John Dewey's Great Debates-Reconstructed

Confirming his moniker as America's philosopher of democracy John Deweyengaged in a series of public debates over the course of his lifetime vividlydemonstrating how his thought translates into action. These debates made Dewey ahousehold name and a renowned public intellectual during the early to mid-twentiethcentury a time when the United States fought two World Wars struggled through aneconomic depression experienced explosive economic growth and spawned agrassroots movement that characterized an entire era: Progressivism.Unfortunately much recent Dewey scholarship neglects to situate Dewey's ideas in thebroader context of his activities and engagements as a public intellectual. This projectcharts a path through two of Dewey's actual debates with his contemporaries LeonTrotsky and Robert Hutchins to two reconstructed debates with contemporaryintellectuals E.D. Hirsch and Robert Talisse both of whom criticized Dewey's ideas long after the American philosopher'sdeath and finally to two recent debates one on home schooling and the other on U.S. foreign policy in which Dewey'sideas offer a unique and compelling vision of a way forward.