John Dewey
The Quest for Certainty

Introduction

John Dewey is a key figure in American Pragmatism. The topics he grappled with frame many of the recent debates in the philosophy of communication.

Sections of this Guide

1. Overview
2. Readings
3. The Dualistic Tradition
4. Validation of Knowledge
5. Philosophical Pragmaticism
6. Escaping epistemological foundationalism
7. Questions on the implications of Dewey's thought
8. Bibliography

Overview

• John Dewey (1859-1952) American philosopher and educator.
• Key figure in American philosophy, psychology, and education.
• One of the key figures in philosophical movement called Pragmatism.
• Sought to develop a philosophical system that could reconcile various empirical traditions (including the scientific method) and traditions in the category of idealism (Hegel, most notably). Dewey sought to accomplish this by escaping traditional philosophical categories of object and knower in favor of a pragmatic integration of the two categories.

Readings

• Chapter 1: Escape from peril (pp. 3-25)
• Chapter 2: Philosophy's search for the immutable (pp. 26-48)
• Chapter 3: Conflict of authorities (pp. 49-73)
• Chapter 5: Ideas at work (pp. 108-139)
• Chapter 6: The play of ideas (pp. 140-169)
• Chapter 7: The seat of intellectual authority (pp. 170-194)
• Chapter 11: The Copernican Revolution (pp. 287-313)

The Dualistic Tradition

• From the earliest periods of recorded civilization when priest-rulers governed peasants, there arose a categorical distinction between spiritual and material pursuits. Over time many types of people engaged in these differing types of pursuits: priests and peasants, philosophers and craftsmen, scholars and engineers. This dualism has been engrained in our minds. This ancient tradition opposes many concepts in dualistic pairs.
• Some of the dualisms that Dewey discusses:
1. Sacred vs. Profane (p.3)
2. Ideas vs. Things (p.5)
3. Theory vs. Practice (p.5)
4. Intellect vs. Action (p.6)
5. Mind vs. Body (p.76)
6. Reason vs. Experience (p.76)
7. Knowing vs. Doing (p.79)
• These opposed approaches to life are entrenched in much of our cultural traditions and mental outlooks. It is extraordinarily difficult to consider many topics without these dualisms prescriptively informing our opinions. (These dualisms will in these guides subsequently be referred to at times as the Dichotomies.)
• Dewey explores how this dualistic tradition has affected philosophy and the theories of knowledge it has produced, and more specifically to explore the consequences for philosophy of abandoning this dualistic tradition.

Validation of Knowledge

• Why do we believe what we believe? A core activity of philosophy has always been the consideration of this question. Most philosophical traditions have tried to develop theories of knowledge which answered this question by identifying the fundamental criteria for justifying beliefs, or the foundations of knowledge. This activity is usually termed Epistemology.
• Most systems of thought intellectually descended from the Greeks ("Western" philosophical systems) have throughout history put forward epistemologies for gauging the accuracy and certainty of beliefs. Hence the title of Dewey's book, The Quest for Certainty.
• Most Western epistemologies have aligned the foundational criteria and methods for attaining true beliefs (what Dewey terms "Authorities") with one side or the other of the dualistic tradition. The plethora of -isms that make up Western Philosophy can largely be situated in dualistic pairs, Idealism vs. Empiricism, Mentalism vs. Materialism, etc.
• A dramatic conflict of Authorities arose by the early 20th century. Practioners of science, liberal arts, and organized religion were all in chaotic disagreement, with no clear way to referee the dispute.
• Dewey sought to develop a philosophy which would reconcile the rival Authorities through a practical outlook on life. Hence, Pragmatism.

Philosophical Pragmatism

• There is a link (explicit or implicit) in all epistemologies between knowledge and acts. Dewey sought to reconcile the epistemological disputes of his age by reconnecting knowing and doing (rather than opposing them), and through the practical requirements of the linkage between knowledge and actions (rather than by seeking to identify the correct foundations of knowledge).
• American Pragmatism was the name that emerged for the thoughts of a loosely aligned group of the most famous American philosophers at the beginning of the 20th century, which mainly included Charles S. Pierce, William James, John Dewey, and Josiah Royce. James coined the phrase, and it stuck, although the group were not really very similar in many ways, and Pierce objected to being categorized by with the phrase. Dewey preferred the term Instrumentalism, or Instrumental Pragmatism. The concepts of Pragmatism were overshadowed for a decades by trends in analytic philosophy, but have recently become topical again. Writers such as Edmund Arens have recently sought to develop an "Integrated Pragmatic Theory" that would link American Pragmatism with the thought of major European philosophers such as Jürgen Habermas' Universal Pragmatics, and Karl-Otto Apel's Transcendental Pragmatics.
• Dewey focused on knowledge in terms of our values and the consequences of knowledge for particular communities and society as a whole. He thought that science and spirituality could be reconciled by interpreting "the conclusions of science with respect to their consequences for our beliefs about purposes and values in all phases of life." (Quest, p.313) He was particularly concerned with educational communities and expended much of his own attentions on educational reform.

Escaping Epistemological Foundationalism

• Dewey is now aligned by many writers with the movement in philosophy away from foundationally-based epistemology.
• He saw the insistence on hard and fast foundations of knowledge as unhelpful to what he considered the central role of present-day philosophy, practical guidance for action in the social realm of today.
• For Dewey, striving for epistemological certainty in beliefs was a chimerical goal that splintered communities in debates over the foundations of knowledge.
• The writings of many recent philosophers resonate with Dewey's thought in this theme of the need to simply abandon the search for epistemological foundations (Foucalt, Habermas).

Questions on the implications of Dewey's thought

• Dewey has great faith in the ability of society to reach consensus on purposes and goals in the absence of epistemological foundations. He wrote extensively elsewhere about how he saw the process of community building occuring through communication and the democratic process. Are Dewey's essential teachings realistic or utopian? Can pragmatism (rather than foundational epistemology) effectively lead to consensus and not more chaos?
• Dewey's pragmatism acts to cut the Gordian knot of many philosophical disagreements. How would it deal with the recent so-called "culture wars" between scientists and cultural studies?

Bibliography

Arens, Edmund.  The Logic of Pragmatic Thinking: From Pierce to Habermas.  
   Translated by David Smith.  Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1994.

Hickman, Larry A.  Reading Dewey: Interpretations for a Postmodern Generation. 
   Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1998.

Murphy, Arthur E. "Dewey's Epistemology and Metaphysics," in The Philosophy of John Dewey. 
   Edited by Paul A. Schilpp.   New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1939.