John Dewey (1859-1952) was one of the most influential U.S. philosophers of the 20th century. Born in Burlington, Vermont, Dewey received his bachelor's degree from the University of Vermont in 1879. After teaching high school for two years following graduation, Dewey began graduate studies in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He received his doctorate in 1884 and then taught for 10 years at the University of Michigan. In 1894, Dewey left for the University of Chicago where he became head of the department of philosophy, psychology, and pedagogy. While at Chicago, Dewey founded and directed the famous laboratory school, or "Dewey School," which allowed him to develop and test his pedagogical theories on the need to design education that was sensitive to the active and creative dimensions of learning. Dewey's books School and Society (1900) and The Child and the Curriculum (1902) were important works from this period.

Dewey next joined the department of philosophy at Columbia University in 1904, where he taught until his retirement in 1930. During his tenure at Columbia, Dewey became deeply involved in social issues and political affairs. He traveled and lectured extensively and published widely in both popular and academic journals. Dewey's basic philosophical enterprise became associated with the American school of pragmatism. Dewey was critical of metaphysical idealism, stressing instead a naturalistic analysis of experience. According to Dewey, there is no such thing as a fixed human essence that is somehow independent of larger natural processes. Rather, human beings are fully immersed in diverse natural and cultural environments, and human life consists of a plurality of interrelated experiences and situations that possess unique, qualitative characteristics. Experience as a whole is defined by the "transactions" that occur in nature between organism and environment.

Dewey also developed comprehensive theories of ethics and democracy. In his ethical theory, Dewey adopted an experimental approach that he viewed as being similar to the methodology of the natural sciences. Rejecting traditional metaphysical accounts of divine or cosmic sources of absolute values, Dewey insisted on the plurality of moral criteria that can be generated as functional principles of social action. According to Dewey's theory of "instrumentalism," concepts are formed and used as tools for testing hypotheses and solving problems. In a similar fashion, values are created in response to the obtaining of satisfactory results in our choices of actions and objects. In other words, the activity of valuation refers to value judgments about actions and objects that yield satisfaction and therefore are considered desirable in terms of how we think we should live. Considerations of moral action can then be addressed by positing experimental hypotheses about the consequences of prescribed behavior under certain conditions. Those plans of action that lead to the preferred situation can be used to modify and resolve problematic circumstances. Dewey was clear, however, that the search for solutions to moral dilemmas must be carried out through a social process, a public exchange of concerns, alternatives, and analyses. Moral deliberation necessarily involves social communication if consensus is to be reached. In this way, Dewey appealed to what he called "democracy as a way of life."

For Dewey's social and political philosophy, it was vitally important to take seriously the role of the community in the lives of individuals. If individual and group conflict is to be resolved, communication and consensus must replace dogmatism and absolutism. For this reason, Dewey emphasized the role of education in democracy. As mentioned above, Dewey considered democracy to be much more than the presence of certain political procedures and institutions; it is a way of life. In The Public and its Problems (1927) and in other works, Dewey noted that a successfully functioning democracy requires that its citizens develop habits that enable them to communicate, to learn, to compromise, to respect others, and to tolerate the variety of norms and interests that exist in a shared social life. Social cooperation rather than extreme individualism is a fundamental component of a democracy that is able to liberate the capacities of each person. Against the social-contract tradition of Hobbes and Locke, Dewey argued that the human individual is a social being from the start and that individual achievement can only be realized through the collective means of social institutions and practices.

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on Philosophy at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to Philosophy and other relevant topics.