John Dewey

Gary Bullert The Politics of John Dewey is noteworthy for several reasons, chief among them is that it contains the most complete documentary account of John Dewey's political thought and activities available to students of American culture. The measure of Dr. Bullert's achievement may be gauged from the fact that John Dewey's career spans the period during which the United States was transformed from a primarily agricultural economy to a primarily industrial one. Just as important is the fact that parallel to this shift was a change from the conventional religious consciousness that pervaded both private and public life to a secular and scientific outlook in practical affairs. Periodical revivals of religious sentiment do not gainsay this shift.

There is almost a symbolic significance in the dates that mark Dewey's life span. He was born in 1859, the year in which Darwin Origin of Species was published, and on the eve of what turned out to be the fiercest and bloodiest conflict in recorded human history up to that time - the American Civil War. He died in 1952, while the Korean War was still raging, after two world wars that changed not only the course of age-old empires but the condition and quality of life of untold millions. It is unlikely that any comparable period ever witnessed such a variety and depth of social and political change. It is not surprising that the varying emphases in Dewey's political thought reflect these changes.

John Dewey's political philosophy does not consist in a set of formal propositions applicable to political problems at any time and place. It expresses some basic ideas and values brought to bear on the specific subject matter of man's organized social life. Political issues, therefore, are not distinct from sociological, economic, and legal issues. Pervading all of his discussions of the problems that confronted human beings are certain attitudes that he deemed fruitful not only for understanding these problems but also for their successful resolution. Dewey had a profound sense of the historical dimension in human experience. Whatever man is as such, however the human condition is defined, he and she are historically bound by their time.

Central to John Dewey's political philosophy is the concept of freedom. But freedom to him did not mean blind impulse, the power to do anything one pleases. To be sure, it is uncoerced choice, but choice informed by relevant knowledge and sustained by institutional opportunities to achieve reflective goals. Freedom does not exist in a state of nature in which human beings run wild, driven by need and passion. It is not a ready-made possession independent of social institutions. The counterposition of freedom and social control, of the individual and the community or state, is a false dichotomy, a consequence of a mistakenly conceived individualism. There never has been an association of human beings without some - form of social control. The question is always of what kind, degree, and direction that control should take. Dewey was as aware of the evils of totalitarianism as he was of those of anarchic individualism. He feared the former more than the latter, which sometimes prepares the way for the greater evil, and condemned both. John Dewey was not a narrow partisan of the New Deal. He welcomed it as far as it went but criticized it on the ground that its concept of human welfare was not comprehensive enough.

These are some of the leading ideas of John Dewey that come into play in the development of his political thought and activity. The perceptive reader will find implicit reference to them in Dr. Bullert's fascinating chronicle of the political events, situations, decisions, and controversies in which John Dewey was involved. As humanist, pragmatist, and democrat, John Dewey's philosophy expresses the considered faith of a thinker who believed in the promise of American civilization.