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[ Experience and Nature By Dewey, John ( Author ) Paperback 1958 ]
Mr. Dewey believes that the method of empirical naturalism presented in this volume provides the way, and the only way by which one can freely accept the standpoint and conclusions of modern science. experience and philosophic method; existence as precarious and as stable; nature, ends and histories; nature, means and knowledge; nature, communication and as meaning; nature, mind, and the subject; nature, life and body-mind; existence, ideas and consciousness; experience, nature and art; existence value and criticism.
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First published January 1, 1925
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About the author
John Dewey
943 books716 followersJohn Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey, along with Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, is recognized as one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism and of functional psychology. He was a major representative of the progressive and progressive populist philosophies of schooling during the first half of the 20th century in the USA.
In 1859, educator and philosopher John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont. He earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in 1884. After teaching philosophy at the University of Michigan, he joined the University of Chicago as head of a department in philosophy, psychology and education, influenced by Darwin, Freud and a scientific outlook. He joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1904. Dewey's special concern was reform of education. He promoted learning by doing rather than learning by rote. Dewey conducted international research on education, winning many academic honors worldwide. Of more than 40 books, many of his most influential concerned education, including My Pedagogic Creed (1897), Democracy and Education (1902) and Experience and Education (1938). He was one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism. A humanitarian, he was a trustee of Jane Addams' Hull House, supported labor and racial equality, and was at one time active in campaigning for a third political party. He chaired a commission convened in Mexico City in 1937 inquiring into charges made against Leon Trotsky during the Moscow trials. Raised by an evangelical mother, Dewey had rejected faith by his 30s. Although he disavowed being a "militant" atheist, when his mother complained that he should be sending his children to Sunday school, he replied that he had gone to Sunday School enough to make up for any truancy by his children. As a pragmatist, he judged ideas by the results they produced. As a philosopher, he eschewed an allegiance to fixed and changeless dogma and superstition. He belonged to humanist societies, including the American Humanist Association. D. 1952.
In 1859, educator and philosopher John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont. He earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in 1884. After teaching philosophy at the University of Michigan, he joined the University of Chicago as head of a department in philosophy, psychology and education, influenced by Darwin, Freud and a scientific outlook. He joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1904. Dewey's special concern was reform of education. He promoted learning by doing rather than learning by rote. Dewey conducted international research on education, winning many academic honors worldwide. Of more than 40 books, many of his most influential concerned education, including My Pedagogic Creed (1897), Democracy and Education (1902) and Experience and Education (1938). He was one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism. A humanitarian, he was a trustee of Jane Addams' Hull House, supported labor and racial equality, and was at one time active in campaigning for a third political party. He chaired a commission convened in Mexico City in 1937 inquiring into charges made against Leon Trotsky during the Moscow trials. Raised by an evangelical mother, Dewey had rejected faith by his 30s. Although he disavowed being a "militant" atheist, when his mother complained that he should be sending his children to Sunday school, he replied that he had gone to Sunday School enough to make up for any truancy by his children. As a pragmatist, he judged ideas by the results they produced. As a philosopher, he eschewed an allegiance to fixed and changeless dogma and superstition. He belonged to humanist societies, including the American Humanist Association. D. 1952.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
December 18, 2015
Notes from midterm:
The words we use, Dewey argues, would not be the words that we associate them with if it were not for our human associations. Sharing and interaction are an integral part of communication, and in fact, the sharing may well be what makes communication. In actuality, a word, in its abstract mechanic form, does not mean anything unless the word undergoes a transformation that, by way of cooperation, turns it into an autonomous object with meaning. While the object may seem to have independent meaning, it is the act of communication – the human association– that turns events into objects of significance and asserts them as meaningful. Although events may seem to be charged by the individual, they are neither exclusive nor individual in their nature, for before words become meanings, they would have had representations that embody common, inclusive partnerships and associations, and they have consequences.
