Reconstructing Deweyan Growth: The Significance of James Baldwin’s Moral Psychology

Abstract

In this paper I raise and respond to the question: Is John Dewey's un- derstanding of growth sufficiently responsive to problems associated with race and racism? I begin with a discussion of Dewey's essay Racial Prejudice and Friction, and show that Dewey lets a major objection to his response to racism and prejudice stand without comment. By focus- ing on this objection I will show that—by Dewey's own admission—one cannot grow morally without confronting aspects of moral psychology that Dewey downplayed in offering his response to racism. I will then show that James Baldwin's work offers resources that help us confront these aspects of moral psychology, and argue that bringing Dewey in conversation with Baldwin allows us to reconstruct our understanding of growth so that it becomes more responsive to problems associated with race and racism. In this paper I raise and respond to the question, Is John Dewey's understanding of growth sufficiently responsive to problems associated with race and racism? A growing number of scholars have asked similar questions of Dewey's philosophy. 1 These scholars generally start with an expression of disappointment—how could someone so concerned with social issues devote so little attention to the problem of racism—and conclude with some variant of the following: While Dewey's philosophy offers us resources that can help as we construct responses to problems of race and racism, his philosophy needs to be reconstructed (often by placing it in conversation with texts that more explicitly address these problems) in order to do so. 2 This will, in large part, be the approach I take in this paper. I begin with a discussion of Dewey's essay Racial Prejudice and Friction, and show that Dewey lets a major objection to his response to racism and prejudice stand without comment. By focusing on this objection I will show that—by Dewey's own admission—one cannot grow morally without confronting aspects of moral psychology that Dewey downplayed in offering his response to racism. I will then show that James Baldwin's work offers resources that help us confront these