Dewey (Series: The Routledge Philosophers) by Steven Fesmire (review)

In recent years, a genre of introduction to philosophical figures and movements for non-specialists has gained in popularity; these introductions aim to be neither too cursory nor too laden with academic detail. Oxford’s “Very Short Introductions” and the “Wadsworth Notes” series are examples of the cursory type, while academic monographs are examples of the detailed type. Steven Fesmire’s Dewey is a welcome and unique contribution to the new introductory genre, joining similar efforts such as Raymond Boisvert’s John Dewey: Rethinking Our Time (SUNY, 1998) and my own Dewey: A Beginner’s Guide (Oxford: Oneworld, 2008).

Dewey possesses a number of helpful features. A glossary explains the usages Dewey imposed upon ordinary words, such as “accommodation,” “experience,” “situation,” “habit,” “interaction,” and so on, and refers readers to related entries, passages within the book itself, and to relevant points in Dewey’s corpus. A concise chronology includes events and publications significant to Dewey’s philosophy; the index is detailed and thorough. Chapter are rounded out by a brief summary, notes, and a well-chosen list of further readings about that chapter’s theme.

Before delving into the contents, a word about style. Fesmire’s writing is not just accessible—requisite for any book of this sort—it is lively. He converses as a master scholar-teacher; someone who could teach you Kant before you realized what happened. The prose flows, explanations are clear but never pedantic, and imaginative examples regularly bring Dewey’s meaning home to readers. Ideas are related to our world, to our experience, today. For example, the problem Dewey encountered between competing ethical paradigms is introduced using the metaphor of wallpapering an old house; after some philosophical explanation, the stakes of this choice are clarified by applying it to the issue of hunting and animal welfare. In some writers’ hands, such strategies backfire, devolving into extraneous chatter; Fesmire, however, pulls it off. Fesmire’s style also brings us closer (via Dewey’s correspondence) to Dewey, the man. We learn, for example, that Dewey’s Columbia colleagues “loved” him for his “Yankee diffidence and shrewdness combined with careful speech, good-humored seriousness, and a lack of vanity,” and because Dewey “was fearless yet unpretentious in discourse [with a]. . . .mind . . . as persistent as the natural force he believed all of our minds to be.” (21) We learn, too, that Dewey was cautious to distinguish between his admirers. To one admirer Dewey remarked, “I’m so delighted to find that you don’t claim to be a disciple. . .My enemies are bad enough, but my disciples are worse.” (29) Such stylistic touches keep the book moving sprightly along.

Dewey is comprised by eight chapters, each covering a major theme(s). After a brief introduction, the first chapter (1) provides a sketch of Dewey’s personal life and his wider impact as an intellectual; it also discusses a recent discovery of a long-lost book MS by Dewey. The next six chapters focus upon most major areas of Dewey’s philosophical work (with the exception of psychology and logic); they include (2) metaphysics, (3) epistemology, (4) ethics, (5) social-political and educational theory; (6) aesthetics and technology; and (7) the religious. A final chapter, (8) “Conclusion and Legacy” examines especially potent applications of Dewey’s thought (to environmental, ethical, and socio-political arenas), and important interdisciplinary “dialogues” in which Dewey’s thought has become integral (e.g. with Asian, Native American, and Inter-American interlocutors).

This is a fine book, and I have no significant difficulties with it at all. Fesmire, to my mind, provides a coherent and authentic interpretation which examines Dewey’s ideas charitably and with sufficient objectivity. While definite in its own take, the text remains mindful that other approaches may reasonably disagree with Dewey’s philosophical perspective. The remainder of this review will selectively highlight the major chapters in order provide a glimpse of Dewey’s key ideas and organizing principles.

The introduction is short but effective. Readers are...