John Dewey at Chicago
Courses Taught, 1894-1905
The information in this table was built up out of entries in University of Chicago' Annual Register. Unlike Smith's tables, which were constructed from course records, we have no evidence that the courses were actually taught. However, the listed courses will provide a means of check completeness of samples derived from the University's administrative files. The information should also prove useful to those investigating the early history of the Chicago School and its vision for philosophy, psychology and education.
The entries are color coded to reflect the departmental focus within which they were listed.
| Academic Year | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890s | 1900s | |||||||||||
| Course | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Description |
| Seminar in the Philosophy of Hegel | x | x | Hegel's lesser Logic and Philosophy of Mind, as translated by Wallace, will be made the basis of study. Points of connection with the thought of his predecessors, especially Kant and Spinoza, will be studied, and Hegel's own ideas will be further developed by reference to selected portions of the Phenomenology, the Philosophy of Law and the Aesthetics. For Graduate Students. | |||||||||
| Seminar: Introduction to Contemporary Metaphysical Thought | x | In this course Bradley's Appearance and Reality and Caird's Metaphysics will be taken as the basis for discussion. The aim will be (1) to trace the sources and the historic connections and contrasts of typical ideas, and (2) to develop independent thought on the subject-matter. It is believed that there are some advantages, for these purposes, in beginning with recent thought. | ||||||||||
| The Logic of Ethics | x | x | x | This course will undertake a critical examination of the nature and conditions of a scientific treatment of ethics. It will involve a discussion of the relation of ethics to physical and social science, and of the methods appropriate to ethical inquiry and statement. The chief ethical categories will be analyzed. the following concepts will be examined with reference to their content and scientific validity; Value, natural and moral; Standards of value and their application; the relation of Ideal to Fact in the ethical judgement; Law, physical and moral ; Freedom, its relation to law, causality, and responsibility | ||||||||
| (1901) This course will undertake a critical examination of the nature and conditions of a scientific treatment of ethics. For graduate students. | ||||||||||||
| The Psychology of Ethics | x | x | x | This course will give a review of the chief ethical problems and results so far as these can be stated in terms of individual psychology. It will include particularly the psychology of volition, taking up such topics as impulse, intention, deliberation, effort , desire and pleasure, motive, choice and overt action. In 1896, the course will be given in the Winter Quarter | ||||||||
| This course will include particularly the ethics of self-control and self-realization, and the significance of psychological analysis for ethical theory. For graduate students. | ||||||||||||
| Political Ethics | x | x | x | This course will approach the problems of ethics from the standpoint of social organization, as the preceding one does from the standpoint of the individual agent. The two courses are thus complementary. It will deal (1) with ethical statics, or the organized moral order, including a discussion of the ethical significance of social institutions, and of rights and duties as related to institutions; and (2) with ethical dynamics, or the nature and conditions of moral progress in society as a whole. For graduate students | ||||||||
| Sociology of Ethics | x | This course will approach the problems of ethics from the standpoint of social organization. In the autumn the ethical problems relating to the various institutions of society will be discussed; in the winter the ethical problems relating to the connection of the individual and society. For graduate students. | ||||||||||
| The Evolution of Morality | x | x | x | This course will give a general review of the typical facts in the growth of moral customs and ideals, with special reference to an inventory of the existing moral consciousness of civilization. The more primitive and savage forms of morality will be considered so far as they appear to throw light on the origin of more highly developed ideas. On this account special attention will be given to the tribal stage. A survey of the ethical development of the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman peoples will then be undertaken, to show the elements which, through their fusion in the first centuries of our era, formed the basis of our present concepts. For graduate students. | ||||||||
| (1901) This course will give a general review of the typical facts in the growth of moral customs and ideals. In the Autumn Quarter primitive human morality will be discussed, considering three or four types of tribal life and the ethical development of institutions and the individual of these types. The method pursued is that of social psychology. In the Winter Quarter the Hebrew, Greek and Roman Civilizations will be discussed as regards their contributions to present moral practices and ideas. For graduate students. | ||||||||||||
| The History of Political Ethics | x | x | x | This course will undertake a discussion of the types of thought concerning the ethics of social organization and progress, from Plato and Aristotle to the French Revolution. Particular attention will be given to the development of the theory of natural law among the Romans, and to the various forms of theory concerning the state of nature and of natural right and law which grew up from the speculations of Hobbes, Locke, and Grotius respectively. An historical account will also be given of the ideas concerning the relations of theory and practice (intelligence and will) on the social side, from Socrates onward. For graduate Students | ||||||||
