Dewey as a Philosopher
MORGENBESSER, SIDNEY
WRITER and WRITING Dewey As A Philosopher John Dewey in Perspective. By George R. Geiger. Oxford. 248 pp. $5.50. Reviewed by Sidney Morgenbesser Department of Philosophy, Columbia...
...In this book, he attempts and frequently succeeds to do more than simply present Dewey's ethical and moral writings...
...But with Experience and Nature (1926) Dewey began presenting his theses primarily as alternatives to philosophical ideas that were largely meaningful to previous decades, if not centuries...
...he writes, "2 and 2 are 4; and certainly John Smith is mortal if he is human and all humans are mortal, because if these conclusions do not follow, there would be no intelligible syntax to mathematics and logic...
...Dewey may soon be employed as a basis for criticism of current trends in philosophy...
...And Dewey's simple, even banal, point was that inquiry may instruct us about those causes of human failure which we may be able to control and those which we must accept with stoic calm...
...And while he thought that many analytical philosophers had made some fundamental mistakes, Dewey suggested that the employment of analytical techniques would facilitate the development of his philosophy...
...In his early writings, Dewey spoke directly to his philosophical generation...
...Geiger's emphasis on questions of syntax shifts attention away from questions of inquiry, with which Dewey had been concerned, to issues which philosophers like Rudolf Car-nap have emphasized...
...Neglect was, moreover, costly-Those whom Dewey overlooked had new and relevant things to say...
...Instead, they simply repeated Dewey's main points and lamented the current state of philosophy...
...To our regret, Geiger's new work on Dewey is not the beginning of such a restatement...
...Throughout the section on Dewey's moral and political thought, Geiger assumes that it is of moment to look for a general social theory...
...However, but for a few references to Bertrand Russell, The Logic is primarily a critique of Aristotle, John Stuart Mill and F. H. Bradley...
...The bridge between technical philosophy and broad human concerns, a bridge Dewey was always interested in erecting, can only be paved by those who state their views carefully and rigorously...
...For at least in America and in England, existentialism has thus far not produced any fundamental contributions to philosophy...
...This is not to deny that it is a useful book...
...Dewey frequently insisted that all philosophical dualisms are amplifications of the ancient distinction between appearance and reality, and that such dualisms impose barriers to the application of intelligence...
...Those neglected began to neglect and to consider Dewey expendable...
...Dewey's celebration of the possible role of intelligence was based upon his conviction that there are no philosophical or metaphysical grounds to believe that human hopes must always fall short of achievement...
...The hopes, concerns and theories of those who were first stretching their ideological legs in the 1930s were not mirrored in it...
...And even if it were, the question of its truth is more important than the question of its role in an argument...
...Of Dewey as a challenge to existentialism I shall not speak...
...at least not on the grounds that Geiger offers...
...Finally, Dewey never wanted a program which merely emphasized the removal of social conflicts...
...And it is almost comical to note that critics who accuse Dewey of over-optimism frequently try to refute him by reference to Freud's pessimism...
...His important and still valuable papers on the theory of knowledge (collected in 1916) addressed the then-vocal idealists and realists, and the latter learned from him...
...In Art As Experience and in A Common Faith, he specified the types of human experiences and traits he most prized...
...But no such employment will precede a restatement and emendation of his position...
...These are not minor matters to be raised only by those interested in logic-chopping...
...And unless we employ Dewey for a fighting faith in human potentialities, he might appear, as he does all too frequently in Geiger's book, as a challenge to technical philosophers rather than to all of us...
...He did not deny, indeed it would be sheer stupidity to deny, that there are causal factors which are responsible for both human growth and failure...
...Our author also fails to note that with all of his objections to dualisms, Dewey frequently introduced and championed some dualisms of his own—for example, his sharp distinction between intelligent and habitual behavior, or between perception and cognition...
...But there is a basis in his thought for goading those who have an opportunity to lead fuller lives and fail to do so...
...Moreover, Dewey's broad and critical views on the nature of philosophy may soon be revived as an alternative to currently entrenched analytical programs...
...Dewey was of course aware of these factors...
...Finally...
...These notions seem to be only partly right...
...But the assumption is a dubious one, and is based on too strong an analogy between science and politics...
...Certainly...
...on occasion, misleading in his analysis of the view of philosophers who differ from Dewey, and in spots he is even careless in presenting Dewey's position...
...Given this assumption, he is quite right that Dewey's reliance on intelligence is more justified than reliance upon feeling, revelation or tradition...
...A sentence which concludes his treatment of Dewey's logical theory is not too atypical...
...As was to be expected...
...But our blessings are limited...
...He amplifies and defends Dewey's thesis: that we can, under suitable conditions, introduce experimental techniques to adjudicate social conflicts and to judge between alternative proposals for social action...
...One may go further...
...Dewey had too many seminal ideas on too many important philosophical topics to he dismissed as a mere liberal who happened to dabble in ideas...
...But "2 and 2 are 4" is not a conclusion...
...Geiger reviews Dewey's objections to various dualisms in separate chapters and never indicates the interconnections between them, ,nor the relationships between Dewey's objection to dualism and his social thought...
...On this point, Dewey did not differ from Freud...
...But this too shall pass...
...It would also lead to the defeat of Dewey's own program...
...He also rebuts the charge that Dewey was a naive optimist, unaware of the limitations of human powers which even the simple fact of human death symbolizes...
...He summarizes most of Dewey's important philosophical arguments and carefully elucidates Dewey's analysis of art, experience and truth...
...Not merely did they introduce a new professional idiom into philosophy...
...As a result, many of his suggestive views on meaning, perception, language and inquiry are still begging for amplification...
...But most of his disciples did not seem to believe him...
...But they are so intriguing and so typical of Dewey's thought that they deserve fuller treatment than Geiger has given them...
...Two points may be added to this treatment of Dewey's social thought...
...Consider, for example, The Logic (1938...
...Geiger is at best in explicating Dewey's main point in moral theory...
...Equally helpful is his summary of Dewey's objections to all sorts of philosophical dualisms, as for example, those between mind and matter, or the individual and the social...
...Dewey insisted that social factors were responsible for lack of vision...
...Reviewed by Sidney Morgenbesser Department of Philosophy, Columbia University THE CURRENT fashion is to praise Dewey's humanity and to denigrate his philosophy...
...Geiger has long been known as an able student of Dewey's thought...
...they were also detailed and thorough where Dewey was frequently cursory...
...It is therefore important to note that there are some logical systems in which "2 and 2 are 4" is not always true...
...Repeatedly he insisted that his instrumentalism and his naturalism were broadly conceived hypotheses that demanded supplementation...
...Though many of the tantalizing existentialist prefaces to philosophy contain some interesting psychological observations, none of them, to my knowledge, establishes even a single tenable philosophical point that has not already been made by previous philosophers, most notably Dewey...
...To evade them would be at best evasive and at worst dishonest...
...It is in many ways an intriguing book, and in sections even a magnificent one...
...Moreover, Geiger is...
...Frequently he was tolerant of those who failed to develop such traits or who even failed to long for the type of religious and esthetic experiences he described...
...and through his lectures at Antioch and his previous publications, he has kept alive Dewey's vision of philosophy as a discipline whose task it is to criticize the values of a culture in light of its available knowledge...
Vol. 42 • April 1959 • No. 16
