Dewey's hegelianism reconsidered: Reclaiming the lost soul of psychology

Abstract

The consensus among Dewey scholars is that the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel had a formative but transient influence on John Dewey's intellectual development. They contend that by the turn of the century Dewey discarded further pursuit of dialectical metaphysics and instead developed a non-idealist, materialist and even relativist conception of human experience. However, discovery of Dewey's manuscripts on Hegel, and his collaboration with infant experimentalist Myrtle McGraw in the 1930s suggest that Dewey persisted in his efforts to find non-reductionist psychological equivalents for mind, soul, and consciousness. Dewey believed that the consciousness of difference, uncertainty of direction, and contingency of order, made inhibition and judgment indispensable to the development of mind and soul, by enabling the dialectical growth and transformation of human experience.