Although somewhat dated in that what Dewey novelly stated long ago, we now accept as obvious, this is a great book to gain an understanding of art both as a producer and as a spectator.

The central theme is that life is an experience, and that the goal of art is to recapture that experience. Hence, a painting of a flower is only valuable in the way that it captures the essence of a flower, or the experience of viewing a flower. The viewing of a painting must also provide some of the experience of making that painting ( its process ).

If you can manage to finish the book ( the style is a bit archaic ), the experience is worth the effort.

As a reviewer below stated, this is a very interesting book that treats art as a means of recapturing the experience of life and trasmitting that experience to the audience. He captures a number of concepts established earlier by Leo Tolstoy in his "What is Art?" and delves deeper into them, expounding on their more practical and less esoteric uses.

Dewey, however, certainly earns his title as a pragmatist. His wording is complicated and, at times, careful. It is difficult to pin specific sayings or doctrines to him. However, once the task is completed, he has a great deal of important things to say about art and artistic experience.

if you are an artist this book will blow your mind.

it is pretty theoretical, but if you can get through the first 20 pages.. and get into his vibe.. it's BEAUTIFUL.. (yum).

This is probably the most important book i've ever read. You trust katie, you! you buy! you buy!!

In the course of a long life beginning before the Civil War and extending to shortly before the election of President Eisenhower, John Dewey (1859-1952) made large contributions to philosophy and to American public life. Dewey wrote extensively for both an academic and a public audience. He developed a philosophy of pragmatism and contributed significantly to American education. He was a socialist and was publically engaged througout his life in addressing the issues of the day. In particular he criticized the President Roosevelt's New Deal for what Dewey thought was an inadequate response to the Depression and a misguided attempt to preserve capitalism. He supported United States participation in WW I but shortly after the end of the War, he became an isolationist. He retained this isolationist stance until Pearl Harbor.

Dewey's thought resists easy summation. His writing style, particularly in his philosophical works, was long, winding, obscure and difficult to follow. As did many thinkers in the 20th Century, Dewey changed and modified his views with some frequency during the course of his life.

Alan Ryan has written an exellent study of John Dewey which explores Dewey's life, the influences upon him, his philosophical writings, his political activism, and the rises and falls in Dewey's reputation after his death. The book is somewhat dense and repetitive, but this too is a characteristic of the writings of its subject. Ryan writes insightfully in trying to place Dewey as philosophically somewhere between the despair of European existentialists such as Heidegger and Sartre and the English-American analytical philosophy of the 20th Century which denied that philosophical thought had a distinctive contribution to make to human intellectual endeavor.

I thought Ryan was good in discussing Dewey's early Congregationalit upbringing and his falling away from Christianity. I also thought Ryan placed good emphasis on the Hegelian idealism which Dewey adopted early in his career. The book could have used a fuller discussion of the nature of Hegelian idealism. As I read Ryan's book, I thought that Dewey retained even more of a Hegelian influence in his later thought than Ryan recognized. Dewey's emphasis on holistic thinking and on the relationship of the community and the individual remains Hegelian -- a naturalized Hegelianism as Ryan points out.

Ryan discussed Dewey's educational work at the University of Chicago. This is the aspect of Dewey's work that is best known. As Ryan points out, Dewey is often criticized for the shortcomings of American education. He is blamed, probably unjustifiably, for a lack of discipline and academic knowledge in too many American students. Ryan does point out, in fairness, that Dewey's actual educational theory was obscure in many points and undeveloped in specifics. It is hard to know just what Dewey had in mind, but it surely was not laxness and a deference to the wishes of young children.

I thought the strongest aspect of Ryan's book was his discussion of Dewey's mature philosophical writings, in particular "Experience and Nature" "A Common Faith" and "Art and Experience." In these works, Dewey tried to develop a philosophical pragmatism which was based on science and secularism. He denied the existence of an objective independent truth which science tries to capture and also denied subjectivism. Dewey recognized that human experience could be viewed from many perspectives and he struggled to explain how many of the goals of the religious and artistic life were consistent with science and secularism. He wanted to show them as perspectives equally important to the scientific perspective and to disclaim a concept of truth as "out there" rather than as sought,developed and made through human social activity. Dewey's position is difficult and, to his credit, Ryan does not simplify it. Ryan's exposition is challenging and made me want to read some of Dewey for myself.

