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ETD Template JOHN DEWEY ON THE ART OF COMMUNICATION by Nathan Crick BS University of Massachusetts, 1995 MA University of Pittsburgh, 2001 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2005 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Nathan Crick It was defended on March 2, 2005 and approved by James McGuire Peter Simonson Gordon Mitchell John Poulakos Dissertation Director ii JOHN DEWEY ON THE ART OF COMMUNICATION Nathan Crick, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2005 ABSTRACT: John Dewey once wrote: “Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful.” For him communication is the highest of the “arts of life,” for it is in communication that society is born and nurtured. It is by communication that we discover the possibilities of nature. And it is through communication that we make our shared experience meaningful. It is no wonder, then, that Dewey would conclude The Public and Its Problems with this provocative statement: Democracy “will have its consummation when free social inquiry is indissolubly wedded to the art of full and moving communication.” Dewey, however, does not adequately explain what he understands by “the art of full and moving communication” and never tells us how “communication” functions in the varied contexts of practical life. Despite, then, his obvious affection for communication, he leaves many questions about it unanswered. For instance, what makes communication possible? In what kind of situations is communication called for and why? How does an inchoate feeling or idea find concrete embodiment in language? What are the connections among language, communication, thought, feeling, and action? Most importantly, what is the process by which one employs the art of communication to influence the beliefs and behaviors of others? This dissertation addresses these questions by approaching Dewey’s thinking on communication from a distinctly rhetorical perspective. Even though Dewey almost never mentions “rhetoric” in his entire corpus, I argue that it is precisely the absence of the term from his writings that makes iii a rhetorical reading of his work all the more imperative. Such a reading permits us to understand the practical importance of the “art of communication” in the larger context of his social thought. If, then, the problem with Dewey’s writing on communication is that it often drifts into abstractions, one remedy is take those abstractions and place them into concrete situations, where communication is required to transform some part of the environment through transaction with human thought and action. Because this kind of activity has been the specific domain of rhetoric since the time of the sophists, it is only appropriate to read Dewey’s work through that tradition. In effect, the goal of this dissertation is to explicate Dewey’s theory of communication in the terms of a rhetorical theory. But insofar as his thought went through three distinct “periods” in his lifetime, beginning with his Idealistic period in 1880, moving into his Experimental period in 1903, and culminating in his Naturalistic period in 1925, Dewey can be said to have had three implicit rhetorical theories. To articulate and explain each of these theories, I trace Dewey’s theoretical development through time and construct, through published works, private correspondence, and biographical material. I show that the first theory envisioned rhetoric as a form of eros that helps us grow towards Absolute self-consciousness. The second theory views rhetoric as a form of critical inquiry whose goal is the development of phronēsis, or practical wisdom. The third theory treats rhetoric as a productive technē, or a naturalistic form of art that has the power to transform experience, nature, and society through its transactional character. By tracing Dewey’s theoretical development and explicating three implicit theories of rhetoric in his writings, this dissertation not only provides a unique perspective on Dewey’s changing views on language, ontology, and social practice, but also demonstrates how each theory can still be iv effectively used to interpret and guide the art of rhetoric. This kind of work enables us to grasp different facets of this diverse and vibrant art. At the same time, it shows how Dewey’s work remains an important resource for those who wish to promote and sustain a democratic way of life by educating citizens in the art of full and moving communication. v TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION: JOHN DEWEY AND THE RHETORICAL TRADITION................... 1 2. JOHN DEWEY’S RHETORICAL EDUCATION............................................................... 25 2.1. PHILOSOPHY AND THE LIMITS OF RHETORIC.................................................. 28 2.2. JAMES MARSH AND THE METAPHYSICS OF LANGUAGE .............................. 40 2.3. KANTIAN RUMINATIONS IN OIL CITY ................................................................ 46 2.4. GEORGE SYLVESTER MORRIS AND THE HEGELIAN SPIRIT ......................... 49 2.5. HEGEL’S VIEW OF LANGUAGE ............................................................................. 55 2.6. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................. 62 3. RHETORIC AS EROS: JOHN DEWEY’S IDEALIST RHETORICAL THEORY............ 67 3.1. THE ONTOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF DEWEY’S IDEALIST RHETORICAL THEORY .................................................................................................................................. 71 3.2. COMMUNICATION AND THE ETHICS OF DEMOCRACY.................................. 74 3.3. THE MORAL SITUATION......................................................................................... 79 3.4. ELEMENTS OF PHRONĒSIS: MEANING, HABIT, AND JUDGMENT................. 81 3.5. THE THREE FACULTIES: COGITION, FEELING, AND WILL............................. 87 3.5.1. The relationship between Cognition, Feeling, and Will ....................................... 87 3.5.2. The Cognition ....................................................................................................... 88 3.5.3. The Feeling ........................................................................................................... 89 3.5.4. The Will ................................................................................................................ 90 3.6. THE FOURTH FACULTY: IMAGINATION............................................................. 92 3.7. SCIENCE, ART, AND RHETORIC ............................................................................ 93 3.8. RHETORIC AS EROS.................................................................................................. 98 4. FROM EROS TO PHRONĒSIS.......................................................................................... 109 4.1. FRED NEWTON SCOTT AND THE SCIENCE OF RHETORIC ........................... 113 4.2. FRANKLIN FORD AND THE THOUGHT NEWS................................................... 118 4.3. WILLIAM JAMES AND DEWEY’S BIOLOGICAL TURN ................................... 124 4.4. COMMUNICATION AS A STIMULUS................................................................... 131 4.5. INSTRUMENTALISM IN CHICAGO...................................................................... 136 4.6. THE BIRTH OF THE “CHICAGO SCHOOL” ......................................................... 141 4.7. MAX EASTMAN AND THE AESTHETICS OF RHETORIC ................................ 146 4.8. SOCIETY IN COMMUNICATION........................................................................... 151 4.9. THE DISCREDITING OF IDEALISM AND THE RISE OF PROPAGANDA....... 159 4.10. FROM PHRONĒSIS TO TECHNĒ ....................................................................... 166 5. THE RHETORICAL SITUATION .................................................................................... 172 5.1. LLOYD BITZER’S “THE RHETORICAL SITUATION” ....................................... 175 5.2. THE METAPHYSICS OF EXPERIENCE ................................................................ 180 5.3. THE METAPHYSICS OF “EXISTENCE”................................................................ 185 5.4. EVENTS AND OBJECTS.......................................................................................... 191 5.5. THE INDETERMINATE SITUATION..................................................................... 196 5.6. THE MORAL SITUATION....................................................................................... 204 5.7. THE RHETORICAL SITUATION ............................................................................ 210 6. RHETORIC AS TECHNĒ: JOHN DEWEY’S NATURALISTIC RHETORICAL THEORY 220 vi 6.1. “WILL,” RECONSTRUCTED................................................................................... 223 6.2. HABIT AND IMPULSE............................................................................................. 228 6.3. MIND, THOUGHT, AND LANGUAGE................................................................... 235 6.4. EMOTION .................................................................................................................. 238 6.5. INTELLIGENCE........................................................................................................ 243 6.6. IMAGINATION ........................................................................................................
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