The Right vs. the Good: John Dewey on Ethics
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Erik Lundestad
Abstract
The paper focuses on why John Dewey, in his revised 1932 edition of Ethics, came to perceive the right as (relatively) independent from the good and on the consequences this has for his own classical version of pragmatism. It is argued that whereas Dewey is correct in making this revision, he himself never found a way of uniting this novel insight with his pragmatic project as presented in (among other places) the original 1908 editon of Ethics, or other central works such as Human Nature and Conduct and The Quest for Certainty. The reason for this, it is argued, is that whereas Dewey is correct in claiming that it is neither satisfactory to view the right merely as dependent on, or merely as independent from, the good, these two approaches ought to be perceived as two distinct perspectives on the self that it is both necessary and desirable to keep apart from each other.
© Walter de Gruyter 2010
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- Explanation Arguments for Scientific Realism and Theism – Faulty or Restricted in Scope?
- The Right vs. the Good: John Dewey on Ethics
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Articles in the same Issue
- Causal Exclusion and the Preservation of Causal Sufficiency
- Will and Narrative: Kierkegaard's Notion of the Person
- Explanation Arguments for Scientific Realism and Theism – Faulty or Restricted in Scope?
- The Right vs. the Good: John Dewey on Ethics
- This Entrance Was Only Meant For You – Towards a Metaphysics of the Culture of Complaint
- Musical Representation and the Evaluation of Musical Performances
- Rehabilitating Ernst Cassirer and his Philosophy – Four Recent Contributions
