LATER DEVELOPMENTS
Neo-realism began to flourish in this country after 1900, its rise being
nearly contemporary with the spread of pragmatism. Many neo-realists,
indeed, consider themselves followers of James. Dewey views the new
realism, along with pragmatism and 'naturalistic idealism,' as "part and
parcel of a general movement of intellectual reconstruction."[249] The
neo-realists, like the pragmatists, have been active in the field of
controversy, and the pages of the _Journal of Philosophy, Psychology,
and Scientific Methods_ are filled with exchanges between the
representatives of the two schools, in the form of notes, articles,
discussions, agreements, and disclaimers. Dewey has more sympathy for
realism than for idealism. He finds among the writers of this school,
however, a tendency toward the epistemological interpretation of thought
which he so strongly opposes. An excellent statement of his estimate of
realism is furnished by his "Brief Studies in Realism," published in the
_Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods_, in
1911.[250]
In beginning these studies Dewey observes that certain idealistic
writers (not named) have been employing in support of their idealism
certain facts which have an obvious physical nature and explanation.
Such illusions as that of the bent stick in the water, the converging
railway tracks, and the double image that occurs when the eye-ball is
pressed, have, as the realists have well proved, a physical explanation
which is entirely adequate. Why is it that the idealists remain
unimpressed by this demonstration? There is a certain element in the
realistic explanation which undoubtedly explains the reluctance of the
idealists to be convinced. "Many realists, in offering the type of
explanation adduced above, have treated the cases of seen light,
doubled imagery, as perception in a way that ascribes to perception an
inherent cognitive status. They have treated the perceptions as _cases
of knowledge_, instead of as simply natural events...."[251]
Dewey draws a distinction, at this point, between naive and presentative
realism, employing, by way of illustration, the 'star' illusion, which
turns upon the peculiar fact that a star may be seen upon the earth long
after it has ceased to exist. The naive realist remains in the sphere of
natural explanation. He accounts for the star illusion in physical
terms. The astronomical star and the perceived star are two physical
events within a continuous physical order or process. But the
presentative realist maintains that, since the two stars are numerically
separate, the astronomical star must be the 'real' star, while the
perceived star is merely mental; the real star exists in independence of
a knowing subject, while the perceived star is related to a mind. The
naive realist has no need of the hypothesis of a knower, since he can
furnish an adequate physical account of the numerical duplicity of the
star. Dewey favors the naive standpoint, and affirms that presentative
realism is tainted by an epistemological subjectivism. "Once depart," he
says, "from this thorough naivete, and substitute for it the
psychological theory that perception is a cognitive presentation of an
object to a mind, and the first step is taken on the road which ends in
an idealistic system."[252]
The presentative realist, Dewey continues, finds himself possessed of
two kinds of knowledge, when he comes to take account of inference; for
inference is "in the field as an obvious and undisputed case of
knowledge." There is the knowledge of perception by a knower, and the
inferential knowledge which passes beyond perception. All reality,
consequently, is related, directly or indirectly, to the knowing
subject, and idealism is triumphant. But the real difficulty of the
realist's position is that, if perception is a mode of knowing, it
stands in unfavorable contrast with knowledge by inference. How can the
inferred reality of the star be established, considering the
subjectivity of all perception?
Dewey is alert to the dangers which result from subjectivism, but does
not distinguish, as carefully as he might, between knowledge as
inference, and knowledge as perceptual awareness. Thus, while it might
be granted that the subjective mind is a vicious abstraction, it does
not follow that Dewey's particular interpretation of the function of
inference is correct. And, although the "unwinking, unremitting eye" of
the subjective knower might make experience merely a mental affair,
there is no reason to believe that the operation of inference in
perception would lead to the same result, for inference and awareness
are quite distinct, in historical meaning and function. It is, in fact,
a mere accident that inference and awareness (in the subjective sense)
should both be called knowledge.
In opposition to presentative realism, Dewey offers his 'naturalistic'
interpretation of knowledge.[253] He finds that the function of
inference, "although embodying the logical relation, is itself a natural
and specifically detectable process among natural things--it is not a
non-natural or epistemological relation, that is, a relation to a mind
or knower not in the natural series...."[254] As has been observed,
Dewey is safe in maintaining that inference is _not_ an operation
performed by a subjective knower, but it does not follow from this that
his interpretation of inference is correct. In fact, a discussion of
inference is irrelevant to the matters which Dewey is here considering.
