39-490 John Dewey, Paper Topics
Here are a few topics you might choose for a research paper.
I've listed the topics along with the primary text(s) that you should be
looking at if you choose the topic.
Psychology
1. Dewey's most famous contribution to psychology is offered in "The Reflex-Arc
Concept in Psychology" (1898). A study of this article would make
a good paper. You might trace back some of the issues that Dewey
deals with in the article to their origins in the early debates and discussions
in experimental psychology, and/or see how the Dewey's ideas in this article
arose from his earlier text on psychology.
Primary Text:
John Dewey, "The Reflex-Arc Concept in Psychology"
Secondary Texts: John Dewey, Psychology
(1888)
A good history of early scientific psychology might be helpful.
2. The conception of habit is central to Dewey's psychology. You
might write a paper outlining this conception. What is habit for
Dewey? What is its role in the pursuit of knowledge and intelligence?
What is its role in the moral life for Dewey?
Primary Text:
John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct (1922)
3. Dewey was quite influenced by William James psychology. You
might trace this influence by considering some key points of Jamesian psychology,
and trace their relationship, if any, to Dewey's efforts in the field.
Primary Texts:
John Dewey, Psychology
John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct
William James, Principles of Psychology (1892)
Logical Theory
4. Dewey first development of a logical theory was in Studies in Logical
Theory (1901), a collaborative work of Dewey and his colleagues and students
at the University of Chicago. You might look Dewey's contribution
to this book, the Introduction, and write an account of this early version
of the Deweyan logic, and perhaps consider whether this early version is
completely consistent with his later logic.
Primary Text:
John Dewey, Studies in Logical Theory
Secondary Texts: John Dewey, Essays
in Experimental Logic (1916)
5. The final fruition of Dewey's logical investigations was Logic:
The Theory of Inquiry (1938). There are any number of topics
that might be explored on the basis of this text. What is Dewey's
theory concerning the historical source of logical conceptions? Explain
Dewey's theory of propositions? What is Dewey's philosophy of mathematics?
Primary Text:
John Dewey, Logic: The Theory of Inquiry
Metaphysics
6. Dewey thought and rethought his metaphysics through his later years.
In 1929, Dewey rewrote the first chapter of Experience and Nature
out of certain misgivings with its content. In the 1940s Dewey was
writing a new introduction to Experience and Nature where he proposed
to substitute "culture" for "experience." You might look at these
various writings, and consider whether they suggest a real development
in Dewey's thought, and, if so, how his thought developed over this time
period.
Primary Texts:
John Dewey, Experience and Nature (both the 1925 and 1929 material
and the later introduction are in
The Later Works of John Dewey, vol. 1)
Value Theory
7. The culmination of Dewey's reflections on value was his 1939 Theory
of Valuation, written as part of the series The Encyclopedia of
Unified Science--it contains much interesting material for a paper.
Primary Text:
John Dewey, Theory of Valuation