He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overriding theme of Dewey's works was his profound belief in democracy , be it in politics, education, or communication and journalism. He asserted that complete democracy was to be obtained not just by extending voting rights but also by ensuring that there exists a fully formed public opinion , accomplished by communication among citizens, experts, and politicians.
Dewey was one of the primary figures associated with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the founding thinkers of functional psychology.
His paper "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology", published in , is regarded as the first major work in the Chicago functionalist school of psychology. Dewey was also a major educational reformer for the 20th century. John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont , to a family of modest means. Their first son was also named John , but he died in an accident on January 17, The second John Dewey was born October 20, , forty weeks after the death of his older brother.
Torrey , the son-in-law and nephew of former University of Vermont president Joseph Torrey. Dewey studied privately with Torrey between his graduation from Vermont and his enrollment at Johns Hopkins University. After two years as a high-school teacher in Oil City, Pennsylvania , and one year as an elementary school teacher in the small town of Charlotte, Vermont , Dewey decided that he was unsuited for teaching primary or secondary school.
Stanley Hall , Dewey received his Ph. In , he accepted a faculty position at the University of Michigan β88 and β94 with the help of George Sylvester Morris. His unpublished and now lost dissertation was titled "The Psychology of Kant ". In Dewey joined the newly founded University of Chicago β where he developed his belief in Rational Empiricism , becoming associated with the newly emerging Pragmatic philosophy. His time at the University of Chicago resulted in four essays collectively entitled Thought and its Subject-Matter , which was published with collected works from his colleagues at Chicago under the collective title Studies in Logical Theory During that time Dewey also initiated the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools , where he was able to actualize the pedagogical beliefs that provided material for his first major work on education, The School and Society Disagreements with the administration ultimately caused his resignation from the university, and soon thereafter he relocated near the East Coast.