A great deal of Ryan's book is devoted to Dewey's career as a public intellectual commenting on the issues of the day, as he saw them. Dewey travelled to Russia and China, investigated the Russian show trials of Trotsky and others, supported American participation in WW I, and advocated social liberalism. Ryan discusses Dewey's positions fully and intelligently and explores how Dewey's issues remain alive in the late 20th (and early 21st)century. The discussion of American political life and of the role of ideas is fascinating even though I frequently did not agree either with Dewey or with Ryan.

Ryan recognizes the paradoxical nature of the work of this American thinker. Dewey was a philosopher who critized sharply thought and reflection separate from action. He was a secularist who saw the importance of religion. He recognized the nature of industrial society but stressed the importance of art and culture. Dewey was, as Ryan points out in his conclusion
something of a visionary of the everyday. Ryan writes (page 269): "It was his ability to infuse the here and now with a kind of transcendent glow that overcame the denseness and awkwardness of his prose and the vagueness of his message and secured such widespread conviction. .... He will remain for the forseeable future a rich source of intellectual nourishment for anyone not absolutely locked within the anxieties of his or her own heart and not absolutely despondent about the prospects of the modern world."

Ryan, from a British perspective, offers a detailed biography of Dewey the philosopher while enveloping the reader in the context of Dewey's varied and shifting America. Ryan also wrestles with the issues America wrestled with and continues to struggle with today. The work blends nicely the intricacies of Dewey's tremendous ideas with detailed and insightful references to Bertrand Russell and contemporary Democratic politics in America. The greatest contribution Ryan has made is detailing the arguments, philosophy, and problems Dewey felt significant without epitomizing and reducing Dewey as many have done since Dewey rose to prominance at the turn of the century at the Chicago Univeristy Lab School.

Educators, graduate students in education and philosophy, politicians, and anyone genuinely interested in American thought will be inpsired by Ryan to dig further--to read more by Dewey, to read more of the history of American ideas not just events in America

ON DEWEY provides a clear and concise overview of John Dewey's leading ideas. I particularly appreciated the attempts made by the author to place Dewey's views in the context of the main trends in the history of philosophy. In ON DEWEY, Dewey's ideas are presented as solutions to long- standing philosophical problems; hence Dewey is brought into dialogue with his predecessors. This will be especially helpful for those readers who are unacquainted with the history of philosophy and have little background in philosophical argumentation.

All in all, ON DEWEY is engaging and well-written, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in getting a grip on Dewey. I think the book would have been even better had the author included chapters on Dewey's views on art, religion, and education. Although these topics are mentioned, their centrality to Dewey's philosophy warrants greater attention, in my opinion. So, whereas ON DEWEY is an excellent introduction to many key themes in Dewey's thought, it is not entirely comprehensive.

