Lexington Books Dewey's Critical Pragmatism

Dewey's Critical Pragmatism explores the critical potential of John Dewey's democratic vision. By reconstructing critical dimensions of Dewey's approach to epistemology, philosophy, pedagogy, and politics, Alison Kadlec develops a model of pragmatism that speaks to both radical and deliberative democratic theory. Critical pragmatism proceeds from the claim that the point of reflective inquiry is not to establish or justify principles of transcendental universality, but rather to improve our individual and shared capacity to tap into the critical potential of lived experience in a world characterized by change and flux. Dewey's Critical Pragmatism is geared toward recovering aspects of Dewey's work that have been persistently misunderstood or simply neglected. Kadlec posits that it is in the realm of contemporary deliberative democratic theory and practice that the greatest significance of critical pragmatism lies.