Dewey demonstrates that events, by means of social cooperation and repetition, start to possess features that would encompass independent meanings and gain significance. In the process of communication, Dewey observes, words turn into movable objects that we associate with. The idea is not that these objects are moving, but that their movability in and of itself is at the core of their meaning: the meaning is in the carried meaning, and the repetition of its transformative substance is what forms its nature and essence. Language, then, is not made up of still, blank expressions, but its nature lies in those “self-moving” actions that have undergone transformation through institutional patterns and social coordination.
There is a certain amount of fiction involved in the construction of meaning: Dewey indicates that words, by themselves, in their mechanic forms, do not have much meaning at all. In order to escape the isolated abstraction of words, people cooperate in a shared experience of society and accept to relate to the movable element of language that would bring forth distinct and identifiable meaning. Once the words get transformed into objects that carry meaning, and once those words are put together through social construction, then communication is being created.
Rather than getting stuck in the theoretical abstract of meaninglessness, Dewey suggests to enjoy the transformative creation of meaning that comes out of shared experience.
The words we use, Dewey argues, would not be the words that we associate them with if it were not for our human associations. Sharing and interaction are an integral part of communication, and in fact, the sharing may well be what makes communication. In actuality, a word, in its abstract mechanic form, does not mean anything unless the word undergoes a transformation that, by way of cooperation, turns it into an autonomous object with meaning. While the object may seem to have independent meaning, it is the act of communication – the human association– that turns events into objects of significance and asserts them as meaningful. Although events may seem to be charged by the individual, they are neither exclusive nor individual in their nature, for before words become meanings, they would have had representations that embody common, inclusive partnerships and associations, and they have consequences.
Dewey demonstrates that events, by means of social cooperation and repetition, start to possess features that would encompass independent meanings and gain significance. In the process of communication, Dewey observes, words turn into movable objects that we associate with. The idea is not that these objects are moving, but that their movability in and of itself is at the core of their meaning: the meaning is in the carried meaning, and the repetition of its transformative substance is what forms its nature and essence. Language, then, is not made up of still, blank expressions, but its nature lies in those “self-moving” actions that have undergone transformation through institutional patterns and social coordination.
There is a certain amount of fiction involved in the construction of meaning: Dewey indicates that words, by themselves, in their mechanic forms, do not have much meaning at all. In order to escape the isolated abstraction of words, people cooperate in a shared experience of society and accept to relate to the movable element of language that would bring forth distinct and identifiable meaning. Once the words get transformed into objects that carry meaning, and once those words are put together through social construction, then communication is being created.
Rather than getting stuck in the theoretical abstract of meaninglessness, Dewey suggests to enjoy the transformative creation of meaning that comes out of shared experience.
August 20, 2008
Not many books deserve the hype heaped upon them. This one does. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Supreme Court justice, said of this book that it's just what one would read if God Himself had tried to say how the world really is, but was incapable of expressing Himself clearly. I agree; the metaphysical vision of the continuity between "nature" and "mind" is correct, but Dewey is an awful writer.
April 13, 2012
What can I say? I think the world needs another John Dewey. Or three. He'd save us all with brilliant, clear philosophical prose just mysterious enough to keep us wondering and just hopeful enough to keep us from despair. His appreciation for the complexity of nature and human experience is almost as astounding as his ability to articulate it.
There are parts of this book that are outdated, but then it's almost a century old. He does a great job of predicting some of the problems faced by modernity, especially the problems posed by the advent of the scientific method and the resistance it faces from dogmatic forms of metaphysics. He walks the tightrope of advocating for a resolutely scientific worldview while still making a strong argument for the validity of subjective experience, ultimately arguing that a harmony between the external world and the internal life of mind is the best philosophical approach for solving practical problems. He suggests that philosophy and science are both forms of art that, when accomplished properly, arrange elements of experience in a way that leads to knowledge.
There's a lot more, but I could never say it all here. I'm glad I read this text and I'm sure I'll come back to it for years to come. Just for future reference, I found the second half of the book (chapters 5-10) to be generally more interesting than the first half.
