John Dewey: Ethics as Praxis

Philosophical pragmatism is, quintessentially, a philosophy of praxis, that is a mindset and program which puts practice – both in its ordinary, practical component and as a reflective, critical stance – first. Praxis, for pragmatism, represents both the source and point of thinking and talking, as it is by looking at one’s deeds that we can reconstruct what one thought and said in the first place, and normatively assess it. The challenge, to be investigated in the course, will be that of figuring out how one can check not only thought and talk via practice, but practice itself. Morals, for Dewey, have to do with a particular kind of practice and practical stance: one which has to do with how one conducts herself midst ordinary and problematic situations alike, refusing as idle the possibility to check and remake praxis – and oneself through it – from without. «Morals», as Dewey tellingly wrote, means «growth of conduct in meaning» from within. Valuation, in turn, becomes a matter of how integrated the different aspects of conduct are from the point of view of the agent – that is her character.

Attending students:
J. Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct, Southern Illinois Press, Carbondale 1983 [1922]
J. Dewey, Theory of Valuation, Southern Illinois Press, Carbondale 1988 [1939]
S. Fesmire, Dewey, Routledge, London & New York 2015

Non-attending students:
The program should be integrated with
G. Pappas, John Dewey’s Ethics, Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2008