displayed mechanical skills. Rather, they may be viewed as internalized principles or habits which "work automatically, unconsciously" (Dewey, 1904, p.&nbsp;15). Turning to Dewey's essays and public addresses regarding the teaching profession, followed by his analysis of the teacher as a person and a professional, as well as his beliefs regarding the responsibilities of teacher education programs to cultivate the attributes addressed, teacher educators can begin to reimagine the successful classroom teacher Dewey envisioned.

==== Professionalization of teaching as a social service ====
For many, education's purpose is to train students for work by providing the student with a limited set of skills and information to do a particular job. As Dewey notes, this limited vocational view is also applied to teacher training schools who attempt to quickly produce proficient and practical teachers with a limited set of instructional and discipline skills needed to meet the needs of the employer and demands of the workforce (Dewey, 1904). For Dewey, the school and the classroom teacher, as a workforce and provider of social service, have a unique responsibility to produce psychological and social goods that will lead to both present and future social progress.

As Dewey notes, "The business of the teacher is to produce a higher standard of intelligence in the community, and the object of the public school system is to make as large as possible the number of those who possess this intelligence. Skill, the ability to act wisely and effectively in a great variety of occupations and situations, is a sign and a criterion of the degree of civilization that a society has reached. It is the business of teachers to help in producing the many kinds of skills needed in contemporary life. If teachers are up to their work, they also aid in the production of character."(Dewey, TAP, 2010, pp.&nbsp;241–42).

According to Dewey, the emphasis is placed on producing these attributes in children for use in their contemporary life because it is "impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now" (Dewey, MPC, 2010, p.&nbsp;25). However, although Dewey is steadfast in his beliefs that education serves an immediate purpose (Dewey, DRT, 2010; Dewey, MPC, 2010; Dewey, TTP, 2010), he is not ignorant of the impact imparting these qualities of intelligence, skill, and character on young children in their present life will have on the future society. While addressing the state of educative and economic affairs during a 1935 radio broadcast, Dewey linked the ensuing economic depression to a "lack of sufficient production of intelligence, skill, and character" (Dewey, TAP, 2010, p.&nbsp;242) of the nation's workforce.

As Dewey notes, there is a lack of these goods in the present society and teachers have a responsibility to create them in their students, who, we can assume, will grow into the adults who will ultimately go on to participate in whatever industrial or economic civilization awaits them. According to Dewey, the profession of the classroom teacher is to produce the intelligence, skill, and character within each student so that the democratic community is composed of citizens who can think, do and act intelligently and morally.

==== A teacher's knowledge ====
[[File:81il826HWlL-1581x2048.jpg|thumb|upright]]
Dewey believed that successful classroom teacher possesses a passion for knowledge and intellectual curiosity in the materials and methods they teach. For Dewey, this propensity is an inherent curiosity and love for learning that differs from one's ability to acquire, recite and reproduce textbook knowledge. "No one," according to Dewey, "can be really successful in performing the duties and meeting these demands [of teaching] who does not retain [their] intellectual curiosity intact throughout [their] entire career" (Dewey, APT, 2010, p.&nbsp;34).

According to Dewey, it is not that the "teacher ought to strive to be a high-class scholar in all the subjects he or she has to teach," rather, "a teacher ought to have an unusual love and aptitude in some one subject: history, mathematics, literature, science, a fine art, or whatever" (Dewey, APT, 2010, p.&nbsp;35). The classroom teacher does not have to be a scholar in all subjects; rather, genuine love in one will elicit a feel for genuine information and insight in all subjects taught.

In addition to this propensity for study into the subjects taught, the classroom teacher "is possessed by a recognition of the responsibility for the constant study of school room work, the constant study of children, of methods, of subject matter in its various adaptations to pupils" (Dewey, PST, 2010, p.&nbsp;37). For Dewey, this desire for the lifelong pursuit of learning is inherent in other professions (e.g., the architectural, legal and medical fields; Dewey, 1904 & Dewey, PST, 2010), and has particular importance for the field of teaching. As Dewey notes, "this further study is not a sideline but something which fits directly into the demands and opportunities of the vocation" (Dewey, APT, 2010, p.&nbsp;34).