There are parts of this book that are outdated, but then it's almost a century old. He does a great job of predicting some of the problems faced by modernity, especially the problems posed by the advent of the scientific method and the resistance it faces from dogmatic forms of metaphysics. He walks the tightrope of advocating for a resolutely scientific worldview while still making a strong argument for the validity of subjective experience, ultimately arguing that a harmony between the external world and the internal life of mind is the best philosophical approach for solving practical problems. He suggests that philosophy and science are both forms of art that, when accomplished properly, arrange elements of experience in a way that leads to knowledge.
There's a lot more, but I could never say it all here. I'm glad I read this text and I'm sure I'll come back to it for years to come. Just for future reference, I found the second half of the book (chapters 5-10) to be generally more interesting than the first half.
January 9, 2008
Nothing is more stirring than pragmatism!
June 26, 2021
As far as ideas go, I would have given this 3-4 stars considering the time period of which it was written, although I was hoping for far more on experiencing the natural world. Dewey's writing style is rambling and exhaustive, so I prefer his shorter texts instead of having to shift through his extended metaphors and tangents.
June 29, 2012
After reading this, it's obvious to me that the current neuroscientists like Antonio Damasio and William Connelly have built upon the pragmatic tradition of Dewey in decrying the separation of emotions and felt experience from the cognitive decision making process. Attachment theory owes a lot to Pragmatism as well. To understand the progression and evolution of modern thinking, this book should be mandatory reading.
April 10, 2007
I've read this book several times, and it is worth re-reading. This is one of Dewey's finest books. At places, it is difficult, but it is always worth trying to make it through. The only work that might be superior is Art as Experience.
February 1, 2021
I was very ambitious back in the summer of 1974, when I transferred colleges to begin my junior year as a philosophy major. I was in the bookstore of Trinity University (San Antonio, TX), and I was drooling at the philosophy texts. I had no clear vision of what I wanted, other than that I liked the ponderous jargon—rationalism, empiricism, idealism, pragmatism, existentialism, phenomenology, ontology, epistemology, deontology, teleology, noetic—and I was already beginning to collect all the philosopher trading cards—Heraclitus, Plato, Socrates, Duns Scotus, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Bentham, James, Ayer, Wittgenstein—though I had not yet found the elusive Husserl or Bergson. Dewey was new to me, so I was attracted to his Experience and Nature as a new acquisition. Sad to say, however, that in the next six months, I went very astray (was it the misty imprecision of the metaphysics of Heidegger?), felt trapped in a welter of words, then dropped out, and enlisted in the USN to make contact again with solid matter (though my dog tags averred I was a Buddhist). Somehow, Dewey’s book, cracked only once, survived the moves and multiple packings and unpackings over the next 45 years.
So now I’ve read it. Dewey wins no awards for clarity. The usual signposts you expect in a work like this is to have some précis statement, then each step of the way given a topic statement, formulation, examples, and summation before moving onto the next step/topic. Dewey demanded a good deal more attention to his argument than that, and I was often adrift. Even the two primary terms were not given adequate definition, and it was many pages into the text that I finally settled on satisfactory conjectures about what Dewey meant by Nature and Experience. And, for all the exegesis, there were no ready hints precisely how his brand of critical philosophy (Instrumentalism, a variant on James’ Pragmatism) was going to be put into peoples’ hands and heads so as to help reshape society. (I did find it odd that Dewey, noted as an educationalist who advocated children learn in a hands-on, problem-solving fashion, did not speak at all about education or pedagogy in this book.)
What Dewey does well is present a picture of the on-going evolution of philosophy as it mirrors its socio-historic context. Classic Greek idealism, for example, is rooted in a culture where the artisan is a menial and the thinker a refined aristocrat whose materials are ideal forms with intrinsic ends (telos). The break from scholasticism in the Renaissance was in part an acknowledgment that the artisan’s status had become more elevated, that innovations and breaks from custom in particular crafts signaled a different epistemology, which gradually evolved into empiricism and the scientific method. Even the body-mind schism is sorted, explained as a confusion of language, which anticipated Wittgenstein and the logical-positivists.
