The Varieties of Pluralism

I. When I was asked to give the John Dewey L e c t u r e , I cons idered it a marve lous oppor tun i ty to r e tu rn to my i n t e l l e c t u a l roo t s , for I s t a r t e d my philosophic c a r e e r by wri t ing my d i s s e r t a t i o n on John Dewey. " R e t u r n " is not qu i te the a p p r o p r i a t e express ion , for e v e r y t h i n g tha t I 've wr i t t en s ince the early 1950s has been infused and informed by the spir i t of Dewey, and more genera l ly what I t a k e to be best and most enduring in the p r a g m a t i c t r a d i t i o n . I know all too well t ha t for a long t ime Dewey has been cons ide red r a t h e r passe , a fuzzy -minded th inker who perhaps had his hea r t in t he right p l ace , but not his head . And t h e r e a r e those who still think tha t Dewey is t he source of t he ills t h a t have plagued American e d u c a t i o n . I think this is a s l ande r . More boldly, I be l ieve t h a t Dewey and the p ragma t i c th inkers a r e not only not passe , but tha t they were rea l ly ahead of their t imes . What I see happening now is a r e e m e r g e n c e of p r a g m a t i c t h e m e s . It is almost as if the d i a l ec t i c of c o n t e m p o r a r y philosophy in i ts d ive r se modes keeps leading us back to the point of d e p a r t u r e for t h e p r agma t i c t h i n k e r s . Dewey was never more r e l e v a n t than he is today—in helping us to gain some p e r s p e c t i v e , some o r i e n t a t i o n on our ex t remely con fused and c h a o t i c cu l tu ra l cond i t i on . This is t h e thes is t ha t I want to exp lo re with you. Let me begin with a claim t h a t Dewey made in Democracy and E d u c a t i o n . "If we a re willing to c o n c e i v e educa t ion as the p rocess of forming fundamen ta l d isposi t ions , i n t e l l e c t u a l and emot iona l , t oward n a t u r e and fe l low men, philosophy may even be de f ined as t h e g e n e r a l t h e o r y of educa t ion . "^ This was a c e n t r a l motif in Dewey, and it has a c lass ica l r ing. Dewey, who ca l l ed for a r e c o n s t r u c t i o n in philosophy, or r a t h e r of philosophy, never abandoned the idea tha t philosophy as the "cr i t ic ism of c r i t i c i sms" ought to be c o n c e r n e d with nur tu r ing p r ac t i c a l wisdom, with the fo s t e r i ng of " c r e a t i v e