According to Dewey, this propensity and passion for intellectual growth in the profession must be accompanied by a natural desire to communicate one's knowledge with others. "There are scholars who have [the knowledge] in a marked degree but who lack enthusiasm for imparting it. To the 'natural born' teacher learning is incomplete unless it is shared" (Dewey, APT, 2010, p.&nbsp;35). For Dewey, it is not enough for the classroom teacher to be a lifelong learner of the techniques and subject-matter of education; she must aspire to share what she knows with others in her learning community.

==== A teacher's skill ====
The best indicator of teacher quality, according to Dewey, is the ability to watch and respond to the movement of the mind with keen awareness of the signs and quality of the responses his or her students exhibit with regard to the subject-matter presented (Dewey, APT, 2010; Dewey, 1904). As Dewey notes, "I have often been asked how it was that some teachers who have never studied the art of teaching are still extraordinarily good teachers. The explanation is simple. They have a quick, sure and unflagging sympathy with the operations and process of the minds they are in contact with. Their own minds move in harmony with those of others, appreciating their difficulties, entering into their problems, sharing their intellectual victories" (Dewey, APT, 2010, p.&nbsp;36).

Such a teacher is genuinely aware of the complexities of this mind-to-mind transfer, and she has the intellectual fortitude to identify the successes and failures of this process, as well as how to appropriately reproduce or correct it in the future.

==== A teacher's disposition ====
As a result of the direct influence teachers have in shaping the mental, moral and spiritual lives of children during their most formative years, Dewey holds the profession of teaching in high esteem, often equating its social value to that of the ministry and to parenting (Dewey, APT, 2010; Dewey, DRT, 2010; Dewey, MPC, 2010; Dewey, PST, 2010; Dewey, TTC, 2010; Dewey, TTP, 2010). Perhaps the most important attributes, according to Dewey, are those personal inherent qualities that the teacher brings to the classroom. As Dewey notes, "no amount of learning or even of acquired pedagogical skill makes up for the deficiency" (Dewey, TLS, p.&nbsp;25) of the personal traits needed to be most successful in the profession.

According to Dewey, the successful classroom teacher occupies an indispensable passion for promoting the intellectual growth of young children. In addition, they know that their career, in comparison to other professions, entails stressful situations, long hours, and limited financial reward; all of which have the potential to overcome their genuine love and sympathy for their students.

For Dewey, "One of the most depressing phases of the vocation is the number of careworn teachers one sees, with anxiety depicted on the lines of their faces, reflected in their strained high pitched voices and sharp manners. While contact with the young is a privilege for some temperaments, it is a tax on others and a tax which they do not bear up under very well. And in some schools, there are too many pupils to a teacher, too many subjects to teach, and adjustments to pupils are made in a mechanical rather than a human way. Human nature reacts against such unnatural conditions" (Dewey, APT, 2010, p.&nbsp;35).

It is essential, according to Dewey, that the classroom teacher has the mental propensity to overcome the demands and stressors placed on them because the students can sense when their teacher is not genuinely invested in promoting their learning (Dewey, PST, 2010). Such negative demeanors, according to Dewey, prevent children from pursuing their own propensities for learning and intellectual growth. It can therefore be assumed that if teachers want their students to engage with the educational process and employ their natural curiosities for knowledge, teachers must be aware of how their reactions to young children and the stresses of teaching influence this process.