Ultimately, philosophy and the quest for knowledge continues to evolve, a variant on the artist’s and the scientist’s approach to his/her work. Test something, modify as necessary, test again, modify as necessary. Repeat, ad infinitum. People are meant to engage with nature (ie, the environment—natural and human-made), and their experience is their guide to future engagements with nature, as continual feed-back loops provide direction to make each engagement more necessarily consummative/pleasurable/satisfying. There is no end to the process, and Dewey’s conception of philosophy is that it operate as a monitor and critic to the always-ongoing development of knowledge and values. There are no absolutes; all is heuristic.
I’ve paraphrased very loosely a complex book, which ideas are solid (and practical). Unfortunately, I think that the readers for this book number in the dozens, and they will all surely avow that while its content is sound, its presentation has the potential to bewilder and stultify.
So now I’ve read it. Dewey wins no awards for clarity. The usual signposts you expect in a work like this is to have some précis statement, then each step of the way given a topic statement, formulation, examples, and summation before moving onto the next step/topic. Dewey demanded a good deal more attention to his argument than that, and I was often adrift. Even the two primary terms were not given adequate definition, and it was many pages into the text that I finally settled on satisfactory conjectures about what Dewey meant by Nature and Experience. And, for all the exegesis, there were no ready hints precisely how his brand of critical philosophy (Instrumentalism, a variant on James’ Pragmatism) was going to be put into peoples’ hands and heads so as to help reshape society. (I did find it odd that Dewey, noted as an educationalist who advocated children learn in a hands-on, problem-solving fashion, did not speak at all about education or pedagogy in this book.)
What Dewey does well is present a picture of the on-going evolution of philosophy as it mirrors its socio-historic context. Classic Greek idealism, for example, is rooted in a culture where the artisan is a menial and the thinker a refined aristocrat whose materials are ideal forms with intrinsic ends (telos). The break from scholasticism in the Renaissance was in part an acknowledgment that the artisan’s status had become more elevated, that innovations and breaks from custom in particular crafts signaled a different epistemology, which gradually evolved into empiricism and the scientific method. Even the body-mind schism is sorted, explained as a confusion of language, which anticipated Wittgenstein and the logical-positivists.
Ultimately, philosophy and the quest for knowledge continues to evolve, a variant on the artist’s and the scientist’s approach to his/her work. Test something, modify as necessary, test again, modify as necessary. Repeat, ad infinitum. People are meant to engage with nature (ie, the environment—natural and human-made), and their experience is their guide to future engagements with nature, as continual feed-back loops provide direction to make each engagement more necessarily consummative/pleasurable/satisfying. There is no end to the process, and Dewey’s conception of philosophy is that it operate as a monitor and critic to the always-ongoing development of knowledge and values. There are no absolutes; all is heuristic.
I’ve paraphrased very loosely a complex book, which ideas are solid (and practical). Unfortunately, I think that the readers for this book number in the dozens, and they will all surely avow that while its content is sound, its presentation has the potential to bewilder and stultify.
September 16, 2022
Dewey is interested in processes and relations rather than essences and things-itself. In this he seems to be similar to Whitehead (“Process and Experience”). However, Dewey is much closer to everyday human experience, it can be well read along works like Schütz’s “The structures of the life-world”.
The book criticizes that most philosophy focusses on what seems stable and universal, given and ignores change, process, choice. I was reminded of David Graeber (“What is the point when we can't have fun”) when Dewey discusses philosophy’s disregard for joy.
Dewey loves modern experimental science and invention, but he focusses a lot on its processual elements and on experiments. His view is rather idealized obviously. But matching his other views, Dewey does not focus on science as truth-production and criticizes that the scientific perspective neglects direct qualities in favor of discovered abstract models as real.
The style of writing is OK, the vocabulary is rich and uses some philosophy-specific terminonology, but nothing extraordinary. The sentences are rarely deeply nested, except for some sections in the last chapter. Some paragraphs are page-long. The book is not super systematically build up, so there are repetitions and it sometimes does meander a bit. Still far easier to read than very systematic works (e.g. Whitehead’s Process and Reality) which, however, demand keeping the whole previous content in mind.
