John Dewey

As Strauss and Cropsey’s History of Political Philosophy nears the end, it now turns to Robert Horwitz’s take on John Dewey, who is one of the few Americans to have a place in Strauss and Cropsey’s book. According to Horwitz, one of the elements of Dewey’s thought that is most important to remember is his focus on democracy. Indeed, according to Horwitz, Dewey is a philosopher of democracy and for him; democracy must be realized in every element of life. As such, Dewey’s political philosophy expands beyond the state and makes comment on ethics, education, logic, esthetics, and many other fields in an attempt to understand these things within a democratic framework.

Horwitz goes on to explain that Dewey had three major goals. These goals are as follows: 1) make philosophical investigation relevant to the solutions of contemporary social problems, 2) develop the “method of intelligence” as the chief tool for finding the solution to these problems, and 3) a development of a political theory based on an evolutionary understanding of people and society. Dewey is a particularist who thinks political philosophy must be understood within the confines of the particular society in which it is found. Not surprisingly then, considering he’s writing in the United States during the late 19^th century, class division is a major theme in Dewey’s work and Dewey agrees with many of Marx’s criticisms of capitalism. Dewey however breaks with Marx on the question of what to do with these problems of capitalism as while Marx thought revolution was the answer, Dewey places emphasis on social progress. Social progress is a major theme for Dewey and for Dewey; this social progress must be based in experimentation. For Dewey, the focus on experimentation should lead to an investigation of our institutions. This is important because social problems rise with our institutions no linger match the society in which they exist. Democracy is seen as aiding in the realization of Dewey’s experimentalist goals.

Experimantalization is also important because it is seen as a way of establishing objective truth. Dewey though does realize that it will be difficult to establish objectivity on political, economic, and ethical matters, but thinks that a careful consequentialist approach can solve these problems. Dewey uses Darwin to conceptualize philosophy as going through constant change and as such rejects the idea of fixed species and fixed end. Above all, Dewey seeks growth in philosophy which creates a relativistic understanding within a universalist framework.

Dewey’s philosophy can be understood as falling under two headings. These headings are as follows: 1) a modified pluralistic understanding of society and 2) the “indirect consequence” test for defining the legitimate scope of the state. On heading 1), modified pluralism, Dewey bases this on the idea that humans need society in order to facilitate growth. The simple, local society is the first society and as these societies grow and become more complex they begin to interact with one another. Once this happens, the need for regulation is created in order to provide a way of settling disputes. This means for Dewey, the state will always remain a secondary institution. Dewey likes that pluralism restrains the state from abusing its citizens, but thinks that traditional pluralism reduces the state to playing the role of an umpire. This is an error as Dewey thinks the state should be able to make positive contributions. Dewey’s state can promote positive characteristics and restrain negative ones more easily, such as restraining some of the excesses of capitalism as well as providing some protection to workers. This means pluralism has its limits and destructive groups, groups that refuse to recognize pluralism themselves are not given protection from pluralism. Groups that inhibit growth also are not given protection from pluralism.

In order to provide for all citizens, must grow and this creates the danger of that state becoming totalitarian. Dewey though addresses this concern through his second heading, the indirect consequence test. This requires that indirect consequences be carefully considered and controlled for as Dewey sees the public as being the recipient of these indirect consequences. Democracy is the major way in which Dewey controls for these consequences and as such, it is highly important that the public at large is both aware of and considers these consequences. Therefore, Dewey’s public must be good democrats and be willing to cooperate with one another as democracy forms the foundation for Dewey’s idea of a good order. As such, Dewey’s solution to the problems of democracy is more democracy.