Robert Talisse's ON DEWEY is an excellent first orientation into John Dewey's philosophy. The small book is designed for course use and is especially suitable for the undergraduate level where it can supplement a wide variety of texts by Dewey. ON DEWEY is part of a series of books, each of which is dedicated to a particular philosopher. Within the realm of American philosophy, the series also includes volumes on Thoreau and Rorty. In addition, volumes on Peirce, Royce, and Jane Addams are in the works. The clear and accessible style of Talisse makes ON DEWEY suitable not only for upper level courses in American philosophy, but also for general introductory courses in philosophy. The central theme of Talisse's book is that of Deweyan reconstruction. After an introduction that sketches Dewey's life and career, including his social activism, Talisse starts off with a discussion of Dewey's reconstruction of philosophy. Subsequent chapters deal with Dewey's reconstruction of experience, his reconstruction of knowledge, and his reconstruction of society. Each of the chapters begins with an exposition of the traditionally held views, after which Talisse shows where, how and why Dewey differs. The book is concluded with the "prospective conclusion." Talisse urges the reader that to takes Dewey seriously, one should not approach him as a dusty scholar who seeks to fill in some details, but one should follow in his footsteps by consistently applying democratic intelligence to each and every aspect of human association. In ON DEWEY, Talisse does a great job in showing that Dewey is not an ivory tower philosopher but deals with important issues that touch actual people's lives. The book is written so as to engage students to think the issues through for themselves, as opposed to blindly regurgitating Dewey's views. The use of philosophical jargon is kept to a minimum (with the exception of "aleatory" which is largely left to the student to figure out) and Talisse presents familiar examples of everyday life for the student to work with and contemplate upon. It is no small feat to condense the thought of a great thinker in eighty pages (and keep it readable!) without making inadmissible concessions. Of course, not all areas in which Dewey was active are equally represented. Not much is said, for instance, of Dewey's aesthetics, nor of his philosophy of education. However, even for a course in such areas Talisse's book is likely to give the student a good idea of the direction from which Dewey is coming. It is slightly unfortunate that all references in ON DEWEY are to the thirty seven volume Dewey edition, which might not be easily accessible to many undergraduates, especially not to those who study at small colleges. It would have been preferable had Talisse, where possible, relied on more widespread sources, such as the two volume THE ESSENTIAL DEWEY.

Cornelis de Waal Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

This review first appeared in the Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement for American Philosophy (SAAP).

Dewey, a profound contributor to the field of education, displays some of his beliefs of the best methods to teach children in The Child and the Curriculum. To begin Dewey's discussion, the child's world is examined. In this examining, a sense of how the child's world operates is formed. Children learn through the process of experiencing things, life. In this book Dewey, finds that the schools in which children are educated contradict their very learning style by nature. "The child's life is an integral, a total one," (p.183, 1902). The way the school disseminates the curriculum is not the most optimal method for students to learn.
A child's life collects all the experiences, thus the child learns. Dewey postulates a change in the formula for teaching children, the curriculum. Why change the curriculum? As Dewey states, children need to be intertwined in the process of doing. Children will learn by doing, making clothes to wear, furniture to sit on, and growing food to eat. The idea of the separate subject area is a key area Dewey analyzes because of how children learn. When a child wants to build a chair to sit on, they examine disciplines across the realm of mathematics, science, and language skills while building the chair. Instead of separating this activity into different disciplines, it is woven throughout the activity. Throughout this book, it is stated that their needs to be a link to what the child is learning and what the child sees as a benefit to themselves.
As an educator, it is important to be exposed to varying ideas as to how the school systems have functioned and are functioning today. There are ideas in this book that a pre-service or current educator should consider during their teaching career. Are Dewey's ideas relevant for today's society? I believe this is a question one has to answer for themselves, construct your own meaning.

From a high school student's point of view, reading Dewey couldn't provide something else than hope for educational systems, most of which, despite the efforts of making a school a more living atmosphere, organizations still remain too mechanical in learning procedures and detached from social applications regarding the capabilities they serve.

Originally from Cameroon, I've had the opportunity to explore three educational systems from different cultural influence each. It was an advantage that surely opened my mind to different perspectives by interacting with different cultures in different social contexts, but especially carried me out to realize how the so called "education" - in general, but in high school in particular - shortly addresses fundamental needs as much individually as socialy, since people tend to ignore its essential functions or misunderstand the concepts it involves, precisely because their implications are so general that they shouldn't be analyzed in separated contexts, school and society, as far as they are, with respect, one a component of the other but the other being the expression of the first one in a long term.

By observing both components as a whole, Dewey proposes a model that doesn't necessarily apply to actual issues or give factual solutions, but at least redefines "education" by integrating inherent aspects to human nature in its double acception - as a group as much as an individual -, which reveals the values traditional education still mostly hides.

