This book provides a wide-ranging, systematic, and comprehensive approach to the moral philosophy of John Dewey, one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century. It does so by focusing on his greatest achievement in this field: the Ethics he jointly published with James Hayden Tufts in 1908 and then republished in a heavily revised version in 1932.
The essays in this volume are divided into two distinct parts. The first features essays that provide a running commentary on the chapters of the 1932 Ethics written by Dewey. Each chapter is introduced, situated within a historical perspective, and then its main achievements are highlighted and discussed. The second part of the book interprets the Ethics and demonstrates its contemporary relevance and vitality. The essays in this part situate the Ethics in the broader interpretive frameworks of Dewey’s philosophy, American pragmatism, and 20th-century moral theory at large. Taken together, these essays show that, far from being a mere survey of moral theories, the 1932 Ethics presents the theoretical highpoint in Dewey’s thinking about moral philosophy.
This book features contributions by some of the most influential Dewey scholars from North America and Europe. It will be of keen interest to scholars and students of American pragmatism, ethics and moral philosophy, and the history of 20th-century philosophy
Table of Contents
Part I. Introduction
1. Contextualizing Dewey's 1932 Ethics, Gregory Pappas
2. Dewey’s Independent Factors in Moral Action, Steven Fesmire
Part II. Commentary on the Chapters of the 1932 Ethics
3. Moral Holism and the Pragmatist Character, Stéphane Madelrieux
4. Forming New Ends Creatively, Federico Lijoi
5. Dewey, Kant, and the Problem of Moral Change, Conor Morris
6. What Exactly is the Place of Virtue in Dewey’s Ethics?, Roberto Frega
7. The Interplay Between Emotion and Reason: The Role of Sympathy in Moral Judgment, Céline Henne
8. The Identity of Self and Act: Pluralism, Growth, and our Social Interest, Steven Levine
9. Democracy and the Problem of Domination: A Deweyan Perspective, Justo Serrano Zamora
Part III. Historical and Systematic Perspectives
10. Dewey’s Fully Embedded Ethics, Robera Dreon
11. Psychology, Moral Theory, and Politics: Dewey’s Mature Theory of Interest in the 1932 Ethics, Matteo Santarelli
12. Duties and the Ethical Space of Claims in Dewey’s 1932 Ethics, Mathias Girel
13. Moral Theory and Anti-Theory in Dewey’s 1932 Ethics, Sarin Marchetti
14. Rationality as a Moral Problem: Dewey and Williams on the Role of Theory in Moral Reflection, Jörg Volbers