John Dewey: biography of this pioneer of functionalism

This American intellectual had a great influence on philosophy and psychology.

John Dewey's contributions were very relevant for different fields related to the human sciences. Although he was trained as a philosopher, Dewey was also influential in psychology, pedagogy, logic and even politics.He was also influential in psychology, pedagogy, logic and even in American politics, since he openly defended very progressive positions.

In this article we will review the life and work of John Dewey.. We will especially emphasize his contributions to philosophy and psychology within the frameworks of pragmatism and functionalism, respectively.

Biography of John Dewey

The American John Dewey was born in 1859 in Burlington, in the state of Vermont.. There he went to college to study philosophy. Evolutionary theories had a key influence on the development of his thinking; throughout his career he would focus on the interaction between human beings and their environment, inspired by Darwin's idea of natural selection.

After graduating in 1879 Dewey worked for two years as an elementary and high school teacher, but finally chose to devote himself to philosophy. He received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; for the next 10 years he was professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan, and in 1894 he joined the University of Chicago, which had just been founded.

By then Dewey had already written his first two books: Psychology (1887) y Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding (1888). In these works synthesized Hegelian idealism and experimental science as applied to human applied to human behavior and thought.

Subsequent evolution of his thought

Subsequently, Dewey's philosophy evolved to approach American pragmatism, which was beginning to develop at that time. He applied his theses to the educational context through the publication of the book School and Society (1899) y the foundation of a pedagogical laboratoryalthough he eventually resigned from his position as director.

For the rest of his life Dewey worked as a professor of philosophy at Columbia University in New York City. There he became acquainted with many philosophers and his thinking was enriched by contributions from many different perspectives.

His focus of interest continued to be pedagogy, always linked to philosophy, logic and politics.In fact, he was a committed activist in causes such as the defense of immigrant rights, the unionization of teachers, women's suffrage and participatory democracy in general. John Dewey died in 1952, at the age of 92.

Philosophical proposal: pragmatism

Pragmatism is a philosophical current that emerged in the United States in the 1870s. This tradition defends that the main function of thought is not the representation of reality but its prediction and action on it.

It is considered that Charles Sanders Peirce was the founder of pragmatism.. Other relevant philosophers who followed him were William James, Chauncey Wright, George Herbert Mead and John Dewey himself. However, this author described himself as an instrumentalist and consequentialist as well as a pragmatist.

Dewey was of the opinion that philosophers took as true constructs that had been created only for the purpose of helping to conceptualize reality, while ignoring the mental functions that constitute thinking. the mental functions that constitute thought itself.. For him, as for the rest of the functionalists, this should be the focus of attention of philosophy.

From this perspective, thought is understood as an active construction that takes place as a result of human interaction with the environment, and is therefore constantly updated. This is opposed to the classical view of ideas as passive results of the observation of the world.

Thus, according to pragmatism, human concepts do not constitute a reflection of reality, nor is there an absolute truth, as claimed by rationalist and formalist philosophers. The practical utility of a "truth" or the consequences of an act are what give them meaning.Therefore, philosophy should focus on the objective and not on concepts.

• Related article, "How are psychology and philosophy similar?"

Functionalist psychology

Functionalism is a theoretical orientation in psychology that analyzes behavior and cognition from the point of view of active adaptation to the environment. Logically, there is a strong relationship between functionalist psychology and pragmatism. functionalist psychology and pragmatism in philosophy. in philosophy. On a more general level, functionalism was a philosophy that also influenced sociology and anthropology.

William James founded functionalism, although he did not consider himself part of this current nor did he agree with the division of scientists into schools of thought. Other authors who made relevant contributions within this framework, in addition to Dewey, were George Herbert Mead, James McKeen Cattell and Edward Thorndike.

Functionalism emerged as a reaction to Edward Tichtener's structuralism; James or Dewey rejected its introspective methodology, but still emphasized conscious experience. Later behaviorism criticized the functionalist positions because they were not based on controlled experiments and therefore had no predictive capacity.

Functionalist psychology was inspired by the evolutionary ideas of Darwin and his followers. Today functionalism lives on mainly in evolutionary psychology, which analyzes the development of the human mind from a phylogenetic point of view.