DEWEY STUDIES Volume 1 · Number 2 · Fall 2017 ISSN: 2572-4649 Mission: Dewey Studies is a peer-reviewed, online, open-access journal of the John Dewey Society, dedicated to furthering understanding of John Dewey’s philosophical work and enlivening his unique mode of engagement with the vital philosophical questions of our time. Please visit our website for more information about the journal, or to view other issues of Dewey Studies. Editors: Editor-in-Chief Leonard Waks, [email protected] Associate Editors Paul Cherlin, [email protected] Andrea R. English, [email protected] James Scott Johnston, [email protected] Jared Kemling, [email protected] Zane Wubbena, [email protected] Reviews Editor Daniel Brunson, [email protected] Submissions: To submit a manuscript for publication, please send an email to: Jared Kemling, Associate Editor [email protected] To submit a book review or inquire as to what books are available for review, please email: Daniel Brunson, Reviews Editor [email protected] Title flourishes designed by Vexels.com and used with permission EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Thomas Alexander (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) Douglas Anderson (University of North Texas) Randall Auxier (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) Thomas Burke (University of South Carolina) Vincent Colapietro (Pennsylvania State University) Steven Fesmire (Green Mountain College) Michael Festl (University of St. Gallen) Clara Fischer (University College Dublin) Marilyn Fischer (University of Dayton) Roberto Frega (Marcel Mauss Institute at the CNRS) Jim Garrison (Virginia Tech & Uppsala University) James Good (Lone Star College North Harris) Larry Hickman (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) David Hildebrand (University of Colorado Denver) Denise James (University of Dayton) Alison Kadlec (Senior VP, Public Agenda) Alexander Kremer (University of Szeged) John J. McDermott (Texas A&M) Erin McKenna (University of Oregon) William Myers (Birmingham-Southern College) Stefan Neubert (University of Cologne) Gregory Pappas (Texas A&M) Scott Pratt (University of Oregon) Melvin Rogers (Brown University) Naoko Saito (University of Kyoto) Charlene Haddock Seigfried (Purdue University) EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD (cont’d) John Shook (State University of New York at Buffalo) Giuseppe Spadafora (University of Calabria) Kenneth Stikkers (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) Shannon Sullivan (University of North Carolina Charlotte) Sor-hoon Tan (National University of Singapore) Paul C. Taylor (Pennsylvania State University) Dwayne Tunstall (Grand Valley State University) Claudio Viale (National University of Cordoba) Emil Višňovský (Comenius University) Jennifer Welchman (University of Alberta) Krystyna Wilkoszewska (Jagiellonian University) Chen Yajun (Fudan University) DEWEY STUDIES VOLUME 1 · NUMBER 2 · FALL 2017 ARTICLES EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION 1 Leonard J. Waks PRAGMATIZING CRITICAL THEORY’S PROVINCE 4 Roberto Frega ON REALITY, EXPERIENCE, AND TRUTH: JOHN WATSON’S UNPUBLISHED NOTES ON JOHN DEWEY 48 James Scott Johnston & Sarah Messer THE PROBLEM OF NIHILISM: A PERSONAL JOURNEY FROM NIETZSCHE TO DEWEY 70 Jim Garrison AN INTERVIEW WITH MARILYN FISCHER 95 Marilyn Fischer & Judy Whipps RESEARCH NOTE: UNDERSTANDING DEWEY’S CONNECTION TO CHINA- A BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY ON SELECTED WORKS 103 James Zhi Yang RESEARCH NOTE: JOHN DEWEY ON NATIONALISM 112 Leonard J. Waks BOOK REVIEW: MELVILLE AMONG THE PHILOSOPHERS 126 Robin Friedman EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION LEONARD J. WAKS Temple University, Emeritus Editor-in-chief Volume 1 · Number 2 · Fall 2017 · Pages 1-3 Leonard J. Waks 2 he editors of Dewey Studies are pleased to bring you our second issue. Please join me for a guided tour of its contents, T as I point to the sections of this issue that we plan to include as regular features. First, there are three articles which have been submitted and have passed through anonymous peer-review. Roberto Frega, in “Pragmatizing Critical Theory’s Province” shows how progressive reformulations of critical theory have brought its methods increasingly closer to Dewey’s theory of inquiry. James Scott Johnston and Sara Messer, in “On Reality, Experience, and Truth: John Watson’s Unpublished Notes on John Dewey” provide a glimpse of Watson, a leading Canadian philosopher known for the development of constructive Idealism, attempting to come to grips with Dewey’ system of ideas. James Garrison, in “The Problem of Nihilism: A Personal Journey from Nietzsche to Dewey,” recounts the path Garrison, as a contemporary philosopher, traversed in arriving at Dewey’s pragmatism. Each of these articles places Dewey in productive dialogue with other philosophers. Second, we