Dewey: Back to the Future

Abstract

Institutional economics, especially the tradition associated with Clarence Ayres, claims John Dewey as an important part of its intellectual heritage. Many institutional economists rely entirely on Ayres' interpretation of Dewey. The following discussion uses some of Dewey's views on technology and science as an entry point for bringing Dewey's philosophy back into the conversation of institutional economics. Implicitly throughout and explicitly in several instances, Dewey's own views are compared critically to those of Ayres. The intended audience includes not only institutionalists who invoke Dewey's name but also those who are sympathetic to an institutionalist approach to the study of the economy but who are dismissive of pragmatism. I Finally, there are the younger generations of American institutionalists who have turned away or drifted away from the pragmatic roots of institutionalism. Neither nostalgia nor reverence for intellectual heroes nor a pedantic concern for exegesis motivates the discussion below. The broader purpose is to provide a sense of the character and value of Dewey's thought, which I think is necessary in light of the distortion, neglect, and error in the interpretation of his work. Dewey still provides a philosophical alternative both to pretentious scientism and to trendy obscurantism.2 If institutional economics-and social science in general-has a future as a progressive scientific discipline, going back to Dewey increases the chances for success. This is a long