DEWEY,JOHN AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF DEMOCRACY

Although Dewey rejects the traditional ancient and modern ways of attempting to find a standard of rightness in nature, he is not the sort of anti-traditional philosopher one would suppose he is from reading Rorty's account of him. This article first explains how Dewey's defense of democratic government rests on the core of his metaphysics. Then it contrasts Dewey's and Rorty's political teachings; Dewey finds infeasible the kind of fragmentation of private and public conduct that Rorty sanctions. Finally, it returns to Dewey's fundamental article of faith, that the experimental method is the method of successful inquiry, to suggest further exploration of the relation between philosophy and faith, on the grounds that he fails to explore it adequately. © 1991.