offer an engaging interview of Marilyn Fischer by Judy Whipps. Marilyn Fischer is well known to our readers as a celebrated interpreter of the works of Jane Addams—founder of Hull House, early feminist pragmatist, pacifist, and confederate of Dewey’s in Chicago. Judy Whipps, who conducted the interview for Dewey Studies, is also a noted Addams scholar and Marilyn’s collaborator in editing Jane Addams’ Writings on Peace. Dewey Studies aims to become the leading journal of John Dewey’s works, life, and times. As we state in our call for papers, we seek papers that deal not only with Dewey’s philosophical works, but also with his significance within the history of philosophy (and history more broadly), by showing how he influenced and was influenced by others. We also seek articles that deal with Dewey’s relationship with American philosophy, especially American pragmatism, and that otherwise appeal to the interests and needs of Dewey scholars. Judy’s interview with Marilyn accomplishes all of these ends by casting light on one of Dewey’s closest working associates who influenced him profoundly, and by highlighting the Dewey Studies Vol 1 · No 2 · Fall 2017 Leonard J. Waks 3 work contemporary scholars are doing in American philosophy. Readers of Dewey Studies with ideas for future interviews are invited to query the editors by sending a note to Jared Kemling, Associate Editor, at [email protected]. Third, we provide two research notes. The first, by James Yang, provides an overview of research on Dewey’s circle in China and the Chinese reformers influenced by Dewey during the Chinese Republican period. The second, which I prepared to mark the 2018 annual theme of the John Dewey Society, reviews Dewey’s writings on nationalism. Such research notes aim to introduce our readers to particular facets of Deweyan Scholarship. They are a starting place for inquiry that may orient the reader and give a sense of the existing literature on a topic, but are not necessarily to be taken as exhaustive bibliographies or fully-detailed discussions of the topic. Research notes may be solicited or volunteered. Readers engaged in research projects, including doctoral dissertations, are encouraged to submit such notes to Dewey Studies. Finally, the issue closes with a book review by Robin Friedman of Melville among the Philosophers, a collection of essays edited by Corey McCall and Tom Nurmi that reflects on the philosophical contexts of Melville’s work as well as Melville’s own philosophical ideas. Friedman selects for special attention chapters that bring out connections between Melville’s ideas and those of modern philosophers including William James and Edmund Husserl. Melville’s importance as a leader in the American literary Renaissance is established; Melville among the Philosophers brings Melville into play as an American philosopher, and will certainly be of interest to our readers. Authors and their publishers are invited to submit books to Dewey Studies for review. Readers are invited to suggest books for review, to volunteer to review, and to submit unsolicited reviews for consideration. Please contact Daniel Brunson, Reviews Editor, at [email protected]. Dewey Studies Vol 1 · No 2 · Fall 2017 PRAGMATIZING CRITICAL THEORY’S PROVINCE ROBERTO FREGA Marcel Mauss Institute at CNRS Whilst proximities between pragmatism and critical theory have been noted by several scholars, no attempt has been made so far to provide an all-encompassing philosophical interpretation of critical theory’s appraisal of pragmatist themes. Through an overview of critical theory’s engagement with American pragmatism in the works of Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, and Rahel Jaeggi, I provide a theoretical framework explaining the theoretical underpinning of such a project. Via the historical reconstruction of the ways in which pragmatist themes have been appropriated, I want to show that faced with major theoretical shortcomings in the works of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, their successors have generally resorted to pragmatists in the search for more promising solutions. This trend has concerned two major areas of critical theory: the methodological foundation of a critical theory of society and the identification of the political conditions under which social emancipation is possible. I contend that with respect to both themes a steady process of progressive pragmatization of the Frankfurt school of critical theory has been going on for more than half a century, and I contend that this project needs to be further completed if the threats of “normative defeatism” Habermas diagnosed in Horkheimer’s and Adorno’s later works is to be superseded once and for all. Volume 1 · Number 2 · Fall 2017 · Pages 4-47 Roberto Frega 5 n intense dialogue has being going on for more than fifty years within the Frankfurt