==== The role of teacher education to cultivate the professional classroom teacher ====
Dewey's passions for teaching—a natural love for working with young children, a natural propensity to inquire about the subjects, methods and other social issues related to the profession, and a desire to share this acquired knowledge with others—are not a set of outwardly displayed mechanical skills. Rather, they may be viewed as internalized principles or habits which "work automatically, unconsciously" (Dewey, 1904, p.&nbsp;15). According to Dewey, teacher-education programs must turn away from focusing on producing proficient practitioners because such practical skills related to instruction and discipline (e.g., creating and delivering lesson plans, classroom management, implementation of an assortment of content-specific methods) can be learned over time during their everyday schoolwork with their students (Dewey, PST, 2010).

As Dewey notes, "The teacher who leaves the professional school with power in managing a class of children may appear to superior advantage the first day, the first week, the first month, or even the first year, as compared with some other teacher who has a much more vital command of the psychology, logic and ethics of development. But later 'progress' may consist only in perfecting and refining skill already possessed. Such persons seem to know how to teach, but they are not students of teaching. Even though they go on studying books of pedagogy, reading teachers' journals, attending teachers' institutes, etc., yet the root of the matter is not in them, unless they continue to be students of subject-matter, and students of mind-activity. Unless a teacher is such a student, he may continue to improve in the mechanics of school management, but he cannot grow as a teacher, an inspirer and director of soul-life" (Dewey, 1904, p.&nbsp;15).

For Dewey, teacher education should focus not on producing persons who know how to teach as soon as they leave the program; rather, teacher education should be concerned with producing professional students of education who have the propensity to inquire about the subjects they teach, the methods used, and the activity of the mind as it gives and receives knowledge. According to Dewey, such a student is not superficially engaging with these materials, rather, the professional student of education has a genuine passion to inquire about the subjects of education, knowing that doing so ultimately leads to acquisitions of the skills related to teaching. Such students of education aspire for the intellectual growth within the profession that can only be achieved by immersing oneself in the lifelong pursuit of the intelligence, skills and character Dewey linked to the profession.

As Dewey notes, other professional fields, such as law and medicine cultivate a professional spirit in their fields to constantly study their work, their methods of their work, and a perpetual need for intellectual growth and concern for issues related to their profession. Teacher education, as a profession, has these same obligations (Dewey, 1904; Dewey, PST, 2010).

As Dewey notes, "An intellectual responsibility has got to be distributed to every human being who is concerned in carrying out the work in question, and to attempt to concentrate intellectual responsibility for a work that has to be done, with their brains and their hearts, by hundreds or thousands of people in a dozen or so at the top, no matter how wise and skillful they are, is not to concentrate responsibility—it is to diffuse irresponsibility" (Dewey, PST, 2010, p.&nbsp;39). For Dewey, the professional spirit of teacher education requires of its students a constant study of school room work, constant study of children, of methods, of subject matter in its various adaptations to pupils. Such study will lead to professional enlightenment with regard to the daily operations of classroom teaching.

As well as his very active and direct involvement in setting up educational institutions such as the [[University of Chicago Laboratory Schools]] (1896) and [[The New School for Social Research]] (1919), many of Dewey's ideas influenced the founding of [[Bennington College]] and Goddard College in Vermont, where he served on the board of trustees. Dewey's works and philosophy also held great influence in the creation of the short-lived [[Black Mountain College]] in North Carolina, an experimental college focused on interdisciplinary study, and whose faculty included [[Buckminster Fuller]], [[Willem de Kooning]], [[Charles Olson]], [[Franz Kline]], [[Robert Duncan (poet)|Robert Duncan]], [[Robert Creeley]], and [[Paul Goodman (writer)|Paul Goodman]], among others. Black Mountain College was the locus of the "Black Mountain Poets" a group of avant-garde poets closely linked with the [[Beat Generation]] and the [[San Francisco Renaissance]].

