Prawat (2000, 2001) claims that a major discontinuity appeared in John Dewey's thinking in 1915, when Dewey moved away from the thinking of William James to that of Charles Peirce. The change is described as a “dramatic” and “stunning about face” in Dewey's views. We look at one crucial part of Prawat's evidence of discontinuity, the 1910 and 1933 versions of How We Think. Prawat cites passages from the 1933 version to make his case for discontinuity when, often, very similar (even identical) text can be found in the 1910 version. Focusing on Dewey's views on the role of the teacher, the place of aesthetics and ethics in inquiry, the form of concepts, and the generation of ideas, we conclude that Prawat's hypothesis of discontinuity cannot be sustained. The role of the imagination did become more explicit and important in Dewey's work over time, but Prawat fails to see the imagination in Dewey's early work and miscasts development and reconstruction as discontinuity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlexanderT. M. (1998). The art of life: Dewey's aesthetics. In HickmanL. A. (Ed.), Reading Dewey: Interpretations for a postmodern generation (pp. 1–22). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
2.
BalzA. G. A. (1989). A letter to Mr. Dewey concerning John Dewey's doctrine of possibility. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The later works [of John Dewey], 1925–1953. Vol. 16: Essays, typescripts, and Knowing and the known, 1949–1952 (pp. 423–442). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1949)
3.
DeweyJ. (1969). Kant and philosophic method. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The early works, 1882–1898. Vol. 1: Early essays and Leibniz's new essays concerning the human understanding, 1882–1888 (pp. 34–47). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1884)
4.
DeweyJ. (1971). The superstition of necessity. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The early works, 1882-1898. Vol. 4: Early essays and The study of ethics: A syllabus, 1893–1894 (pp. 19–36). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1893)
5.
DeweyJ. (1972a). The aesthetic element in education. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The early works, 1882–1898. Vol. 5: Early essays, 1895–1898 (pp. 202–203). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1897)
6.
DeweyJ. (1972b). My pedagogic creed. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The early works, 1882–1898. Vol. 5: Early essays, 1895–1898 (pp. 84–95). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1897)
7.
DeweyJ. (1972c). Plan of organization of the University Primary School. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The early works, 1882–1898. Vol. 5: Early essays, 1895–1898 (pp. 223–243). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1895?)
8.
DeweyJ. (1972d). The reflex arc concept in psychology. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The early works, 1882–1898. Vol. 5: Early essays, 1895–1898 (pp. 96–109). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1896)
9.
DeweyJ. (1976a). The child and the curriculum. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 2: Essays on logical theory, 1902–1903 (pp. 271–291). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1902)
10.
DeweyJ. (1976b). Mental development. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 1: Essays on school and society, 1899–1901 (pp. 192–221). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1900)
11.
DeweyJ. (1976c). Play and imagination in relation to early education. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 1: Essays on school and society, 1899–1901 (pp. 339–343). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1899)
12.
DeweyJ. (1976d). The school and society. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 1: Essays on school and society, 1899–1901 (pp. 1–109). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1899)
13.
DeweyJ. (1976e). Studies in logical theory. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 2: Essays on logical theory, 1902–1903 (pp. 293–375). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1903)
14.
DeweyJ. (1977a). Experience and objective idealism. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 3: Essays on the new empiricism, 1903–1906 (pp. 128–144). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1906)
15.
DeweyJ. (1977b). Logical conditions of a scientific treatment of morality. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 3: Essays on the new empiricism, 1903–1906 (pp. 3–39). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1903)
16.
DeweyJ. (1977c). The moral significance of the common school studies. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 4: Essays on pragmatism and truth, 1907–1909 (pp. 205–213). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1909)
17.
DeweyJ. (1977d). Syllabus: The pragmatic movement of contemporary thought. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 4: Essays on pragmatism and truth, 1907-1909 (pp. 251–263). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1909)
18.
DeweyJ. (1977e). What pragmatism means by practical. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 4: Essays on pragmatism and truth, 1907–1909 (pp. 98–115). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1908)
19.
DeweyJ. (1978). How we think. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 6: How we think and selected essays, 1910–1911 (pp. 177–356). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1910)
20.
DeweyJ. (1980). Prefatory note, Introduction, and An added note as to the “practical” [in Essays in experimental logic]. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The middle works, 1899–1924. Vol. 10: Essays on philosophy and education, 1916–1917 (pp. 319–369). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1916)
21.
DeweyJ. (1984). The development of American pragmatism. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The later works, 1925–1953. Vol. 2: Essays, reviews, miscellany, and The public and its problems, 1925–1927 (pp. 3–21). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1925)
22.
DeweyJ. (1986). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The later works, 1925–1953. Vol. 8: Essays and How we think, revised edition, 1933 (pp. 105–352). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1933)
23.
DeweyJ. (1989). Dewey's reply to Albert G. A. Balz [appendix to Knowing and the known]. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The later works, 1925–1953. Vol. 16: Essays, typescripts, and knowing and the known, 1949–1952 (pp. 280–294). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. (Original work published 1949)
24.
DigginsJ. P. (1994). The promise of pragmatism: Modernism and the crisis of knowledge and authority.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
25.
EdelA., & FlowerE. (1985). Introduction. In BoydstonJ. A. (Ed.), The later works [of John Dewey], 1925–1953. Vol. 7: Ethics, 1938 (pp. vii–xxxv). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
26.
GarrisonJ. (2001). Dewey and Eros: A response to Prawat. Teachers College Record, 103(4), 722–738.
27.
MenandL. (2001). The metaphysical club.New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.
28.
PrawatR. S. (1999). Dewey, Peirce, and the learning paradox. American Educational Research Journal.36(1), 47–76.
29.
PrawatR. S. (2000). The two faces of Deweyan pragmatism: Inductionism versus social constructivism. Teachers College Record, 102(4), 805–840.
30.
PrawatR. S. (2001). Dewey and Peirce, the philosopher's philosopher. Teachers College Record, 103(4), 667–721.
31.
RockefellerS. C. (1991). John Dewey: Religious faith and democratic humanism.New York: Columbia University Press.
32.
RussellD. (1996). The passion that precedes knowledge: The role of imagination in John Dewey's theory of experience and in the activities of the University of Chicago Elementary School, 1896–1904 (Doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia, 1996). Dissertation Abstracts International, 58(02), 411A.
33.
RussellD. (1998a). Cultivating the imagination in music education: John Dewey's theory of imagination and its relation to the Chicago Laboratory School. Educational Theory, 48(2), 193–210.
34.
RussellD. (1998b, April). The expanding role of imagination in How We Think. Paper presented for the John Dewey Society at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA
35.
RussellD. (1999). AERJ response [to Prawat's “Dewey, Peirce, and the Learning Paradox”]. American Educational Research Journal, 36(1), 101–106.
36.
School Record. (1896, October 16–1899, September 15). In Katherine Camp Mayhew papers (Series 1, Vol. 1). Available from Special Collections (Manuscript Group 10), Milbank Memorial Library, Teachers College, Columbia UniversityNew York.
37.
WestbrookR. B. (1991). John Dewey and American democracy.Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
