Becoming John Dewey: Dilemmas of a Philosopher and Naturalist Review

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Becoming John Dewey: Dilemmas of a Philosopher and Naturalist ReviewIn some ways this is not a full biography like the similarly titled Becoming William James, but it is an excellent book. For more on Dewey's personal and political life see The Education of John Dewey The Education of John Dewey, which lacks the philosophical and scientific depth of this book. The political and social aspects of Dewey's thought and activism are not fully or adequately treated, but on the intellectual trajectory of Dewey's philosophy and science it is fascinating and very informative. The author is good on the marriage of Dewey's early Hegelianism with his interests in nineteenth and twentieth century science. It is true that Dewey did not have the physical science and mathematics experience of C. S. Peirce, but he was much better informed in science than is realized.
Two areas struck me as revelations. One was that Dewey's daughter was working at the Copenhagen institute headed by Neils Bohr during the formulation of the standard Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum measurement. She was privy to the discussions of the interpretation of quantum mechanics by the world's leading participants and relaying reports about the developments in physics and philosophical interpretation to her father. (This suggests Dewey learned of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle before the much more mathematically and physically knowledgeable Whitehead did. Whitehead learned of it when Charles Hartshorne gave him the published journal article of Heisenberg.) Dewey's discussion of indeterminacy and its significance was far more scientifically informed than later critics such as Ernest Nagel have assumed. (The daughter after publishing on the structure of helium worked at Aberdeen Proving Ground on secret military research.) The other topic, much more extensively treated (and central to Dalton's research) is Dewey's work on child development in his later years, involving embryological considerations. This work was neither environmentalist-determinist nor evolutionary genetic-determinist. Both environmental and genetic inputs act only through their effects on the embryological process. This sounds like contemporary evo-devo theory decades before the later developed in evolutionary biology. At the end of the work Dalton defends the scientific Dewey against the Rortyesque post-modern anti-naturalist Dewey.
One intriguing area that I should like to pursue is the influence of the writings of Faraday and Maxwell on Dewey's reconstruction of his Hegelian-Leibnizian ideas via electro-magnetic field theory. Dalton cites Dewey's early book on Leibniz and moves on to assert that his ideas transformed Hegel by using Maxwell and Faraday. The passage footnoted by Dalton The Early Works of John Dewey, Volume 1, 1882 - 1898: Early Essays and Leibniz's New Essays, 1882-1888 (Collected Works of John Dewey, 1882-1953) does discuss Leibniz but not not discuss Maxwell or field theory. Dalton's immediately succeeding discussion accurately discusses nineteenth century field theory using the best secondary sources, but Dalton does not show Dewey explicitly using Faraday and Maxwell in relation to his Hegelian metaphysics. If this claim turns out to be justified it will be a valuable suggestion, and I should be delighted, but Dalton did not really cite chapter and verse.Becoming John Dewey: Dilemmas of a Philosopher and Naturalist OverviewAs one of America's "public intellectuals," John Dewey wasengaged in a lifelong struggle to understand the human mind and the nature of humaninquiry. According to Thomas C. Dalton, the successful pursuit of this missiondemanded that Dewey become more than just a philosopher; it compelled him to becomethoroughly familiar with the theories and methods of physics, psychology, andneurosciences, as well as become engaged in educational and social reform. Tappingarchival sources and Dewey's extensive correspondence, Dalton reveals that Dewey hadclose personal and intellectual ties to scientists and scholars who helped form themature expression of his thought. Dewey's relationships with F. M. Alexander, HenriMatisse, Niels Bohr, Myrtle McGraw, and Lawrence K. Frank, among others, show howDewey dispersed pragmatism throughout American thought and culture.

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