=== Journalism ===
{{Main|The Public and its Problems}}

[[File:The Public and its Problems, 1927, Cover.jpg|thumb|upright]]
Dewey's definition of "public," as described in ''[[The Public and its Problems]]'', has profound implications for the significance of journalism in society. As suggested by the title of the book, his concern was of the transactional relationship between publics and problems. Also implicit in its name, public journalism seeks to orient communication away from elite, corporate hegemony toward a civic public sphere. "The 'public' of public journalists is Dewey's public." {{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Dewey gives a concrete definition to the formation of a public. Publics are spontaneous groups of citizens who share the indirect effects of a particular action. Anyone affected by the indirect consequences of a specific action will automatically share a common interest in controlling those consequences, i.e., solving a common problem.<ref>Dewey, J. 1927. ''The Public and its Problems''. Henry Holt & Co., New York. p. 126.</ref><br />Since every action generates [[unintended consequence]]s, publics continuously emerge, overlap, and disintegrate.

In ''The Public and its Problems'', Dewey presents a rebuttal to [[Walter Lippmann]]'s treatise on the role of journalism in democracy. Lippmann's model was a basic transmission model in which journalists took information given to them by experts and elites, repackaged that information in simple terms, and transmitted the information to the public, whose role was to react emotionally to the news. In his model, Lippmann supposed that the public was incapable of thought or action, and that all thought and action should be left to the experts and elites.

Dewey refutes this model by assuming that politics is the work and duty of each individual in the course of his daily routine. The knowledge needed to be involved in politics, in this model, was to be generated by the interaction of citizens, elites, experts, through the mediation and facilitation of journalism. In this model, not just the government is accountable, but the citizens, experts, and other actors as well.

[[File:John Dewey caricat.jpg|thumb|upright|A caricature of Dewey by André Koehne, 2006]]
Dewey also said that journalism should conform to this ideal by changing its emphasis from actions or happenings (choosing a winner of a given situation) to alternatives, choices, consequences, and [[Condition (philosophy)|conditions]],<ref>[[John Corcoran (logician)|John Corcoran]]. Conditions and Consequences. American Philosophy: an Encyclopedia. 2007. Eds. John Lachs and Robert Talisse. New York: Routledge. pp. 124–27.</ref> in order to foster conversation and improve the generation of knowledge. Journalism would not just produce a static product that told what had already happened, but the news would be in a constant state of evolution as the public added value by generating knowledge. The "audience" would end, to be replaced by citizens and collaborators who would essentially be users, doing more with the news than simply reading it. Concerning his effort to change journalism, he wrote in ''The Public and Its Problems'': "Till the Great Society is converted in to a Great Community, the Public will remain in eclipse. Communication can alone create a great community" (Dewey, p.&nbsp;142).

Dewey believed that communication creates a great community, and citizens who participate actively with public life contribute to that community. "The clear consciousness of a communal life, in all its implications, constitutes the idea of democracy." (''The Public and its Problems'', p.&nbsp;149). This Great Community can only occur with "free and full intercommunication." (p.&nbsp;211) Communication can be understood as journalism.

=== Logic and method ===
Dewey sees paradox in contemporary logical theory. Proximate subject matter garners general agreement and advancement, while the ultimate subject matter of logic generates unremitting controversy. In other words, he challenges confident logicians to answer the question of the truth of logical operators. Do they function merely as abstractions (e.g., pure mathematics) or do they connect in some essential way with their objects, and therefore alter or bring them to light?<ref name="logical">{{cite book |last=Dewey |first=John |title=Logic: The Theory of Inquiry |date=1938 |chapter=The Problem of Logical Subject Matter |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/JohnDeweyLogicTheTheoryOfInquiry/%5BJohn_Dewey%5D_Logic_-_The_Theory_of_Inquiry_djvu.txt}}</ref>

