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A review by janthonytucson
Reconstruction in Philosophy by John Dewey
5.0
What is remarkable about this book, which is a series of lectures delivered in Tokyo a year after the end of WWI, is just how bold, radical, and courageous Dewey attacks the commonly held assumptions of classical and modern philosophy. The 1st two lectures are barn burners, in fact I was not sure I was reading Dewey at first because he comes out swinging and it feels like he wrote the first two lectures with a mission to stop pretending that it is OK to allow the people who practice and make philosophy to continue the fiction that what they are engaging in is anything other than fantasy, and that this fantasy they engage in has real world consequences that reinforce hierarchical power dynamics that enable powering over others, appropriating their freedom, and just how conveniently the philosophical method enables cover and a cowardly intentionally obfuscating vocabulary to justify unaccountability and inaction.
After reading this, and placing the reaction of the modern pragmatic thinking coming out of Canada and Oxford which devalue Dewey’s contributions to pragmatism, it makes perfect sense, as the modern project of trying to rearticulate pragmatism from a logic based perspective of Pierce, C.I. Lewis, Hillary Putnam et al, is a reaction against Dewey’s insistence (challenge really) that they be accountable for the theories they produce. It is obvious why Dewey is not a central figure in modern philosophical debates, because Dewey demands accountability and the project of modernity can not remain stable, nevermind grow, unless there's an entire cadre of academic philosophers producing work that legitimates the intentional immiseration of billions of humans for the profit of a few thousand families on the planet. Modern pragmatists like Cheryl Misak and David Rondel are doing a great disservice to the American Pragmatist project and are enabling the continued and ever expanding appropriation of human beings' lives for the benefit of an elite class. For shame. For shame.
This book is required reading not only for any philosopher, but it should be part of every high school required reading when studying American history.
After reading this, and placing the reaction of the modern pragmatic thinking coming out of Canada and Oxford which devalue Dewey’s contributions to pragmatism, it makes perfect sense, as the modern project of trying to rearticulate pragmatism from a logic based perspective of Pierce, C.I. Lewis, Hillary Putnam et al, is a reaction against Dewey’s insistence (challenge really) that they be accountable for the theories they produce. It is obvious why Dewey is not a central figure in modern philosophical debates, because Dewey demands accountability and the project of modernity can not remain stable, nevermind grow, unless there's an entire cadre of academic philosophers producing work that legitimates the intentional immiseration of billions of humans for the profit of a few thousand families on the planet. Modern pragmatists like Cheryl Misak and David Rondel are doing a great disservice to the American Pragmatist project and are enabling the continued and ever expanding appropriation of human beings' lives for the benefit of an elite class. For shame. For shame.
This book is required reading not only for any philosopher, but it should be part of every high school required reading when studying American history.