Discovering Dewey: an historical investigation of early American psychology
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2012
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Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to understand and explicate John Dewey's psychological theorizing, which has been obscured in the traditional narrative of psychology's history. The thesis is developed by demonstrating the progression of Dewey's psychological thought in his early and middle works, roughly stretching from 1882 until 1922. The psychological perspective developed is one that acquired its foundations through Hegelian philosophy and the new experimental psychology. Dewey then proceeded to strip his psychology from faulty metaphysical aspects of Hegelian thought to focus on the concrete particulars of human experience while retaining a Hegelian emphasis on the holistic and purposeful dimensions of human life. In doing so Dewey developed a pragmatic method to bridge the gap between idealism and empiricism to account for moral activity in a dynamic world where ideas have to be judge within particular contexts according to their benefit in improving social life. This resulted in a view of human experience as dynamic and contingent, which necessitates an open attitude of mind that is problem oriented and understood within the context of particular institutional problems that need solving. Dewey's psychology is positioned against the mainstream of the discipline as it was being developed allowing for comparative and alternative approach to psychological practice. It is concluded that Dewey's psychology differed vastly then how the discipline would conceptualize psychological phenomena and raises interesting questions for psychological practice.
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Bibliography: p. 201-212
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Citation
Burns, D. (2012). Discovering Dewey: an historical investigation of early American psychology (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/4887