Can I recommend this book? Yes, if you are interested in metaphysics, views that focus both on processes and human experience. Also, if you are not too fond of the later “turns” in philosophy and social theory (linguistic, materialistic)
The book criticizes that most philosophy focusses on what seems stable and universal, given and ignores change, process, choice. I was reminded of David Graeber (“What is the point when we can't have fun”) when Dewey discusses philosophy’s disregard for joy.
Dewey loves modern experimental science and invention, but he focusses a lot on its processual elements and on experiments. His view is rather idealized obviously. But matching his other views, Dewey does not focus on science as truth-production and criticizes that the scientific perspective neglects direct qualities in favor of discovered abstract models as real.
The style of writing is OK, the vocabulary is rich and uses some philosophy-specific terminonology, but nothing extraordinary. The sentences are rarely deeply nested, except for some sections in the last chapter. Some paragraphs are page-long. The book is not super systematically build up, so there are repetitions and it sometimes does meander a bit. Still far easier to read than very systematic works (e.g. Whitehead’s Process and Reality) which, however, demand keeping the whole previous content in mind.
Can I recommend this book? Yes, if you are interested in metaphysics, views that focus both on processes and human experience. Also, if you are not too fond of the later “turns” in philosophy and social theory (linguistic, materialistic)
July 1, 2020
Good overview Rereading it for the first time
"Because it takes the form of an epic journey, Experience and Nature is modeled on one of the books cherished by the young Dewey: Homer’s Odyssey. Empirical naturalism is the boat that takes the questers on their journey, with the dangers of wishing for “certainty,” “security,” or “stability,” “permanence,” “faith,” or “universality,” paralleling the dangers faced by the classic questing heroes—to stay with the lotus eaters, to embrace the sirens, to be seduced by Calypso’s ideal beauty. Many begin the search, but few make it all the way back to Ithaca or understanding. The goal—like the golden fleece or the kingdom to be claimed—is the knowledge of what Dewey termed “the true nature of experience.” Just as for Odysseus, the revelation of the quest is that questing never ends. Arrival in Ithaca offers only provisional truth. Nature beckons. Culture and self grow by searching for nature’s meanings."
Martin, Jay. The Education of John Dewey . Columbia University Press. Kindle Edition.
"Because it takes the form of an epic journey, Experience and Nature is modeled on one of the books cherished by the young Dewey: Homer’s Odyssey. Empirical naturalism is the boat that takes the questers on their journey, with the dangers of wishing for “certainty,” “security,” or “stability,” “permanence,” “faith,” or “universality,” paralleling the dangers faced by the classic questing heroes—to stay with the lotus eaters, to embrace the sirens, to be seduced by Calypso’s ideal beauty. Many begin the search, but few make it all the way back to Ithaca or understanding. The goal—like the golden fleece or the kingdom to be claimed—is the knowledge of what Dewey termed “the true nature of experience.” Just as for Odysseus, the revelation of the quest is that questing never ends. Arrival in Ithaca offers only provisional truth. Nature beckons. Culture and self grow by searching for nature’s meanings."
Martin, Jay. The Education of John Dewey . Columbia University Press. Kindle Edition.
November 3, 2013
If you can stay awake in spite of Dewey's rather dull writing style, you may actually find this to be a book full of remarkable and thought provoking ideas. Highly recommended for anyone who needs a course in pragmatism. In many ways, his view of experience as an iterative process and of knowledge as grounded in the body(embodied) is something that neuroscience is just starting to discover with far less intellectual elegance. Also, this is a must read for anyone interested in constructivist psychology, particularly those of us infatuated with George Kelly. You will see clearly that many of his ideas come from Dewey.
June 14, 2014
Dewey's humanistic naturalism at its best. His bio-anthropological method and his Jamesian double-barreled conception of experience are to me very relevant perhaps more today than in his own day. Though, I certainly agree his prose is not extremely felicitous, this book is living evidence that 'technical' philosophy and humanistic aims are more than compatible, but, in fact, they must work together for the former not to fall into pedantic isolationism and general irrelevance and for the latter to have the guidance of scientific research and general intelligence. In short: viva Dewey!
