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book1925

Experience and Nature

Disciplines:
philosophy
metaphysics

Summary

Dewey's major work in metaphysics — arguing for a naturalistic account of experience that dissolves traditional dualisms (mind/matter, fact/value, organism/environment).

Core Contribution

Naturalistic metaphysics: experience is not a subjective screen between us and nature — experience is nature experiencing itself. Dissolution of dualisms: the mind/body problem, the fact/value distinction, the theory/practice split — all products of faulty philosophical analysis. The denotative method: start from ordinary experience, not from the philosopher's study. Quality and event as basic metaphysical categories.

Historical Influences

William James Charles Sanders Peirce

Intellectual Lineage

American Pragmatism Naturalism

Allied Works

Democracy and Education The Quest for Certainty Art as Experience

Contemporaries & Peers

Democracy and Education The Quest for Certainty

Minds Influenced

American Philosophy Rorty's Neopragmatism

Intellectual Posterity

American Naturalism Pragmatism

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