Dewey and “the Greeks:” Inquiry and the Organic Spirit of Greek Philosophy

Abstract

More than one critic … has remarked that most of [his] significant commentary on ancient philosophy occurs within argument for some special phase of his own theory of inquiry. The indication … is that, in Dewey's eyes, the study of Greek philosophy should not be thought of primarily as the occupation of a special academic task force, but as a continuing reinterpretation that is of general importance within contemporary philosophy. (Anderson, 1967, p. 86) Those who have considered the connection between Dewey's theory of inquiry and Greek thought have mostly situated their remarks within larger points, regarding either teaching and learning (Garrison, 1997; Johnston, 2006b; Cahn, 2007) or aesthetics and craft (Alexander, 1987; Hickman, 1990). The fact that this area remains somewhat underexplored could be chalked up to several factors: 1) Dewey was often quite critical of the classical tradition, particularly when it came to theories of knowledge; 2) Dewey was not a trained classicist, with little working knowledge of ancient Greek, and was self-admittedly not a historian of philosophy; and 3) whenever Dewey did turn positive attention toward ancient thought, he tended to speak in generalities, referring most often to "the Greeks" rather than any particular Greek thinker. In spite of this, there remain many compelling reasons to place Dewey's views on inquiry in meaningful dialogue with the classical tradition. I will suggest that the most compelling of all is the link between Dewey's view of inquiry and his particular brand of naturalism, which found its fullest expression late