Reviews for Understanding John Dewey: Nature and Cooperative Intelligence

The average rating for Understanding John Dewey: Nature and Cooperative Intelligence based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-12-08 00:00:00 Dave Douglass Popular passages Within the flickering inconsequential acts of separate selves dwells a sense of the whole which claims and dignifies them. In its presence we put off mortality and live in the universal. The life of the community in which we live and have our being is the fit symbol of this relationship. - Page 280 Appears in 91 books from 1921-2007 Any idea upon which we can ride, so to speak; any idea that will carry us prosperously from any one part of our experience to any other part, linking things satisfactorily, working securely, simplifying, saving labor; is true for just so much, true in so far forth, true instrumentally. This is the "instrumental... - Page 18 Appears in 166 books from 1907-2008 But the sense of divisions and separations that were, I suppose, borne in upon me as a consequence of a heritage of New England culture, divisions by way of isolation of self from the world, of soul from body, of nature from God... - Page 11 Appears in 50 books from 1934-2007 Inquiry is the controlled or directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole. - Page 47 Appears in 207 books from 1892-2007 Like a bird's life, it seems to be made of an alternation of flights and perchings. The rhythm of language expresses this, where every thought is expressed in a sentence, and every sentence closed by a period. The resting-places are usually occupied by sensorial imaginations of some sort... - Page 71 Appears in 139 books from 1876-2007 To declare something satisfactory is to assert that it meets specifiable conditions. It is, in effect, a judgment that the thing "will do." It involves a prediction: it contemplates a future in which the thing will continue to serve; it will do. It asserts a consequence the thing will actively institute ; it will do. That it is satisfying is the content of a proposition of fact; that it is satisfactory is a judgment, an estimate, an appraisal. It denotes an attitude to be taken, that of striving... - Page 130 Appears in 64 books from 1920-2006 In language and imagination we rehearse the responses of others just as we dramatically enact other consequences. We foreknow how others will act, and the foreknowledge is the beginning of judgment passed on action. We know with them ; there is conscience. An assembly is formed within our breast which discusses and appraises proposed and performed acts. The community without becomes a forum and tribunal within, a judgmentseat of charges, assessments and exculpations. - Page 114 Appears in 30 books from 1922-2007 The things in civilization we most prize are not of ourselves. They exist by grace of the doings and sufferings of the continuous human community in which we are a link. Ours is the responsibility of conserving, transmitting, rectifying, and expanding the heritage of values we have received that those who come after us may receive it more solid and secure, more widely accessible and more generously shared than we have received it. - Page 280 Appears in 126 books from 1934-2008 Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends, constitutes reflective thought. - Page 57 Appears in 294 books from 1910-2008 Government, business, art, religion, all social institutions have a meaning, a purpose. That purpose is to set free and to develop the capacities of human individuals without respect to race, sex, class or economic status. - Page 185 Appears in 91 books from 1900-2007

Review # 2 was written on 2012-06-15 00:00:00 Omed Ahim This book pays off on the promise of the title. Your understanding of Dewey, who I find difficult to read, is increased by reading the book. Dewey's idea of social reconstruction sounds a lot like Professional Learning Communities, which are really popular in education these days (80 years after Dewey). The similarity of Dewey's ideas to those of Darwin and of Mead is outlined here. I found his definition of God (which he later gave up on, I guess) interesting: it was "the unity of all ideal ends arousing us to desire and actions." Campbell sets up Dewey's thought by describing the overall American thought patterns of the time, which is interesting and helpful.