| Nineteenth Century Ethical Thought | x | x | x | A sketch of the development of ethical theory from Herder in Germany, Rousseau in France, and James Mill in England, to the present. The aim will be, in particular, to trace the growth of the individualism of the eighteenth century over into the more organic social standpoint characteristic of the present century. The course will thus naturally conclude with a discussion of the bearing of recent evolutionary thought upon ethical theory. For graduate students | ||||||||
| Seminar: Methods of Psychological Observation | x | This course is designed (1) to enlist suitably prepared students for the cooperative study of methods already employed, particularly in child-study and in mental imagery; (2) to discuss methods of interpretation which will give positive value to the mass of facts already collected; and (3) to enable the student to undertake, on his own account, intelligent observation. It is designed for advanced students in psychology and pedagogy | ||||||||||
| History of Logic | x | This course will undertake a study of the origin and development of the typical logical attitudes and methods from the time of the reaction against the scholastic logic to the present time. | ||||||||||
| Seminar: Contemporary Ethics | x | x | This course will embrace the study of the writings of representatives of the chief schools in contemporary ethical thought, with especial reference to the modern development of the Kantian moral theory, and to the readjustment of Utilitarianism attempted through its combination with evolutionary thought. Green and Caird will be chosen as the representatives of the former movement; Stephen and Spencer of the latter. Alexander will be used as the type of combination of both modes of thought. Intuitionalism will be represented by Martineau. | |||||||||
| Seminar: Educational Method, General and Special | x | This course will take up the theoretical discussion of the principles underlying method, both in general and as applied to various subjects, and consider the points of identity and difference found in a variety of educational systems | ||||||||||
| Educational Psychology | x | This course will take up a number of psychological topics, such as attention and interest; habit, imagery, the training of the emotions and will; observation and reasoning power, and discuss them with especial reference to the methods of instruction and the subjects of the curriculum. In the latter connection psychology of language, number, manual construction and art will receive special attention. | ||||||||||
| Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century | x | This course will attempt to give the general point of view assumed by the various chief tendencies in reflective thought during the present century. Without going into minute detail, it will endeavor to characterize and interpret the main features of the transcendental, scientific, democratic and aesthetic schools. It will thus be adapted to the needs of student of Literature and of History, as well as of Philosophy. | ||||||||||
| Seminar: Problems in Metaphysics | Spencer's First Priniciples and Bradley's Appearance and Reality will be made the basis of discussion; Bradley's not so much with reference to his own theory, as on account of the thoroughness with which he states the problems involved in a number of fundamental conceptions. Lotze's Metaphysics will be used in connection. These courses are open only to those students having had one year of graduate work or its equivalent. | |||||||||||
| Theory of Criticism and Interpretations | x | Two processes are involved in criticism: one of original creation or construction, the other of reflective interpretation of the results thus produced. A consideration of the logic and psychology of these processes, and of the function of the second in regard to the first would appear to determine the philosophy of method in criticism. Topics involved are thus, on the creative side, the psychology of perception and apprehension of crude material, of imagination, of expression, and of the place of symbols and technique in the latter; on the critical side, the value of reflex judgment and the various forms it assumes. No attempt will be made to cover the whole ground; but simply those aspects which lie closest to literary and historical interpretation. | ||||||||||
| Method in Instruction | x | Omitting the field of method in education in general, this course will take up the question of method in the arrangement of material for the recitation, and the conduct of the latter. Discussion will center about the formal steps of the Herbartians and will endeavor on the basis of elementary psychology and logic to apply principles regarding the normal movement of the mind to the problem of securing the maximum efficiency in instruction and learning. | ||||||||||
| The Philosophy of Education | x | This will discuss the end, nature, materials, and method of education. Under the topic of end, the various historical ideals will be discussed (humanistic, utilitarian, disciplinary, etc.) and their relations to one another on the basis of philosophic principles shown. Its nature will involve a discussion of the relation of education to social life on one side, and to the development of the individual on the other. The question of materials is that of the content of the curriculum and the educational values of the various studies, the criterion used being social. Method involves a discussion of the psychology of the process of learning, its relation to the subject-matter of the curriculum, the significance of construction and expression, of perception, image and attention. This course will discuss general principles rather than details. | ||||||||||
