Dewey and Justice

• In Event: 26.054 - Contemporary Interpretations and Enactments of John Dewey's Legacy

Abstract

How does Dewey--from his stance of progressivism, his support of the NAACP, and his fervent defense of democracy--respond to those who draw on such perspectives as critical race theory and anti-colonialism to charge that he is knowingly ethnocentric and unwittingly racist? Looking at some of these charges, and at some of the writings that have given rise to those charges, the paper reconsiders what we mean when we talk about justice. Is it a balancing act between one culture and another, one language and another, one heritage and another? Is it merely the product of the exercise of political power? Or can justice be an end discovered by reason--something that resists identification with culture, language, and heritage?

Author

• Robert E. Boostrom, University of Southern Indiana