Dewey's Critical Pragmatism - by Alison Kadlec (Hardcover)

About the Book

Dewey's Critical Pragmatism centers on the idea that Dewey is a more radical thinker than he has previously be credited as. His critical pragmatism has a great deal to offer contemporary deliberative democracy theory and practice.

Book Synopsis

Dewey's Critical Pragmatism centers on the idea that Dewey is a more radical thinker than he has previously be credited as. His critical pragmatism has a great deal to offer contemporary deliberative democracy theory and practice.

Review Quotes

Alison Kadlec draws out the critical power of Dewey's pragmatism, a pragmatism that questions at every turn vested interests, the status quo, entrenched bureaucracies, social inequality, and all other forces that lent weight to Lippmann's complaint that the public was little more than a phantom. Kadlec takes to task those critics who thought that Dewey had nothing concrete to say about power and politics. Beautifully written, this book shows how Dewey's focus on developing social intelligence and attending to live experience paved the way for a conception of democratic politics that we could use now more than ever.

Alison Kadlec's splendid work, Dewey's Critical Pragmatism, makes a major contribution to understanding John Dewey as an extremely important democratic theorist and political activist who has much to contribute to critical studies, deliberative democracy, and the larger work of building vital democratic societies for the 21st century. In the process of her pioneering reconceptualization of Dewey's philosophy and practice, she also establishes herself at the front ranks of both Dewey scholars and deliberative democrats.

Kadlec has done a great service by bridging gaps between critical theory, pragmatism, and deliberative democracy, bringing these traditions into fruitful conversation. Linking practice together with theory, quality scholarship with political experience, she offers new design principles for deliberative forums. Everyone seeking to understand democratic ideas and practices should read this book. It is a major achievement.

This book by Alison Kadlec is a welcome addition to the scholarship on American philosopher John Dewey and pragmatism. . . . A worthwhile book.

About the Author

Alison Kadlec is senior research associate and associate director at the Center for Advances in Public Engagement.