[[Logical positivism]] also figured in Dewey's thought. About the movement he wrote that it "eschews the use of 'propositions' and 'terms', substituting 'sentences' and 'words'." ("General Theory of Propositions", in ''Logic: The Theory of Inquiry'') He welcomes this changing of referents "in as far as it fixes attention upon the symbolic structure and content of propositions." However, he registers a small complaint against the use of "sentence" and "words" in that without careful interpretation the act or process of transposition "narrows unduly the scope of symbols and language, since it is not customary to treat gestures and diagrams (maps, blueprints, etc.) as words or sentences." In other words, sentences and words, considered in isolation, do not disclose intent, which may be inferred or "adjudged only by means of context."<ref name="logical" />

Yet Dewey was not entirely opposed to modern logical trends; indeed, the deficiencies in traditional logic he expressed hope for the trends to solve occupies the whole first part of same book.  Concerning traditional logic, he states there:

{{blockquote|Aristotelian logic, which still passes current nominally, is a logic based upon the idea that qualitative objects are existential in the fullest sense. To retain logical principles based on this conception along with the acceptance of theories of existence and knowledge based on an opposite conception is not, to say the least, conductive to clearness—a consideration that has a good deal to do with existing dualism between traditional and the newer relational logics.}}

==== Critical thinking ====
[[File:Ideas and reflective thought.jpg|thumb|Based on the text of John Dewey in "How We Think", this diagram depicts different types of thinking<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Nychka |first=John A. |title=What is and idea, and how do we think? |date=2019 |url=https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/155811b5-4e99-4b14-aada-1e0d955ce0e3 |access-date=2025-03-30 |publisher=University of Alberta Libraries |doi=10.7939/R3-GAEA-KZ46}}</ref>.]]
Dewey was pivotal in advancing the philosophy of education by emphasizing the role of experience and active problem-solving in cultivating critical thinking. In "How We Think",<ref name=":2">Dewey, J. ''How we think'' (1910). D.C. Heath and Company.</ref> Dewey describes reflective thinking as an "active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends." (Processes of Thought diagram). Thinking is not merely the passive absorption of facts but an active, dynamic process that involves questioning, analyzing, and transforming experiences into meaningful conclusions. Dewey's approach transformed traditional education by advocating for an interactive classroom environment. His contributions laid the groundwork for modern pedagogical methods that not only focus on the acquisition of factual knowledge but also foster the development of independent thought, creativity, and a deeper understanding of how to apply learning in everyday life.
[[File:Reflective thought.jpg|thumb|Based on the text of John Dewey in "How We Think", this diagram details the elements and strategies for critical reflective thinking<ref name=":1" />]]
Many authors thus regard Dewey as a key figure in affirming the importance of critical thinking in education. Dewey used the term "critical thinking" in the first edition of his book ''How We Think'', but the term did not originate with Dewey.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lau |first=Joe Y.F. |date=2024-02-26 |title=Revisiting the origin of critical thinking |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131857.2024.2320199 |journal=Educational Philosophy and Theory |volume=56 |issue=7 |language=en |pages=724–733 |doi=10.1080/00131857.2024.2320199 |issn=0013-1857}}</ref>

In "How We Think", <ref name=":2" /> Dewey also delved further into the design of learning experiences to encourage reflective thinking. Moreover, Dewey described his vision for the design of poorly executed thinking and well executed thinking processes –the difference being the exclusion or inclusion of reflective thought, respectively.<ref name=":2" />  He also detailed the design of sub-processes within reflective thought, which consist of skepticism and investigation to either find facts and evidence to support or nullify suggested beliefs.
[[File:Reflective thinking.jpg|thumb|Based on the text of John Dewey in "How We Think", this diagram summarizes the design of, or suggested, thinking processes of which poorly executed and well executed thinking.<ref name=":1" />  ]]

==== Aesthetics ====
{{Main|Art as Experience}}
''Art as Experience'' (1934) is Dewey's major writing on aesthetics.<ref>Jonathan Levin, "The Esthetics of Pragmatism." ''American Literary History'' 6.4 (1994): 658–683 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/489959 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309024921/https://www.jstor.org/stable/489959 |date=March 9, 2021 }}.</ref>

