About Dewey

John Dewey (1859-1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. His ideas have been influential in education; he stood for progressive education and liberalism. He was a pragmatist and one of the founders of functional psychology.

Best known for his publications about education, he also wrote about many other topics.

He advocated a deep belief in democracy. He thought schools needed attention and more "learning by doing" - more experimental designs.

In Dewey's opinion, democracy demands a well informed, public opinion, formed by citizens, experts, and accountable politicians.

(See Martin 2002 for more)

Dewey-linked Points

Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another. - John Dewey

Art is not the possession of the few who are recognized writers, painters, musicians; it is the authentic expression of any and all individuality. - John Dewey

Art is the most effective mode of communications that exists. - John Dewey

As long as art is the beauty parlor of civilization, neither art nor civilization is secure. - John Dewey

Conflict is a sine qua non of reflection and ingenuity. - John Dewey

It requires troublesome work to undertake the alteration of old beliefs. - John Dewey

One lives with so many bad deeds on one's conscience and some good intentions in one's heart. - John Dewey

Man lives in a world of surmise, of mystery, of uncertainties. - John Dewey

Nature is the mother and the habitat of man, even if sometimes a stepmother and an unfriendly home. - John Dewey

Skepticism could be a mark of an educated mind. - With John Dewey

Surrender of individuality by the many to someone who is taken to be a superindividual explains the retrograde movement of society. Dictatorships and totalitarian states are ways of denying the creativeness of the individual. - John Dewey, abr.

The only freedom that is of enduring importance is the freedom of intelligence, that is to say, freedom of observation and of judgment. - John Dewey

The vivid and bright man is the man who, no matter how morally unworthy he has been, is moving to become better. - Cf. John Dewey

The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes. - John Dewey

The quality of mental process, not the production of correct answers, is the measure of educative growth. - John Dewey

To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is one key to happiness. There are better ones. - Cf. John Dewey.

To regiment artists, to make them servants of some particular cause does violence to the very springs of artistic creation [and] betrays the very cause of a better future it would serve, for in its subjugation of the individuality of the artist it annihilates the source of that which is genuinely new. - John Dewey

We always live at the time we live and not at some other time. - John Dewey

We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience. - John Dewey

We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts. - John Dewey