John Dewey’s Experience and Nature

PHIL 577C-001: Classical American Philosophy-Dewey

Course Description

John Dewey was the preeminent philosopher in America in the first half of the twentieth century. In a career spanning seven decades, Dewey contributed to nearly every area of philosophy, as well as scientific psychology, education theory and practice, and American and global politics. 1925 marks the beginning of the period that has been called his “Later Works,” with the publication of Experience and Nature, one of his most important works. This book provides the definitive statement of Dewey’s “empirical naturalism” or “naturalistic empiricism,” focused on philosophical method, the metaphysics of nature, and the philosophy of mind; it also situates Dewey’s theories of knowledge, meaning, aesthetics, and value within this metaphysical naturalist picture. E&N has much to offer contemporary discussions in metaphysics, phenomenology, epistemology and philosophy of science, and embodied and sociocultural theories of mind and cognition.
In preparation for the centennial of the publication of this work, the class will consist of a close, careful, chapter-by-chapter reading along with related and supplementary material.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Philosophical Chops: The student displays the ability to think carefully and insightfully through philosophical questions, issues, and arguments. The student recognizes and applies appropriate knowledge of philosophical views and displays a mastery of the technical vocabulary that serves as the basis for philosophical discourse. (Assignments 1, 2)
  2. Philosophical Knowledge: The student displays a sophisticated understanding of John Dewey’s work and its context, particularly Experience and Nature. (Assignments 1, 2)
  3. Research: The student demonstrates the ability to identify and employ primary and secondary sources to research a topic in depth and construct an original argument or interpretation, demonstrating competency in identifying a problem, offering a solution, and providing a synthesis. (Assignment 3)
  4. Written Communication: The student is able to compose clear, well-organized, properly documented, grammatical prose. (Assignment 3)

Required Text

Abbreviations in (parentheses) are used to give page numbers for readings in the course schedule below.

Recommended Texts

You don’t need to purchase all of these, but consider them for additional help and research paper purposes.

Class Schedule

Meetings are on Tuesdays 12:30-3:00pm

  1. Introduction, Background on Dewey – 8/20
  2. Earlier essays on the themes of Experience & Nature – 8/27
    • Read: “The Metaphysical Assumptions of Materialism” (1882, EW 1) (pdf); “The Postulate of Immediate Empiricism” (1905, MW 3) (pdf); “The Subject-Matter of Metaphysical Inquiry” (1915, MW 8) (pdf)
  3. Experience and Philosophic Method, Part 1 (Appendix 2) (pdf)
  4. Experience and Philosophic Method, Part 2 (Preface & Chapter 1)
  5. Existence as Precarious and as Stable (Chapter 2)
  6. Nature, Ends and Histories (Chapter 3)
  7. Nature, Means, and Knowledge (Chapter 4)
  8. Nature, Communication, and Meaning (Chapter 5) – 10/8
    • Paper Prospectus due
  9. Nature, Mind, and the Subject (Chapter 6)
  10. Nature, Life, and Body-Mind (Chapter 7)
  11. Existence, Ideas, and Consciousness (Chapter 8)
  12. Experience, Nature, and Art (Chapter 9) – 11/5
  14. Existence, Value ,and Criticism (Chapter 10) – 11/12
    • Paper Drafts due
  15. Culture and Nature / Unfinished Reintroduction (Appendix 1) (pdf)
    • Peer review due
  16. Fall Break – 11/26
  17. Wrap Up – 12/3
  18. Final Papers Due – 12/10

Assignments and Grading

  1. – Participating will consist of regular, high-quality contributions to class discussion, respectful responses to other students’ contributions, and collaboration in writing workshops and other activities.
  2. Class Preparation (Outcomes 1, 2)
  3. Term paper (Outcomes 3, 4)

Course and Instructor Policies

Class Meeting Expectations

You are expected to have read the assignments before class, and it would be to your benefit to also read them again after class. You are expected to have a copy of the readings for each day’s class open to refer to during discussion. You are expected to listen respectfully to the professor and your fellow students, and participate in class discussions and activities.

Late Work, Make-Up, and Completion

It is important to stay on track with the class schedule, or else you will fall behind and not be able to complete the work to a satisfactory standard. However, life happens, and I am a reasonable person. Reasonable extensions will be given upon request, for any reason, as long as you ask before the deadline.

Cheating and Plagiarism

Don’t do it! If you incorporate any work that is not your own into any project that you do, and you do not cite the source properly, this counts as plagiarism. This includes someone doing the work for you, taking work done by another student, verbatim copying of published sources, paraphrasing published work without citation, paraphrasing in an inappropriate way even with citation, and any text produced by a GPT-style/LLM “AI” algorithm, including automated paraphrasing, summarizing, and revision tools (spelling and grammar checking software is acceptable as long as it does not re-write entire passages for you). Re-using work that you created for another course or for prior publication also counts as plagiarism in most contexts. Unless group work is explicitly permitted or required, it is expected that all of the work that you turn in is original and your own, although you are welcome to seek feedback from classmates and others as long as they do not do any of the work for you. Any sources that you make use of must be correctly cited.