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He argued that ideas are tools for solving real problems rather than mirrors of eternal truth, and spent a long public career trying to rebuild education and democracy on that basis.
He calls himself a bluesman in the life of the mind, fusing the prophetic tradition of the Black church with pragmatist philosophy to ask what justice requires of people living through catastrophe.
Connection
John Dewey pragmatism recovered Cornel West — West's The American Evasion of Philosophy treats Dewey, alongside Emerson and James, as an unfinished pragmatist resource for thinking about democracy, a debt already named in West's own writing before Dewey had an entry of his own here.
Ideas
Words
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.”
“Justice is what love looks like in public.”
“You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people.”
Key Moments
1916
Publishes Democracy and Education
1937
Chairs the Dewey Commission
1989
Publishes The American Evasion of Philosophy
1993
Publishes Race Matters
Works
Democracy and Education
Race Matters