I delibarately took the initiative of question what high school didn't explained to me, and probably often forget to ask itself. In what ways education serves people in the aim of blooming personally and socially ? which role schools are therefore supposed to play and in which patterns ? The questions are so simple that the answers appear obvious. In fact, they should be when the problematic is carefully put. this is the reason most people can get it wrong and sometimes don't even try to question what is already established. Dewey was an excellent starting point for my research and I recommend it to EVERYONE, not especially those concerned with education because it shouldn't be a matter of a restricted segment of people. Education is everywhere. Sorry for my english :)

Fast-paced and fun, this is a pretty good choice for fans of the really GOOD wooden ships & iron men stories. Lambdin isn't technically much of a writer and characterization is minimal but the pace is great and the author not only really seems to know his Age of Sail history. The anti-hero aspects of Lewrie make a pleasant break from his rivals who are generally perfect. Not as much of the fun bawdy sex in this one as in King's Coat, but its a plus. Comparisons to Patrick O'Brien or even C.S. Forester are embarrassing and stupid--this stuff is fun to read but Mr. Lambdin falls well short of the master..

I love ship action stories, especially spiced with humor and romance. But this one, my first Lambdin, was almost impossible to read because of all the errors. if the author can't get straight the difference between lie and lay, at least the editors could hire a copyeditor! And all those weird dialog tags--people just don't shrug, spit, glare, or hiss dialog. Every one of those is like a needle in the eyes, throwing me right out of the story, and totally unnecessary. Ditto the mistakes in foreign languages--though those are more understandable than the juvenile errors in basic English. I won't buy any more of these new, only used, unless someone tells me the writer finally got acquainted with a basic grammar and style manual.

It is early 1782 and Desperate, 20 guns, having 'retreated gracefully' from the Yorktown debacle is now in train with Admiral Hood's fleet running down to the Caribbean. Unfortunately, the Frogs are chasing under the command of the wily de Grasse, who didn't get where he is by avoiding encounters.
The action starts soon enough and de Grasse exploits every possibility to bring the Rosbifs to task, but fails miserably, leaving Desperate to pick off a 28 shadowing a message schooner. In the aftermath of the battle, Alan Lewrie is appointed master of the prize. The result of Alan's actions is unexpected promotion into the brig Shrike, a Dutch-built 12, as 1st luff under a wily old sea-dog as mad as a hatter.
Alan can't keep his mouth shut or his breeches buttoned-up, which leads to some unfortunate and raunchy interludes, affecting his earlier career, and, it seems, his future.
Not a series for those new to the genre, or with no nautical knowledge, as there is not the untarred landsman colleague to explain the intricacies of naval terminology to, as in Aubrey & Maturin.
But ... the above- and below-decks descriptions are among the best I've read, although Mr. Lambdin does rather overdo the vernacular and accents a bit too much for fluid reading, however it does add an extra touch of reality.
Luck plays its part again in the aftermath of another debacle, this time to good effect as Lewrie meets Nelson and receives his second promotion in a year.
A raunchier series than most, but well worth reading.*****

Like so many other of Dewey's books, this could've been- indeed should've been- longer. It was also a bit more muddled than other Dewey-penned titles I've read. The ideas are many, but if one underlying theme had to be given, it would be the shattering of the nature/nurture dualilsm (as relating to political debate.) I've long since agreed with Dewey here. It is absurd to postulate as to what man's nature is apart from an environment for her to act on. This does not mean that Dewey is denying biological traits- nor is he saying that we are simply products of environment. He breaks through the dualism by suggesting that just as our environments exist the way they do because of our action upon them, we exist the way we do because of how our environemt acts on us. Any line drawing between inside and outside is dangerous and leads to bad theory.

From here, he takes the above theory to a few problems in political debate. Do capitialism and democracy HAVE to be exlusive and is there any good reason they can't function seperately? Does Marxism undermine itself by acknowledging environmental factors to the elimination of human autonomy? If, as Marxism holds, that environment is ALL there is, how can someone be class-conscious- isn't that an autonomous actiion? Dewey's point in asking these questions is to tell us that the answers (if there are any) are not as easy as poltical science might have us believe. For every decision (capitalism, totalitarianism, welfare state etc.) there are trade offs. Here's where Dewey brings in science.
As we know, the pragmatists are ga-ga over science and rightfully so. Science as Dewey knows it is a process, not a concrete method. Science is debate and discovery through experiment and dialogue. While the natural sciences have been quick in their advances, the social sciences barely creep along. Dewey suggests a few reasons. So as not to give away the book (which you should buy after this review!) the one I'll relay is that of commercialism. He who has the money can decide what research to do and why. Dewey is not a Feyerabendian flake who thinks that this makes science a mere myth, but
he does see the problem when only a few hands hold the ability to do science. To his credit, he sees totalitarian states as even more harmful to scientific progrss.
My only problem with the book is that at 133 pages, the readers appetite will be wet by every chapter but she will have to look elsewhere for detailed explanations and more thorough discussion. My reccomendation is to read Dewey's "The Quest For Certainty" before, after or during this book.

