Jane Addams and John Dewey

Abstract

In this chapter, the points of intellectual consonance between Jane Addams and John Dewey are explored, specifically their (1) shared belief that philosophy is a method, (2) parallel commitments to philosophical pragmatism, and (3) similar convictions that philosophy should serve to address social problems. Also highlighted are points of divergence in their thinking, particularly their positions on the United States’s entry into World War I and, more generally, the value of social conflict. Finally, the chapter concludes with what the author believes is Addams’s and Dewey’s most significant joint contribution to the contemporary philosophical landscape: a vision of practically engaged pragmatism.