The Transformation of Philosophy

Author: (USA) John Dewey
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: After 1903, Dewey began to shift towards pragmatism. In the following half-century, it was a period when the industrialization movement in the United States was booming. In his book Reconstruction in Philosophy, Dewey sought the possibility and necessity of philosophical transformation by examining the history of scientific methodology, the development of natural science, and the contradictions between scientific truth and human values. He explored the growth points of his philosophical development and proposed tasks for philosophical transformation. He strove to connect his philosophy closely with the life and economy during the industrialization process in the United States, making philosophy a practical one, which reflected the pursuit of practical interests by the American bourgeoisie. He attempted to transform philosophy into empirical naturalism and instrumentalism consistent with the methodology of natural science, based on his empiricist stance in pragmatism, and applied it to people's practical activities, thereby transforming the sociological and historical worldview into a behavioral method for dealing with various specific sociological and historical environments. In 1919, at the time of the May Fourth Movement, which shook the world, Dewey was invited by Hu Shih and others to lecture in China. He watched with great interest the intellectual liberation movement in China and gave multiple lectures in places like Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong, and Shanxi over more than two years, greatly influencing the development of pragmatism in modern Chinese intellectual and cultural thought.