John Dewey and how we think

At the centre of his approach is his theory of inquiry, which aimed to show how thought emerges as people interact with their environments

John Dewey at the University of Chicago in 1902 (Public Domain)

As well as a psychologist and progressive educational reformer, John Dewey (1859–1952) was one of the more influential American philosophers of the last century. With Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, he is associated with the pragmatic school of philosophy.

Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, on 20 October 1859, the third of the four sons of Archibald Dewey and Lucina Rich. He was brought up in modest circumstances. His father, a grocer, made a comfortable living, but was not particularly ambitious on behalf of his children, though he had a passion for Shakespeare and Milton and was in the habit of reciting Burns to his sons. He would have been quite content for them to have become tradesmen.

Dewey’s mother, 20 years younger than her husband, was, however, of different character; more intense and ambitious, and it was mainly at her urging that the three surviving boys – the eldest sibling having died in infancy – pursued college educations at the University of Vermont.