Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Paul Kurtz (1925-2012), professor emeritus of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was the author or editor of more than fifty books, including The Transcendental Temptation, The Courage to Become, and Embracing the Power of Humanism, plus nine hundred articles and reviews. He was the founder and chairman of Prometheus Books, the Institute for Science and Human Values, the Center for Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He appeared on many major television and radio talk shows and has lectured at universities worldwide.

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DEWEY'S ENDURING IMPACT

Prometheus Books

Contents

PREFACE, BY JOHN R. SHOOK AND PAUL KURTZ........................................................................................................9ABBREVIATIONS...................................................................................................................................151. The Importance of Dewey for Philosophy (and for Much Else Besides) Philip Kitcher...........................................................192. Reflections on Pragmatism Hilary Putnam.....................................................................................................433. Looking A head: What Are the Prospects for Dewey's Philosophy in the Future? Paul Kurtz.....................................................574. Dewey and the Subject Matter of Science Peter Godfrey-Smith.................................................................................735. Dewey and Darwin on Evolution and Natural Kinds: A Pragmatist Perspective Jay Schulkin......................................................876. Reclaiming the Pragmatist Legacy: Evolution and Its Discontents Arthur Efron................................................................1057. Two Types of Pragmatism: Dewey and Royce Randall E. Auxier..................................................................................1258. Dewey's Unfinished Cultural Project John Peter Anton........................................................................................1499. Dewey and the Moral Resources of Humanistic Naturalism Nathan Bupp..........................................................................15910. Philosophy and the Conduct of Life: Dewey's New Paradigm James Gouinlock...................................................................17111. Dewey's Faith Ruth Anna Putnam.............................................................................................................18112. John Dewey's Spiritual Values Larry A. Hickman.............................................................................................19313. Rereading Dewey's Art as Experience Joseph Margolis........................................................................................20714. John Dewey and the Ontology of Art Russell Pryba...........................................................................................21915. Narrative Naturalism Judy Walker...........................................................................................................23716. John Dewey and the Early NAACP: Developing a Progressive Discourse on Racial Injustice, 1909–1921 Susan D. Carle.....................24917. Public Reason vs. Democratic Intelligence: Rawls and Dewey Judith M. Green.................................................................26318. Dewey's Ethical-Political Philosophy as a Present Resource Gregory Fernando Pappas.........................................................27519. Deweyan Experimentalism and Leadership Eric Thomas Weber...................................................................................29320. Dewey's Impact on Education Stephen M. Fishman and Lucille McCarthy........................................................................30521. An Educational Theory of Inquiry Maura Striano.............................................................................................31522. The Sources of a Science of Education by John Dewey and the Italian Interpretations Giuseppe Spadafora.....................................33323. The Origins of the Italian Misunderstanding of Dewey's Philosophy Massimo Vittorio.........................................................339NOTES...........................................................................................................................................349ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS..........................................................................................................................395

Preface

During the first half of the twentieth century, no American philosopher was more prominent or more influential than John Dewey, professor of philosophy at Columbia University. The essays in this volume, most of them revised from presentations at John Dewey's 150th Birthday Celebration: An International Conference on Dewey's Impact on America and the World, which took place at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York, in October 2009, focus on his core philosophical views concerning pragmatism, naturalism, humanism, and secularism. In his pragmatist philosophy, these four isms not only cooperated but also mutually supported each other. Subtract one or two of them, and the rest are fatally weakened. Dewey's vast influence upon these intellectual movements is discussed in many of this volume's essays. Perhaps more important is the issue, also addressed in this volume, of Dewey's continuing relevance to contemporary problems. The world seems to be reaching a new tipping point of social, political, and ecological instability. Can Dewey's philosophy help once again?

Dewey's Enduring Impact: Essays on America's Philosopher is important because the contributors are able to reflect on the philosophical influence of John Dewey's thought a half a century after his death. It often takes many decades for historians of ideas to evaluate the impact of a philosopher on his times. And often we can only determine his enduring influence and future relevance through a more distant lens. For the editors of this volume, Dewey stands out in a real sense as the philosopher of American culture; for he was able to capture and define the spirit of America. What we have in mind is the experimental, innovative, daring, and optimistic attitude that pervaded so much of the American outlook and motivated those who came to these shores to break new ground not only geographically but also in social and cultural terms.

America was first developed by waves of European settlers who discovered its vast virgin territories. The open frontiers enticed countless millions from Africa, Asia, and other corners of the globe in subsequent decades to come and make a new life for themselves. This rich continent was ripe for the picking. Although the colonialists brought the attitudes and values from a wide range of countries, this newly discovered land gave them unparalleled opportunities to build a new civilization. But this goal would not have been possible if they were constrained by the old dogmas and habits of the past. They needed to forge new values appropriate to the new conditions that they encountered.

John Dewey urged Americans to think creatively and constructively, to abandon the old habits of thought and practice, and to introduce new ways of solving problems. It was Dewey's emphasis on "indeterminate problematic situations" and the need to introduce daring new hypotheses to account for what they discovered and to test these by their consequences in action that was especially relevant to the American experiment. For only an instrumentalist and pragmatic approach could best cope with new obstacles and opportunities encountered in the environment.

Dewey's unique contribution was that he appreciated the power of science and the methods it used to resolve problematic situations, without being constrained by the customs of the past. Americans soon learned that they needed to invent, innovate, and experiment with new forms of behavior. And this...