Experience and Nature by John Dewey

Experience and Nature Reviews

• 
  Bridgett

  Fascinating, but difficult. This is Dewey working out his metaphysics; not for the faint-hearted, and might be difficult for someone without some grounding in the earlier, traditional philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, Spinoza, Kant, and Hegel. That said, Dewey's point is clear: your worldview and approach to life, indeed, the ability to solve real world problems, will always be partial and distorted if you insist on seeing nature and experience as existing in separate realms rather than as part of the same world.
• 
  Arda

  Notes from midterm:
  
  The words we use, Dewey argues, would not be the words that we associate them with if it were not for our human associations. Sharing and interaction are an integral part of communication, and in fact, the sharing may well be what makes communication. In actuality, a word, in its abstract mechanic form, does not mean anything unless the word undergoes a transformation that, by way of cooperation, turns it into an autonomous object with meaning. While the object may seem to have independent meaning, it is the act of communication – the human association– that turns events into objects of significance and asserts them as meaningful. Although events may seem to be charged by the individual, they are neither exclusive nor individual in their nature, for before words become meanings, they would have had representations that embody common, inclusive partnerships and associations, and they have consequences.
  
  Dewey demonstrates that events, by means of social cooperation and repetition, start to possess features that would encompass independent meanings and gain significance. In the process of communication, Dewey observes, words turn into movable objects that we associate with. The idea is not that these objects are moving, but that their movability in and of itself is at the core of their meaning: the meaning is in the carried meaning, and the repetition of its transformative substance is what forms its nature and essence. Language, then, is not made up of still, blank expressions, but its nature lies in those “self-moving” actions that have undergone transformation through institutional patterns and social coordination.
  
  There is a certain amount of fiction involved in the construction of meaning: Dewey indicates that words, by themselves, in their mechanic forms, do not have much meaning at all. In order to escape the isolated abstraction of words, people cooperate in a shared experience of society and accept to relate to the movable element of language that would bring forth distinct and identifiable meaning. Once the words get transformed into objects that carry meaning, and once those words are put together through social construction, then communication is being created.
  
  Rather than getting stuck in the theoretical abstract of meaninglessness, Dewey suggests to enjoy the transformative creation of meaning that comes out of shared experience.
  
• 
  Miles

  What can I say? I think the world needs another John Dewey. Or three. He'd save us all with brilliant, clear philosophical prose just mysterious enough to keep us wondering and just hopeful enough to keep us from despair. His appreciation for the complexity of nature and human experience is almost as astounding as his ability to articulate it.
  
  There are parts of this book that are outdated, but then it's almost a century old. He does a great job of predicting some of the problems faced by modernity, especially the problems posed by the advent of the scientific method and the resistance it faces from dogmatic forms of metaphysics. He walks the tightrope of advocating for a resolutely scientific worldview while still making a strong argument for the validity of subjective experience, ultimately arguing that a harmony between the external world and the internal life of mind is the best philosophical approach for solving practical problems. He suggests that philosophy and science are both forms of art that, when accomplished properly, arrange elements of experience in a way that leads to knowledge.
  
  There's a lot more, but I could never say it all here. I'm glad I read this text and I'm sure I'll come back to it for years to come. Just for future reference, I found the second half of the book (chapters 5-10) to be generally more interesting than the first half.
• 
  Tim

  After reading this, it's obvious to me that the current neuroscientists like Antonio Damasio and William Connelly have built upon the pragmatic tradition of Dewey in decrying the separation of emotions and felt experience from the cognitive decision making process. Attachment theory owes a lot to Pragmatism as well. To understand the progression and evolution of modern thinking, this book should be mandatory reading.
• 
  Jan D

  Dewey is interested in processes and relations rather than essences and things-itself. In this he seems to be similar to Whitehead (“Process and Experience”). However, Dewey is much closer to everyday human experience, it can be well read along works like Schütz’s “The structures of the life-world”.
  
  The book criticizes that most philosophy focusses on what seems stable and universal, given and ignores change, process, choice. I was reminded of David Graeber (“What is the point when we can't have fun”) when Dewey discusses philosophy’s disregard for joy.
  
  Dewey loves modern experimental science and invention, but he focusses a lot on its processual elements and on experiments. His view is rather idealized obviously. But matching his other views, Dewey does not focus on science as truth-production and criticizes that the scientific perspective neglects direct qualities in favor of discovered abstract models as real.
  
  The style of writing is OK, the vocabulary is rich and uses some philosophy-specific terminonology, but nothing extraordinary. The sentences are rarely deeply nested, except for some sections in the last chapter. Some paragraphs are page-long. The book is not super systematically build up, so there are repetitions and it sometimes does meander a bit. Still far easier to read than very systematic works (e.g. Whitehead’s Process and Reality) which, however, demand keeping the whole previous content in mind.
  
