Selected Writings of Dewey

Author: Tu Jiliang (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: Dewey's works are numerous throughout his life, totaling over 30 books and nearly 1,000 papers. Due to space constraints, this volume selects and translates 26 of them, broadly divided into 7 parts based on the content of the articles, with the articles in each part generally arranged in chronological order. Considering that some of his representative works in philosophy and education already have Chinese translations, this selection focuses on translating works that have not yet been translated into Chinese. For a few chapters taken from works that already have Chinese translations, revisions were made based on the original texts and with reference to the existing translations. In the three articles on pragmatism, the first article provides a detailed exposition of the historical development of pragmatism from Peirce and James to Dewey, particularly focusing on the aspects in which Dewey inherited and developed Peirce's and James's views. The second article elaborates on how Dewey moved from his early adherence to Hegelian or neo-Hegelian absolutism to his later commitment to experimentalism. The third article briefly states Dewey's basic views on philosophy, morality, religion, politics, and education. In the three articles on philosophical reform, the first article focuses on analyzing the impact of Darwin's theory of evolution on philosophy, primarily replacing the concept of fixed and unchanging ideas with the notion of change and development. The second article provides a detailed critique of the shortcomings of past philosophical views, emphasizing the necessity of reform, i.e., the necessity of philosophical reform. The third article begins by analyzing the traditional concepts of "experience" and "reason," refuting the basic views of empiricism and rationalism, and advocating the integration of these two concepts through pragmatism or experimentalism. In the four articles on evolutionary naturalism, the first article explains the basic principles of direct empiricism, with a detailed explanation of the term "direct." The second article offers a brief response to Professor McGillvary's criticism regarding the relationship between experience and reality. The third article is excerpted from Dewey's seminal work Experience and Nature, which emphasizes the close connection between the core concepts of experience and nature and provides a detailed exposition of the differences between experiential and non-experiential methods, advocating for philosophy to adopt an experiential approach. The fourth article explores the relationship between experience theory and natural theory and addresses the criticisms raised by Cohen and Horkheimer on this issue. In the four articles on the metaphysics of pragmatism, the first article discusses the distinction between metaphysical and scientific research, emphasizing that metaphysics should study the ultimate, irreducible characteristics of all existing things—diversity, interaction, and change. The second article explains Dewey's views on events and time, emphasizing the close connection between events and time (past, present, and especially future). The third article provides a detailed explanation of the meaning of the concept of "context," highlighting the harm caused to philosophy by neglecting context. The fourth article emphasizes the close connection between individuals and time, noting that individuals are always part of the process of emergence, development, and dissolution in time, and continuity is the true essence of individuals. In the four articles on inquiry, judgment, and truth, the first article provides a detailed examination of the patterns of inquiry, including the prerequisites for inquiry, the formulation of problems, the determination of problem-solving, reasoning, the operational aspects of facts and meaning, and the similarities and differences between common sense and scientific inquiry. The second article explores the role of judgment in reflective activity, pointing out that judgment is a constitutive unit of thought, analyzing the various characteristics of judgment, and examining the functions of analytical and synthetic judgment. The third article consists of three speeches under the general title "The Problem of Truth." The first speech discusses why truth becomes a problem, offering critiques of the common-sense view of truth, the rationalist view of truth, and the scientific view of truth. The second speech discusses the relationship between truth and consequences, analyzing the theoretical dilemmas faced by coherence theories and correspondence theories, and emphasizing the superiority of the pragmatic view of truth. The third speech discusses the objective problem of truth, viewing objective truth as an interpretation of things that effectively serves to release human goals and the efficacy of human activities. The fourth article, through his debate with Russell on the issue of truth, elaborates on his view that knowledge is a justified assertibility and claims that his view of truth is a correspondence theory in an operational sense. In the three articles on morality, value, and human nature, the first article discusses the three independent factors in moral behavior, emphasizing the uncertainty and conflict in moral situations and contrasting the moral theory of purpose with the moral theory of rules. The second article analyzes four key issues in the discussion of value, such as whether the attitudes of appreciation, esteem, and desire are related, whether the former constitutes a sufficient condition for the existence of value, and the differences between evaluative propositions and scientific propositions. The third article discusses whether human nature can change, refuting the theory of human nature as unchanging and arguing for the theoretical and practical significance of the theory of human nature as changeable. In the five articles on science, education, and politics, the first article analyzes the interplay between science and society, arguing that the development of science has brought humanity abundant material benefits but that humanity has not yet effectively controlled its negative impact on society, which is a pressing issue to address. The second article emphasizes the significant role of the philosophy of education, believing that the alliance between science and philosophy is the foundation for effective education. The third article states Dewey's basic beliefs about education, including his views on what education is, what schools are, educational content, educational methods, and the relationship between schools and social progress. The fourth article provides a detailed exposition of the historical development, main contributions, and negative impacts of liberalism, as well as the similarities and differences between liberalism and radicalism. The fifth article focuses on the concept of democracy, arguing that democracy is a way of individual life, with its essence lying in the belief that human experience can produce goals and methods to order the growth of future experience.