Dewey Hates Hobbits

Abstract

In 2010, David Waddington published a paper in Studies in Philosophy of Education entitled “Troublesome Sentiments: The Origins of Dewey’s Antipathy to Children’s Imaginative Activities.” In this article, Waddington embarks on a genealogical account of Dewey’s “apparent hostility toward children’s imaginative pursuits.” (p. 351). This paper extends and refines Waddington’s argument, arguing that the distinction between fantasy and creative imagination is an important one to understanding Dewey. I conclude that Dewey’s antipathy is really focused on fantasy. This antipathy extends throughout much of his educational, psychological, and aesthetic work. Dewey’s distain for fantasy rests on his arguments about the creative and productive purposes of thought and activity. He feels that fantasy, dealing with the unreal and overly emotional aspects of thought, is unproductive and, occasionally, dangerous. I argue that this is an underestimation of fantasy, one that rests on a conflation of fantasy as an activity with the fantastic as subject matter. I argue that Dewey underestimates fantasy, demonstrating that it might serve the moral and aesthetic purposes that drive his account of imagination.