| The Theory of Logic | x | x | x | x | The course as a whole is designed to advance a critical and constructive theory of the logical functions: judgment, conception, and inference. In the first quarter special attention will be paid to the distinction and relations of the logical or reflective attitude to that of direct or practical activity, involving a discussion of the relations of logic and psychology to each other and to common experience. The idea as to the place and purport of thought thus reached will be used as a basis for considering the nature of judgment, and the problems connected therewith, involving discussion of theories of Bradley, Bosanquet, Lotze, Sigwart, et al.. In the Winter quarter the special modes of judgment, qualitative, quantitative, categorical, and hypothetical, etc., will be considered as phases of development of the judging process. In the Spring Quarter, the problems involved in the relation of inference to judgment, to truth, and in the various modes of reasoning, inductive, deductive, experimental, and syllogistic, etc., will be considered. | |||||||
| (1903) This course as a whole is designed to advance a critical and constructive theory of the logical functions: judgment, conception, and inference. They will be discussed in relation to one another, and the relation of thought to experience and reality will be considered. Texts: Lotze, Mill and Studies in Logical Theory. | ||||||||||||
| Seminar: History of Modern Political Ethics | x | The object of the course is to discover the origin and development of the chief concepts dominating political philosophy from the sixteenth to the present century. The beginning will be made with Hobbes in England and Grotius upon the Continent. Attention will be directed to the connection of the theories with their contemporary political conditions. Some attention also will be given to comparing the political theory of the writers taken up with their ethical and psychological writings. | ||||||||||
| Evolution of Educational Theory | x | This course is intended for those who already have a fair acquaintance with the history of educational thought, and who wish to extend and interpret their knowledge by brining it into closer connection with general intellectual and social progress. Typical phases of Graeco-Roman, Mediaeval, Renascence, and modern educational writings will therefore be taken up, endeavoring to show their significance and place in the larger movement of civilization. Lectures, and preparation of theses. | ||||||||||
| Seminar: History of Logical Theory in Greek Thought | x | The seminar will discuss problems relating to the origin and elaboration of canons and forms of logical thought from the Sophists to Aristotle. Open only to those having had at least one year's graduate work in philosophy (besides Course 3) equivalents of courses 4-6 and either 33 or 42. | ||||||||||
| Elementary Education: General Principles | x | The course will discuss the standpoint and aims of education below the high school, taking up general problems of subject-matter of curriculum and fundamental principles, psychological and social, of methods of presentation. Principles will be illustrated by the work of selected schools, especially of the Pedagogical School conducted by the department. Syllabi of the work there will be studied; conferences with its instructors held; and observation, reports and essays on some subjects required. In special cases, members of the class will be permitted to teach, under supervision, lessons prepared. | ||||||||||
| Principles in Education | x | A discussion of the philosophy of education, with special reference to a survey of the contemporary education situation: elementary, secondary, collegiate, and technological. | ||||||||||
| Psychological Basis of Education | x | A discussion of the epochs of growth in relation to matter and method of instruction, and of the organic principles and phases of growth, considered as furnishing the educational interpretation of habit and attention, and their various applications. Observational work in the University Pedagogical and other selected schools will be required. | ||||||||||
| Contemporary Idealism | x | A comparison of the standpoints of Green, Bradley and Royce. For advanced graduate students only | ||||||||||
| Seminar: Philosophy Method | x | An examination of the logical presuppositions of contemporary philosophy. | ||||||||||
| Special Concepts | x | For candidates for the Doctor's degree having philosophy as principal or secondary subject. Occasional meetings through the year. No credit is given for this course. | ||||||||||
| Seminar: Contemporary Theories Regarding Ethical Relations of Individual and Society | x | |||||||||||
| Logical Methods in Relation to Education | x | A discussion of the experimental, deductive and inductive, and historical methods as applied to subject of the curriculum. | ||||||||||
| Seminar: The Evolution of the Curriculum in the Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries | x | With reference to general social and intellectual conditions | ||||||||||
| Seminar: Philosophical Problems | x | An examination of the logical presuppositions of contemporary philosophy | ||||||||||
| Philosophical Method | x | A discussion of the method of determining fundamental philosophical concepts. | ||||||||||
| Seminar: Conflict of Studies in the Curriculum | x | With special reference to the conflict between the humanities and science. Open only after special consultation with the instructor. | ||||||||||
