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Begins graduate school at Johns Hopkins University
While studying under Charles Peirce (among other professors), Dewey found the idea of logic in philosophy to be too mathematical to be a true study of the human mind. This was the start of his biological approach to philosophy, which would lead to the development of "psychological functionalism" in later years.
(Hildebrand, "John Dewey", 2018) -
Married Harriet Alice Chapman
She heavily influenced his involvement in the women's rights movement, shifting his attention away from studies of religious orthodoxy. Dewey became know for his open opinions of social struggles (economic classes, race, war, education, human rights), and applied them to philosophical lessons in his lectures. -
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Head of Philosophy and Pedagogy at University of Chicago
Founded The Laboratory School as a place to test his theories in psychology. Here, he also developed "psychological functionalism" with Tufts, Angell, and Mead (among others). This Darwinian way of thinking studies the purpose of human behavior in relation to evolutionary adaptation to the environment.
(Hildebrand, "John Dewey", 2018)
Video on the basics of functional psychology -
Published "Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology"
Dewey emphasized that, in a reflex situation, the stimulus is not the first occurrence. Example: a person must be actively seeing in order to perceive a visual stimulus. Dewey disagreed with a linear, "stimulus leads to reaction" view of the world, and instead suggested that it is a circular situation in which a reaction/movement is occurring to perceive a stimulus, which causes a movement in order to interpret the stimulus, and so on.
(Dewey, "Reflex", 1896) -
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Moved to Columbia University
Dewey moved to Columbia University after some conflicts arose between his position as department head at Chicago and his role in The Laboratory School. He retired from Columbia in 1930, and also published eleven more books! His ideas are still popular within art criticism, education, environmental policies, political theory, psychiatry, and philosophy to this day.
(Hildebrand, "John Dewey", 2018) -
"How We Think" Book
Among other concepts, Dewey criticizes philosophical attempts to logically evaluate ideas without considering all cultural norms, past experience, emotions, and evolution of thought that make up the idea. Human thought is a product of the brain, which is physically a part of the world it is trying to understand, and cannot be excluded from it as a passive instrument. (Dewey, "HOW WE THINK", 2011)