It is, in accordance with his place in the Pragmatist tradition that emphasizes community, a study of the individual art object as embedded in (and inextricable from) the experiences of a local culture. In the original illustrated edition, Dewey drew on the modern art and world cultures collection assembled by [[Albert C. Barnes]] at the [[Barnes Foundation]], whose own ideas on the application of art to one's way of life was influenced by Dewey's writing. Dewey made art through writing poetry, but he considered himself deeply unmusical: one of his students described Dewey as "allergic to music."<ref>* Thibeault, M.D. (2018). [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022429419896792#articleShareContainer Dewey's Musical Allergy and the Philosophy of Music Education] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609042708/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022429419896792#articleShareContainer |date=June 9, 2020 }}. Journal of Research in Music Education, 68(1), 31–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429419896792</ref> Barnes was particularly influenced by ''Democracy and Education'' (1916) and then attended Dewey's seminar on political philosophy at Columbia University in the fall semester of 1918.<ref>David A. Granger, "The science of art: aesthetic formalism in John Dewey and Albert Barnes, Part 1." ''Journal of Aesthetic Education'' 52.1 (2018): 55–83 [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?output=instlink&q=info:Dgt9UaeudGUJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=1,27&scillfp=10194638935152769212&oi=lle online]{{Dead link|date=October 2022|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}.</ref>

=== 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>

=== Religion ===
[[File:John Dewey, sem data.tif|thumb|upright|John Dewey]]
Historians have examined his religious beliefs.<ref>Howard L. Parsons, "The Meaning and Significance of Dewey's Religious Thought." ''Journal of Religion'' 40.3 (1960): 170–190 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1199556 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424054307/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1199556 |date=April 24, 2021 }}.</ref> Biographer [[Steven Clark Rockefeller]] traced Dewey's democratic convictions to his childhood attendance at the [[Congregational church|Congregational Church]], with its strong proclamation of social ideals and the [[Social Gospel]].<ref>Stephen Rockefeller, ''John Dewey: Religious Faith and Democratic Humanism'', (1994), p. 13</ref> Historian Edward A. White suggested in ''[[Science and Religion in American Thought]]'' (1952) that Dewey's work led to the 20th-century rift between religion and science.

Dewey went through an "evangelical" development as a child. As an adult he was negative, or at most neutral, about theology in education. He instead took a [[Meliorism|meliorist]] position with the goal of scientific humanism and educational and social reform without recourse to religion.<ref>Leo R. Ward, "Theology and Liberal Education in Dewey." ''Modern Age'' 21.2 (1977): 139–146.</ref>

As an [[atheist]]<ref>{{cite book |title=Dewey at One Hundred Fifty |publisher=Purdue University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-55753-550-4 |editor1=A.G. Rud |page=22 |quote=With respect to his personal beliefs, Dewey wrote to Max Otto that "I feel the gods are pretty dead, tho I suppose I ought to know that however, to be somewhat more philosophical in the matter, if atheism means simply not being a theist, then of course I'm an atheist. But the popular if not the etymological significance of the word is much wider. ... Although he described himself as an atheist in one sense of the term, it is also clear that Dewey was opposed to militant atheism for the same reason that he was opposed to supernaturalism: he thought both positions dogmatic. |editor2=Jim Garrison |editor3=Lynda Stone}}</ref> and a [[secular humanism|secular humanist]] in his later life, Dewey participated with a variety of humanistic activities from the 1930s into the 1950s, which included sitting on the advisory board of [[Charles Francis Potter]]'s [[First Humanist Society of New York]] (1929); being one of the original 34 signatories of the first ''[[Humanist Manifesto]]'' (1933) and being elected an honorary member of the Humanist Press Association (1936).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20030608113016/http://www.siu.edu/%7Edeweyctr/CHRONO.pdf "John Dewey Chronology" 1934.04.08, 1936.03.12, 1940.09, and 1950.09.11.]</ref>

