Essays in Experimental Logic

John Dewey revolutionized how we think about thinking itself. In these fourteen essays, he argues that logic is not a sealed cathedral of pure deduction but a living laboratory where mind meets world. Knowledge, for Dewey, emerges from active inquiry, a messy, embodied process of reflection upon prior experience. He dismantles the notion of thought as isolated mental activity, insisting that knowing is inseparable from our engagements with reality. This is philosophy as experimental practice, not abstract speculation. The essays range from meticulous critiques of Russell's epistemology to nuanced distinctions between Dewey's instrumentalism and the pragmatism of James and Peirce. He examines how facts constrain ideas, how inquiry mediates between the external world and understanding, and develops a striking theory of the logic of values. This remains Dewey's most accessible account of his own philosophy.