The Development, Implementation And Enduring Impact Of John Dewey's Philosophy Of History

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and leading figure in the progressive education movement that took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While many are familiar with Dewey’s educational philosophy and its aim to promote and improve America’s democratic experience, few are familiar with the integral role that Dewey’s philosophy of history played in his perceived need for a reconstruction in and of philosophy, in the development of his philosophy of education, and in the implementation of his philosophy of education at the Laboratory School. The focus of this thesis centers on this gap in our understanding of Dewey’s philosophy of history and its implementation at the Laboratory School. Through a four-fold inquiry, I argue that at the heart of Dewey’s approach to philosophy and education lay an intelligent understanding of past human growth, progress, and intellectual development with an overarching emphasis on knowledge as an experimental, experiential, and reconstructive process rather than as a product. This paper examines Dewey’s unique history of philosophy, the development of his philosophy of history, the application of his ideas at the Laboratory School, and the trajectory of his philosophies of history and education over the last one hundred years.<p></p>