His opinion of humanism is summarized in his own words from an article titled "What Humanism Means to Me", published in the June 1930 edition of ''Thinker 2'':

{{blockquote|What Humanism means to me is an expansion, not a contraction, of human life, ''an expansion in which nature and the science of nature are made the willing servants of human good''.<ref>"What Humanism Means to Me," first published in ''Thinker 2'' (June 1930): 9–12, as part of a series. Dewey: p. lw.5.266 [''The Collected Works of John Dewey, 1882–1953'', The Electronic Edition]</ref>}}

=== Pragmatism, instrumentalism, consequentialism ===
Dewey sometimes referred to his philosophy as [[instrumentalism]] rather than [[pragmatism]] and would have recognized the similarity of these two schools to the newer school named [[consequentialism]]. In some phrases introducing a book he wrote later in life meant to help forestay a wandering kind of criticism of the work based on the controversies due to the differences in the schools that he sometimes invoked, he defined at the same time with precise brevity the criterion of validity common to these three schools, which lack agreed-upon definitions:

{{blockquote|But in the proper interpretation of "pragmatic," namely the function of consequences as necessary tests of the validity of propositions, ''provided'' these consequences are operationally instituted and are such as to resolve the specific problem evoking the operations, the text that follows is thoroughly pragmatic.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dewey|first=john|title=Logic: The theory of Inquiry|year=1938|publisher=Holt, Rinehart, and Winston|location=NY|page=iv}}</ref>}}

His concern for precise definition led him to detailed analysis of careless word usage, reported in ''Knowing and the Known'' in 1949.

Dewey also regularly refers and discusses the definitions of pragmatism used by other philosophers within the movement such as Charles Pierce and William James when trying to pin down his own definitions in his ''Essays in Experimental Logic''. Regarding Pierce he writes "Mr. Pierce explained that he took the term 'pragmatic' from Kant, in order to denote empirical consequences."<ref>{{cite book|first=John|last=Dewey|title=Essays in Experimental Logic|year=1916|publisher=Dover Publications Inc.|location=NY|page=330}}</ref> Following this statement he also introduces James' usage of the term pragmatism when he writes "what is important is that the consequences should be specific... When he [James] said that general notions must 'cash in', he meant of course that they must be translatable into verifiable specific things.<ref>{{cite book|first=John|last=Dewey|title=Essays in Experimental Logic|year=1916|publisher=Dover Publications Inc.|location=NY|page=331}}</ref>

==== Epistemology ====
{{Main|Knowing and the Known}}
The terminology problem in the fields of epistemology and logic is partially due, according to Dewey and Bentley,<ref>John Dewey, [[Arthur F. Bentley|Arthur Bentley]], (1949). ''Knowing and the Known''. Beacon Press, [[Boston]].</ref> to inefficient and imprecise use of words and concepts that reflect three historic levels of organization and presentation.<ref>John Dewey, [[Arthur F. Bentley|Arthur Bentley]], (1949). ''Knowing and the Known''. Beacon Press, [[Boston]], pp. 107–09.</ref> In the order of chronological appearance, these are:
* Self-Action: Prescientific concepts regarded humans, animals, and things as possessing powers of their own which initiated or caused their actions.
* Interaction: as described by Newton, where things, living and inorganic, are balanced against something in a system of interaction, for example, the [[Newton's third law|third law of motion]] states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
* Transaction: where modern systems of descriptions and naming are employed to deal with multiple aspects and phases of action without any attribution to ultimate, final, or independent entities, essences, or realities.

A series of characterizations of [[Transactionalism|Transactions]] indicate the wide range of considerations involved.<ref>John Dewey, [[Arthur F. Bentley|Arthur Bentley]], (1949). ''Knowing and the Known''. Beacon Press, Boston, pp. 121–39.</ref>