In his lengthy History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell wrote, John Dewey (1859–1952) is “generally admitted to be the leading living philosopher in America.” Russell's epithet tells you two things: it speaks to the importance of Dewey as a thinker and to the influence of pragmatic thought on American philosophy.

Charles Peirce's emphasis had been on scientific inquiry and the manner of establishing beliefs. William James would broaden pragmatism's outlook to include ideas in psychology, morality, metaphysics, and religion. Dewey's own pragmatism consisted in developing an “instrumental” theory of truth. All three philosophers have in common that they were less interested in the origins of ideas than they were in the consequences of those ideas for the lives of individuals and the future in general.

The Life of John Dewey

John Dewey began his education inauspiciously. Then he opted for a college preparatory program at his local high school in Vermont. He completed the course so rapidly that he attended the University of Vermont at the age of sixteen. He pursued a classical education and was influenced by studying philosophy and the theory of evolution. After graduating he taught at a high school in Pennsylvania for two years before enrolling for a doctoral degree at Johns Hopkins University.

He finished his doctorate in 1884, then taught for ten years at the University of Michigan before heading for the University of Chicago in 1894. He had married Alice Chapman, who inspired his interest in social issues. His social consciousness was also raised by sociologist George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) and social philosopher James Hayden Tufts (1862–1942).

At the University of Chicago he met people who would influence his own philosophy of education, such as educator Ella Flagg Young (1845–1918), whose Ph.D. he supervised and who was deeply involved in the University Laboratory School that Dewey founded. He also befriended social reformer — and eventual winner of the Nobel Peace Prize — Jane Adams (1860–1935).

Dewey moved to Columbia University in 1904, where his academic output in books and journal articles skyrocketed. His work also appeared in popular periodicals, such as the Nation and New Republic. His reputation outside academia grew. He traversed the globe, lecturing, observing schools, and writing reports on the educational institutions he studied. His biggest influence was undoubtedly in China, where his educational theories are still influential today.

Dewey retired in 1930 but continued his broad travel and work until his death in New York in 1952.

Instrumentalism

Dewey's own version of pragmatism was called instrumentalism. He wished to replace the correspondence theory of truth — where true statements are defined as those that “correspond to reality” — to a new idea of “the truth is what works.”

Under the correspondence theory, if you say Force equals Mass times Acceleration, your statement is true if it corresponds to reality. But Dewey thought this was a “metaphysical” claim — for how can you know what “reality” is, beyond how it appears to you? You should agree or disagree with the hypothesis F = MA because it works or doesn't work. The hypothesis must have predictable consequences. The proof of an idea consists in it being subject to predictable results. In other words, in Dewey's cumbersome expression: “According to experimental inquiry, the validity of the object of thought depends upon the consequences of the operations which define the object of thought.” Ideas that measure up to the criterion of truth possess “warranted assertibility,” which is a term Dewey substitutes for belief, knowledge, or proof.

Dewey accepted Peirce's idea that the object of scientific inquiry is belief. Inquiry originates in doubt and there are methods for overcoming that doubt, as Peirce said. But Dewey goes further in saying that the problem must be defined before you can reach a solution. You can only reach a solution by accepting observable facts. In his book How We Think, Dewey lays out five steps for solving problems:

• Step one is to observe the main components of a problem.

• In step two you think further about the problem to assess its complete difficulty and appreciate the larger context it is part of.

• In step three you make hypotheses that move toward a possible solution of it.

• The fourth step includes an analysis of your hypothesis in terms of past experience, choosing other potentially feasible solutions.

• The fifth step involves putting these possible solutions into practice experimentally or inductively and checking the results against your actual experiences.

You might picture Copernicus testing the heliocentric hypothesis in this fashion, checking it against his mathematical calculations and past hypotheses in order to confirm it. The five steps combined make up our reflective thinking.

Now his definition of truth shows its fuller meaning. Truth is a means of satisfying human needs. Truth is many things: useful, public, and objective; that is, it benefits society, not just the individual who discovers it. Pragmatists were united in the belief that practical consequences are the only valid test of truth, but it was Dewey who worked out these step-by-step procedures, starting with formulating the problem and moving toward a practical solution.