FREEDOM AND CULTURE is particularly helpful in understanding the different views of freedom and liberty found within the Anglo-American school of thought as compared to the Continental school of thought. Dewey is always an informative read and he explains things very well, though that doesn't mean he would grab the attention of the uninterested. I greatly enjoyed this book, along with Dewey's other works.

It was a good treatise yet after reading this, I wonder what it was that i just read. The book will be remembered for its isolated ingenius points rather than a book as a whole. I read this for a class.

Derived from a series of lectures Dewey gave in 1927, The Public and Its Problems touches on virtually all the major political philosophy questions of our day. One marvels at its continued relevance into the 21st Century. Dewey, arguably the United States' greatest thinker, does an amazing job in sifting through the problems contemporary society faces when forming a polity.

The point Public and Its Problems brings up on more than one occasion is the need for political and social policy to incorporate the scientific method of testing and retesting to generate better results. Dewey refers to this as an experimental social method and surely felt corporate capitalism had used up its testing time and that a new socio-economic system should be tried. Public and Its Problems talks about how policies and theories need to be constantly in flux and not rigidly adhered. The social sciences would then work to investigate and interpret the results of the testing process.

One portion of the book gives a fascinating look at a puzzling quandary Dewey proffers: that being the contradiction of the French and American revolutions having a philosophy of individualism while being massive collective efforts. This section makes for some complicated reading but it's enthralling nonetheless because it touches on a fundamental political and philosophical question. It's in this chapter of the book where he goes on to pose one of the more audacious and profound points of political thought: the essential fallacy of the democratic creed being that it assumes free human beings can rule themselves. (He obviously does say democracy is a good thing given that it threw off a restrictive cloak.) Dewey goes on to elaborate on the point indicating that what's critically necessary is an improvement to the methods and conditions of debate and discussion. Public and Its Problems goes on to ostensibly say it's the corporate capitalist press that controls policy conduct by controlling public opinion. A most astute observation. Of course this opinion is of a public that hasn't found itself, Dewey asserts. He writes "the modern economic regime control present politics much as dynastic interests controlled those of two centuries ago. They effect thinking and desire." Here he touches on false consciousness and monopolistic control over our culture and institutions and the insidious way they thwart the public from finding itself and rallying for its concerns.

Most importantly, Public and Its Problems contends that the majority populace can indeed make wise decisions regarding our present day technocratic culture; the key is that they must have access to unbiased sources without a vested interest (commercial profit) in the issue. Only with a relatively independent conduit of information can the masses make informed decisions on complex subjects. Clearly Dewey would be quite dismayed to see the state of the mass media today, being wholly owned and controlled by big corporate conglomerates. He would no doubt find it nearly impossible for a public to make intelligent decisions when pseudo-fascists like Michael Savage, Joe Scarborough, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Pat Robertson, Laura Ingram, Rusty Humphries, Michael Reagan, G. Gordon Liddy, Ann Coulter (the proud daughter of a union buster), Mike Gallagher, Bob Grant and William Kristol; along with myriad centrist status quo apologists, set the agenda. In one paragraph of the book Dewey showed incredible foresight by remarking that society "seems to be approaching a state of government by hired promoters of opinion called publicity agents." With current political discourse being dictated by PR firms it's obvious he was right on the mark eighty years ago when he made the prediction.

Dewey comes back to an important question routinely throughout, that being what are the conditions that make the transformation possible for the "Great Society" to change into the "Great Community"? The Public and Its Problems does much to stimulate thought on this vital issue that still plagues contemporary society, especially in the United States when the state was able to wage a war on Iraq when virtually ninety percent of the world was against it!

