Rescuing Dewey: Essays in Pragmatic Naturalism

by Manicas

Overview

This book rescues an often misunderstood, underappreciated, and radical John Dewey. It centers on his rejection of traditional epistemology for his original and powerful view of "logic"—with serious implications for general philosophy, the philosophy of the human sciences, including psychology, and the philosophy of democracy. The goal of this work is not to try to rescue Dewey from his critics, but to rescue Dewey from his friends—from those who ignore the implications of Dewey's naturalism to those influenced by Richard Rorty who take Dewey's rejection of insurrectionary politics too far. While it is true that Dewey rejected insurrectionary politics and was no "fire-eating leftist," his analysis of the present was radical in the sense that it went straight to the roots. Peter T. Manicas examines how this made Dewey's politics similar to those of Marx in many crucial ways and the positive effort of these essays places Dewey's naturalism at the forefront, resolving some of the tensions and misunderstandings stemming from his body of work. Doing so requires serious reconsideration of some of his most characteristic views on philosophy—especially of logic and epistemology—science, and democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739130209
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	01/01/1955
Series:	Studies in Ethics and Economics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	466 KB

About the Author

Peter T. Manicas is director of interdisciplinary studies at the University of Hawai'i.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction xi

Part I Pragmatism and Science

1 Pragmatic Philosophy of Science and the Charge of Scientism 3

2 John Dewey and American Psychology 35

3 John Dewey and American Social Science 63

4 Culture and Nature 81

Part II Not Another Epistemology

5 Naturalism and Subjectivism: Philosophy for the Future? 101

6 Naturalizing Epistemology: Reconstructing Philosophy 119

Part III Democracy

7 American Democracy: A New Spirit in the World 143

8 John Dewey: Anarchism and the Political State 187

9 Philosophy and Politics: A Historical Approach to Marx and Dewey 211

10 John Dewey and the Problem of Justice 237

11 Liberalism's Discontent: America in Search of a Past That Never Was 251

Part IV Why Not Dewey?

12 The Evasion of Philosophy 273

13 Democratic Hope 283

14 Analytic Pragmatism 287

15 Postmodern Pragmatism 295

Bibliography 305

Index 315

About the Author 323