Abstract
This article begins with a brief comparative analysis of John Dewey's pragmatic naturalism and several prominent themes from Zen and Confucianism often associated with Dewey. These conceptual themes are then used to examine the combined influence of Dewey and Eastern philosophy on two leading 20th Century American avant-garde artists, John Cage and Allan Kaprow. It is then argued that the work of these artists suggests avenues for cultural enrichment and personal growth and renewal through the arts that reject the dualistic and reductionist premises of Western liberal individualism and its excesses; the disembodied and detached subject of Descartes; the invariant “true” or essential self of Plato; de-situated and compartmentalized views of human experience; and the supposition that the arts are superfluous adornments to the more practical affairs of daily living, all of which tend to disrupt democratic forms of life but remain commonplace in prevailing sociocultural norms and institutional practices (including formal schooling) in the U.S.