Dewey's book serves as a tremendous introduction to history's greatest pragmatic philosopher.

This collection of essays on John Dewey's Logic is, on the whole, outstanding. The essays situate Dewey's work, make clear the negative consequences for philosophy that have flowed from the discipline's failure to follow Dewey, demonstrate the contemporary relevance of his work, and probe some problems and areas for further work. The technical essays by Thomas Burke are astonishing, if over-specialized, and the essays by Vincent Colapietro and John Stuhr are remarkably rich and thought-provoking high points--easily among the very best recent essays on pragmatism.

I really did enjoy this book. more than the amount of stars that i gave it. the character is alan lewrie. a rogue and unlikly hero, he is thrown into his majesty's service by circumstance and tries to make the best of it. the action is fast paced and exciting. it does get graphic at times with the effects of splinters and cannon balls. i enjoy how the hero is not all prim and proper made a good refreshing change from hornblower. my only real complaint is the sex. it is heavy and very un-necessary to the overall story. just thrown in to fill some pages. but apart from that the story is interesting and worth a read. but keep in mind that this book is not for everyone and if you are thinking of buying it for your kids then i strongly recommend looking at the hornblower series. otherwise pick it up and give it a read.

This book is a great read! The battle scenes are comparable to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. This book is fastpaced and action packed. Alan Lewrie is the opposite of Hornblower and Jack Aubrey which is completely refreshing, even if he is a lecherous rascal. The dialogue is fresh, quick witted, salty and to the point. I love this character and can't wait for the next book in the series. The fact that the author is a sailor makes the sailing lingo understandable and he includes information about ships and sailing points that helps the reader (sailor and non-sailor alike) understand the business of sailing that takes place in this book completely. Mr. Lambdin has given us in The King's Coat an excellent beginning to a wonderful series and a very rememberable rogue in Alan Lewrie.

The first of a growing series of books about a reluctant Royal Navy hero. I had previously read all of the later books in the series, with the exception of this book and the 2nd in the series, "the French Adirmal" (which is due for reprinting in '99), when I found this one. Thankfully it's being reprinted. It is quite humerous, and bawdy at times, but with plenty of naval action which takes place at the beginning of the American Revolution. Alan Lewry, the hero, is forced to join the Royal Navy at 17, due to some falsely accused improprieties (he was actually framed) which occured at home. Alan is whisked away into the rude and very different routines of shipboard life in the late 1700's, learning a new trade, while trying to live long enough to get back at the people who forced him into the navy. Every time he gets a leg up, so he thinks, his other leg is kicked out from beneath him. At times, it's better than the O'Brian series, only because it seems more real - with an added dose of humor. Although not written in the English spoken in the 18th century, it's far easier to follow. The action is brisk and brutal, as it must have been at the time. A great series, and if you don't mind the bawdyness, one well worth reading. There's plenty to laugh at and more adventure than you can wish for. Once started, it's really hard to put down. The series will grow on you. And you'll be buying them all and wishing Mr. Lambdin would come out with the next book.

Greg Toth

A great book for proposing social engineering in education but otherwise nothing new except mis-application of the scientific method to non-science areas. His concept of education is socialization. If there is something great is his theories it is well hidden and not supported by scientific or non scientific studies..

A must for any serious student of education and philosophy

Dewey's classic work, although tedious at times, is a cogent and landmark exposition of progressive educational theory. Democracy for Dewey was both a means and an end to the building of a good and just society. In this regard he sought to develop strategies and methods for training students through learning and discipline to become socially responsible adults and conscientious citizens concerned with the rights of others and the common good and to be equipped with the knowledge and technical skills to be productive members of society in the context of our modern industrial world. Dewey is truly a giant not only of modern educational theory but of progressive humanitarian thought generally. Those who disparage him in a knee jerk fashion out of a misguided effort to trash the "liberal establishment," like the Intercollegiate Scholastic Insititute (ISI) which named "Democracy and Education" as one of the five worst books of the 20th Century, have radically misconstrued Dewey's views which merit serious study and application in practice. Dewey was truly one of the great Americans of the last century of which all people of good will can be proud.