  Can I recommend this book? Yes, if you are interested in metaphysics, views that focus both on processes and human experience. Also, if you are not too fond of the later “turns” in philosophy and social theory (linguistic, materialistic)
• 
  Anthony DeFalco

  Good overview Rereading it for the first time
  "Because it takes the form of an epic journey, Experience and Nature is modeled on one of the books cherished by the young Dewey: Homer’s Odyssey. Empirical naturalism is the boat that takes the questers on their journey, with the dangers of wishing for “certainty,” “security,” or “stability,” “permanence,” “faith,” or “universality,” paralleling the dangers faced by the classic questing heroes—to stay with the lotus eaters, to embrace the sirens, to be seduced by Calypso’s ideal beauty. Many begin the search, but few make it all the way back to Ithaca or understanding. The goal—like the golden fleece or the kingdom to be claimed—is the knowledge of what Dewey termed “the true nature of experience.” Just as for Odysseus, the revelation of the quest is that questing never ends. Arrival in Ithaca offers only provisional truth. Nature beckons. Culture and self grow by searching for nature’s meanings."
  
  Martin, Jay. The Education of John Dewey . Columbia University Press. Kindle Edition.
• 
  Vladimir

  If you can stay awake in spite of Dewey's rather dull writing style, you may actually find this to be a book full of remarkable and thought provoking ideas. Highly recommended for anyone who needs a course in pragmatism. In many ways, his view of experience as an iterative process and of knowledge as grounded in the body(embodied) is something that neuroscience is just starting to discover with far less intellectual elegance. Also, this is a must read for anyone interested in constructivist psychology, particularly those of us infatuated with George Kelly. You will see clearly that many of his ideas come from Dewey.
• 
  Sergio Gomez diaz-ureña

  Dewey's humanistic naturalism at its best. His bio-anthropological method and his Jamesian double-barreled conception of experience are to me very relevant perhaps more today than in his own day. Though, I certainly agree his prose is not extremely felicitous, this book is living evidence that 'technical' philosophy and humanistic aims are more than compatible, but, in fact, they must work together for the former not to fall into pedantic isolationism and general irrelevance and for the latter to have the guidance of scientific research and general intelligence. In short: viva Dewey!
• 
  Matthew J Brown

  I've read this book several times, and it is worth re-reading. This is one of Dewey's finest books. At places, it is difficult, but it is always worth trying to make it through. The only work that might be superior is
  Art as Experience.
• 
  Matthew Lukach

  A fascinating look at the importance of experience in our lives. With particular emphasis on art, religion, democracy, and aesthetics, this book is surely to have an impact on the way you view the world.
• 
  Teresa

  Nothing is more stirring than pragmatism!
• 
  Kurt Xyst

  Rightfully included in the pantheon of extraordinary texts alongside Being and Time and Phenomenology of Spirit. The cornerstone of American philosophy.
• 
  Jim Hurley

  For now, my new bible.
  
  John Dewey brings Philosophy back to its roots. The roots where Socrates states that the sole purpose of Philosophy is to show the right way to live (or words to that effect). He does this by grounding Philosophy right where it belongs - in Nature. He also brings along the Human Species for a ride. That simple concept, that Humankind is a part of Nature, not apart from it, is all it takes. What results from that concept is only the simplification of Philosophy, and its return to its rightful place. Out falls the manufactured problems of idealism, super-naturalism, objective/subjective dualism, etc. The conundrums of Epistemology, Aesthetics, Metaphysics, Moral Theory, Oncology are magically dissipated. Dewey brings this all to head with his stridently impassioned final chapter.
  
  It is not an easy read, but it is well-written and artfully structured. To the determined, nuggets of wisdom await. They populate this book like clams at low tide, awaiting to be dug out and eventually savored in a nutritious chowder. Such nuggets as: science is an art; all knowledge stems from belief; "The characteristic human need is for the possession and appreciation of the meaning of things...", etc.
  
  Please excuse the bad poetry above (I like clam chowder), but this is one of the most important works in the School of Philosophy. Read it, and be nourished.
• 
  spencer

  One to read again. Ebbs and flows with creative energy of radical empiricism.
• 
  Ben Hayward

  If one has the patience to work through the staggering difficulty of Dewey's writing, there is much of value here.
• 
  Frank D'hanis junior

  A work of enormous insight.
• 
  Marco Bitetto

  This is another excellently written philosophical
  presentation of the art of teaching and learning.
  As such, it is both readable and understandable
  by anyone that has at least a GED...
  
• 
  Phoenix Fawkes

  i am not smart enough yet to understand this book, hence 1 star. one day i will go back and read it again, hopefully understanding something because i believe the book was revolutionary.
• 
  Heather

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. did not lie: "But although Dewey’s book is incredibly ill written, it seemed to me after several re-readings to have a feeling of intimacy with the inside of the cosmos that I found unequalled. So [it seemed to me as] God would have spoken had He been inarticulate but keenly desirous to tell you how it was."