December 6, 2007
A fascinating look at the importance of experience in our lives. With particular emphasis on art, religion, democracy, and aesthetics, this book is surely to have an impact on the way you view the world.
March 15, 2015
Rightfully included in the pantheon of extraordinary texts alongside Being and Time and Phenomenology of Spirit. The cornerstone of American philosophy.
March 22, 2018
For now, my new bible.
John Dewey brings Philosophy back to its roots. The roots where Socrates states that the sole purpose of Philosophy is to show the right way to live (or words to that effect). He does this by grounding Philosophy right where it belongs - in Nature. He also brings along the Human Species for a ride. That simple concept, that Humankind is a part of Nature, not apart from it, is all it takes. What results from that concept is only the simplification of Philosophy, and its return to its rightful place. Out falls the manufactured problems of idealism, super-naturalism, objective/subjective dualism, etc. The conundrums of Epistemology, Aesthetics, Metaphysics, Moral Theory, Oncology are magically dissipated. Dewey brings this all to head with his stridently impassioned final chapter.
It is not an easy read, but it is well-written and artfully structured. To the determined, nuggets of wisdom await. They populate this book like clams at low tide, awaiting to be dug out and eventually savored in a nutritious chowder. Such nuggets as: science is an art; all knowledge stems from belief; "The characteristic human need is for the possession and appreciation of the meaning of things...", etc.
Please excuse the bad poetry above (I like clam chowder), but this is one of the most important works in the School of Philosophy. Read it, and be nourished.
John Dewey brings Philosophy back to its roots. The roots where Socrates states that the sole purpose of Philosophy is to show the right way to live (or words to that effect). He does this by grounding Philosophy right where it belongs - in Nature. He also brings along the Human Species for a ride. That simple concept, that Humankind is a part of Nature, not apart from it, is all it takes. What results from that concept is only the simplification of Philosophy, and its return to its rightful place. Out falls the manufactured problems of idealism, super-naturalism, objective/subjective dualism, etc. The conundrums of Epistemology, Aesthetics, Metaphysics, Moral Theory, Oncology are magically dissipated. Dewey brings this all to head with his stridently impassioned final chapter.
It is not an easy read, but it is well-written and artfully structured. To the determined, nuggets of wisdom await. They populate this book like clams at low tide, awaiting to be dug out and eventually savored in a nutritious chowder. Such nuggets as: science is an art; all knowledge stems from belief; "The characteristic human need is for the possession and appreciation of the meaning of things...", etc.
Please excuse the bad poetry above (I like clam chowder), but this is one of the most important works in the School of Philosophy. Read it, and be nourished.
December 13, 2024
I loved this book. Dewey's insistence, his emphasis, on continuity, criticism, and intelligence was refreshing, and made me rethink earlier valuations I held about the relationship between art and science, or self and society. Dewey is a beautiful thinker; there is something coiled, taut and energetic about his thought, something also unified and incisive. It was an honor to travel down this path of thinking with him, and to see - to experience - in a bold and authentic way how things are more connected and interactive than we customarily acknowledge. Next up, Art as Experience.
January 14, 2026
Google book. Read chapters 1-4 and listened to 2 hour summary and discussion by A Partially Examined Life as well as Philosophy in An Hour: Dewey.
Very difficult reading. Insightful ideas arguing against all dualities while elevating emotions and esthetics esthetic judgements to real.
Very difficult reading. Insightful ideas arguing against all dualities while elevating emotions and esthetics esthetic judgements to real.
March 26, 2019
One to read again. Ebbs and flows with creative energy of radical empiricism.
May 28, 2022
If one has the patience to work through the staggering difficulty of Dewey's writing, there is much of value here.
October 22, 2025
Reading Experience And Nature
This past year, I have been studying the American philosopher John Dewey (1859 -- 1952), including his books "Democracy and Education" (1916), "Human Nature and Conduct" (1921) and "Experience and Education" (1938). This latter work relies heavily on Dewey's "Experience and Nature", published in 1925 and revised in 1929. Readers should be careful to use the 1929 version.
