oDeweys Early Philosophical Influences Page 4Deweys Early Work Page 5Dewey and the Progressive Education Movement Page 6Deweys Proponents and Influenced Movements Page 7Opponents of Progressive Education Rediscovering Dewey In The New Century Born 1859 in Burlington, Vermont, Dewey was a highly influential American philosopher and educator. He graduated from the University of Vermont, in 1879, then later received his Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University in 1884. He also taught at the universities of Minnesota (188889), Michigan (188488, 188994), and Chicago (18941904) and at Columbia from 1904 until his retirement in 1930. Dewey died in 1952.Dewey was a prolific writer, authoring many books on philosophy and educational theory. Among the most notable are: are Psychology (1887), The School and Society (1899), Ethics (1908), Democracy and Education (1916), Reconstruction in Philosophy (1920), Human Nature and Conduct (1922), Experience and Nature (1925), The Public and Its Problems (1927), The Quest for Certainty (1929), Philosophy and Civilization (1932), A Common Faith (1934), Art as Experience (1934), Liberalism and Social Action (1935), Experience and Education (1938), Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938), Freedom and Culture (1939), and Problems of Men (1946).Deweys Early Philosophical InfluencesDeweys original philosophy, called Instrumentalism, bears a relationship to the utilitarian and pragmatic schools of thought. Instrumentalism holds that the various modes and forms of human activity are instruments developed by human beings to solve multiple individual and social problems. Since the problems are constantly changing, the instruments for dealing with them must also change. Dewey also helped lead a philosophical movement called Pragmatism This theory was strongly influenced by the then-new science of psychology and by the theory of evolution proposed by the English scientist Charles R. Darwin. With Pragmatism, Dewey came to r...
