A Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 1999 In addition to being
one of the greatest technical philosophers of the twentieth
century, John Dewey (1859-1952) was an educational innovator, a
Progressive Era reformer, and one of America’s last great public
intellectuals. Dewey’s insights into the problems of public
education, immigration, the prospects for democratic government,
and the relation of religious faith to science are as fresh
today as when they were first published. His penetrating
treatments of the nature and function of philosophy, the ethical
and aesthetic dimensions of life, and the role of inquiry in
human experience are of increasing relevance at the turn of the
21st century. Based on the award-winning 37-volume critical
edition of Dewey’s work, The Essential Dewey presents for the
first time a collection of Dewey’s writings that is both
manageable and comprehensive. The volume includes essays and
book chapters that exhibit Dewey’s intellectual development over
time; the selection represents his