"Experience and Nature" is a formidable, daunting work, both in what it says and in the character of Dewey's prose. The book is undeniably a struggle. The work is part of Dewey's project of the reconstruction of philosophy. He expanded his philosophy of pragmatism to a philosophy he called empirical naturalism. His philosophy broadened to include, in reconstructed form, questions of metaphysics that he wanted to reject in some earlier works.
In the Preface, Dewey writes: "Modern science, modern industry and politics, have presented us with an immense amount of material foreign to, often inconsistent with, the most prized intellectual and moral heritage of the western world. This is the cause of our modern intellectual perplexities and confusions." Dewey attempts to show the source of these confusions in philosophical dualisms between, for example, the transcendent and the immanent, appearance and reality, subject and object, and mind and matter. His goal is to show the continuity between experience and nature rather than their separation. At the conclusion of the book's first chapter (rewritten in 1929) after strongly criticizing transcendental philosophies for the aspersions they allegedly cast on everyday experience and for discouraging a view that life "is or can be a fountain of cheer or happiness", Dewey says: "If what is written in these pages has no other result than creating and promoting a respect for concrete human experience and its potentialities, I shall be content."
Dewey shows historical and philosophical learning particularly from the ancient Greeks, from whom he learned much but also disagreed. He discusses the split between experience (subjectivity) and nature (objectivity) that characterized modern philosophy beginning with Descartes and tries to show how this split was based on what Dewey terms the "philosophic fallacy" of taking what is helpful as an instrument in understanding one part of expeience as a rule governing the whole. Dewey writes throughout to understand the role of intelligence and reason in nature and in human life. Philosophers had tended to reify Reason when nature and the scope of experience were much larger. Reason and intelligence are of cruicial importance for Dewey. They are instrumental in helping one work through a particular situation that presents itself rather than as omnipotent qualities somewhow separate from experience. Dewey is critical of substantialization and in seeing reality as composed of stable objects. He sees instead reality as a process and as a flow of change, quickly or slowly, through time. His process thinking is related to the thought of William James and Alfred North Whitehead, among others.
Over the course of the book, Dewey develops and applies his thought to a broad range of philosophical problems, beginning with philosophical method and proceeding through existence as "precarious and stable", the nature of teleology and purpose, language, knowledge, mind and body, and consciousness, and the centrality of art and imagination to human experience. He concludes that "the highest because most complete incorporation of natural forces and operations in experience is found in art." Throughout the work, Dewey considers the nature of philosophy as the love of wisdom without a particular subject matter of its own. He sees philosophy as a "generalized theory of criticism. Its ultimate value for life-experience is that it continuously provides instruments for the critiicism of these values -- whether of beliefs, institutions, actions, or products -- that are found in all aspects of experience." Criticism involves metaphysics or "the nature of the existential world in which we live" or "cognizance of the generic traits of existence" as discussed throughout "Experience and Nature". The reader new to the book should, I suggest, pay special attention to the Preface and to the opening and concluding chapters as a way of getting a sense of what Dewey is about.
This book is the subject of many interpretations and critiques, on whether Dewey makes good on his program of empirical naturalism, whether it is internally consistent, and whether he has adequately explained the nature of "experience" among other issues. It is an important, inspiring work of Anmerican philosophy which for a time fell into obscurity but which has become deservedly influential in more recent years. "Experience and Nature" is a book for readers with a passion for philosophical questions.
Robin Friedman
This past year, I have been studying the American philosopher John Dewey (1859 -- 1952), including his books "Democracy and Education" (1916), "Human Nature and Conduct" (1921) and "Experience and Education" (1938). This latter work relies heavily on Dewey's "Experience and Nature", published in 1925 and revised in 1929. Readers should be careful to use the 1929 version.
"Experience and Nature" is a formidable, daunting work, both in what it says and in the character of Dewey's prose. The book is undeniably a struggle. The work is part of Dewey's project of the reconstruction of philosophy. He expanded his philosophy of pragmatism to a philosophy he called empirical naturalism. His philosophy broadened to include, in reconstructed form, questions of metaphysics that he wanted to reject in some earlier works.
