John Dewey 1859 – 1952

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, the most influential figure of the second generation of pragmatist philosophy and one of the most influential American thinkers of the 20th century. His philosophy of education, set out in works including Democracy and Education and Experience and Education, transformed schooling in the United States and abroad through its emphasis on learning by doing and on the school as a model of democratic life. He developed a naturalistic and instrumentalist account of inquiry, holding that thought and action are continuous and that knowing is a form of doing. His political philosophy defended liberal democracy as an ongoing experimental practice. He taught at the University of Chicago and Columbia University and was a prolific public intellectual.