In the Preface, Dewey writes: "Modern science, modern industry and politics, have presented us with an immense amount of material foreign to, often inconsistent with, the most prized intellectual and moral heritage of the western world. This is the cause of our modern intellectual perplexities and confusions." Dewey attempts to show the source of these confusions in philosophical dualisms between, for example, the transcendent and the immanent, appearance and reality, subject and object, and mind and matter. His goal is to show the continuity between experience and nature rather than their separation. At the conclusion of the book's first chapter (rewritten in 1929) after strongly criticizing transcendental philosophies for the aspersions they allegedly cast on everyday experience and for discouraging a view that life "is or can be a fountain of cheer or happiness", Dewey says: "If what is written in these pages has no other result than creating and promoting a respect for concrete human experience and its potentialities, I shall be content."
Dewey shows historical and philosophical learning particularly from the ancient Greeks, from whom he learned much but also disagreed. He discusses the split between experience (subjectivity) and nature (objectivity) that characterized modern philosophy beginning with Descartes and tries to show how this split was based on what Dewey terms the "philosophic fallacy" of taking what is helpful as an instrument in understanding one part of expeience as a rule governing the whole. Dewey writes throughout to understand the role of intelligence and reason in nature and in human life. Philosophers had tended to reify Reason when nature and the scope of experience were much larger. Reason and intelligence are of cruicial importance for Dewey. They are instrumental in helping one work through a particular situation that presents itself rather than as omnipotent qualities somewhow separate from experience. Dewey is critical of substantialization and in seeing reality as composed of stable objects. He sees instead reality as a process and as a flow of change, quickly or slowly, through time. His process thinking is related to the thought of William James and Alfred North Whitehead, among others.
Over the course of the book, Dewey develops and applies his thought to a broad range of philosophical problems, beginning with philosophical method and proceeding through existence as "precarious and stable", the nature of teleology and purpose, language, knowledge, mind and body, and consciousness, and the centrality of art and imagination to human experience. He concludes that "the highest because most complete incorporation of natural forces and operations in experience is found in art." Throughout the work, Dewey considers the nature of philosophy as the love of wisdom without a particular subject matter of its own. He sees philosophy as a "generalized theory of criticism. Its ultimate value for life-experience is that it continuously provides instruments for the critiicism of these values -- whether of beliefs, institutions, actions, or products -- that are found in all aspects of experience." Criticism involves metaphysics or "the nature of the existential world in which we live" or "cognizance of the generic traits of existence" as discussed throughout "Experience and Nature". The reader new to the book should, I suggest, pay special attention to the Preface and to the opening and concluding chapters as a way of getting a sense of what Dewey is about.
This book is the subject of many interpretations and critiques, on whether Dewey makes good on his program of empirical naturalism, whether it is internally consistent, and whether he has adequately explained the nature of "experience" among other issues. It is an important, inspiring work of Anmerican philosophy which for a time fell into obscurity but which has become deservedly influential in more recent years. "Experience and Nature" is a book for readers with a passion for philosophical questions.
Robin Friedman
July 28, 2012
Read as part of a Senior Seminar as an undergrad.
December 5, 2012
A work of enormous insight.
September 1, 2015
This is another excellently written philosophical
presentation of the art of teaching and learning.
As such, it is both readable and understandable
by anyone that has at least a GED...
presentation of the art of teaching and learning.
As such, it is both readable and understandable
by anyone that has at least a GED...
May 5, 2021
i am not smart enough yet to understand this book, hence 1 star. one day i will go back and read it again, hopefully understanding something because i believe the book was revolutionary.
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April 1, 2019Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. did not lie: "But although Dewey’s book is incredibly ill written, it seemed to me after several re-readings to have a feeling of intimacy with the inside of the cosmos that I found unequalled. So [it seemed to me as] God would have spoken had He been inarticulate but keenly desirous to tell you how it was."
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