In the second part of the essay, the discussion passes into a keen and
rather clever recital of the difficulties that result from taking the
knowledge relation to be 'ubiquitous.'[255] Since this relation is a
constant factor in experience, it would seem as if it might be
eliminated from philosophical calculations. The realist would be glad to
eliminate it, but the idealist is not so willing; for, "since the point
at issue is precisely the statement of the most universally defining
trait of existence as existence, the invitation deliberately to
disregard the most universal trait is nothing more or less than an
invitation to philosophic suicide."[256] It is, Dewey says, as if two
philosophers should set out to ascertain the relation which holds
between an organism as 'eater' and the environment as 'food,' and one
should find the essential thing to be the food, the other the eating.
The 'foodists' would represent the realists, the 'eaterists' the
idealists. No advance, he believes, can be made on this basis.
In opposition to the epistemologists, Dewey would consider the knowledge
relation not ubiquitous, but specific and occasional. As man bears other
relations to his environment than that of eater, so is he also something
more than a knower. "If the one who is knower is, in relation to
objects, something else and more than their knower, and if objects are,
_in relation to the one who knows them_, something else and other than
things in a knowledge relation, there is somewhat to define and
discuss...."[2] Dewey proposes to advance certain facts to support his
contention that knowing is "a relation to things which depends upon
other and more primary connections between a self and things; a relation
which grows out of these more fundamental connections and which operates
in their interests at specifiable crises."[257]
This brings the discussion back to familiar ground again, and nothing is
added to his previous statements of the functional conception of
knowledge. While the realist (explicitly or implicitly) conceives the
knowledge relation as obtaining between a subject knower and the
external world, Dewey interprets the knowledge relation in terms of
organism and environment. The 'ubiquity' of the knowledge relation is
disposed of, as has been seen, by conceiving knowledge from an entirely
different standpoint; by reducing all knowledge to inference, and
abolishing the knowing subject. Dewey is plainly under the impression
that the only alternative to the ubiquitous knower is his naturalistic,
biological interpretation of the processes of inference.
In support of his naturalistic logic, Dewey argues as follows: (1) All
perception involves reference to an organism. "We might about as well
talk of the production of a specimen case of water as a presentation of
water to hydrogen as talk in the way we are only too accustomed to talk
about perceptions and the organism."[258] (2) Awareness is only a single
phase of experience. We 'know' only a small part of the causes which
affect us as agents. "This means, of course, that things, the things
that come to be _known_, are primarily not objects of awareness, but
causes of weal and woe, things to get and things to avoid, means and
obstacles, tools and results."[259] (3) Knowing is only a special phase
of the behaver-enjoyer-sufferer situation, but very important as having
to do with means for the practical and scientific control of the
environment.
In the final analysis, it will be seen that Dewey refutes the realist by
substituting inference for what the realist calls 'consciousness,' and
settling the issue by this triumph in the field of dialectics, rather
than by an appeal to the facts. Nowhere does Dewey do justice to those
concrete situations which, to the realist, seem to necessitate a
definition of consciousness as awareness. His attitude toward the
realists may be summed up in the statement that he finds in most
realistic systems the fault to which his logical theory is especially
opposed: the tendency to define the problem of logic as that of the
relation of thought at large to reality at large, and to distinguish the
content of mind from the content of the world on an existential rather
than on a functional basis.
One of Dewey's more recent studies, "The Logic of Judgments of
Practise,"[260] seems to add something positive to his interpretation of
knowledge. A practical judgment, Dewey explains at the outset of this
study, is differentiated from others, not by having a separate organ and
source, but by having a specific sort of subject-matter. It is concerned
with things to be done or situations demanding action. "He had better
consult a physician," and "It would be well for you to invest in these
bonds," are examples of the practical judgment.
These propositions, as will be seen, are not cast in what the logician
calls logical form, with regular terms and copula. When put in that
form, they seem to lose the direct reference to action which, Dewey
says, differentiates them from the 'descriptive' judgment of the form
_S_ is _P_.[261] This apparently trivial matter is really important.
Although every statement embodies judgment, some statements do not
reflect the ground upon which they are asserted. In this condition they
may be viewed as opinions, suggestions, or guesses, looking towards
judgment rather than reflecting its results. True judgment is occupied
with reasons, proofs, and grounds, and does not concern itself with
action as action. Only when taken as the expression of an individual's
attitude, do Dewey's practical judgments (or assertions) possess the
direct reference to action which he selects as their chief
characteristic. The statement, "You ought to invest in these bonds,"
does, indeed, suggest a specific action, but in so doing it loses its
character as a judgment. Put in more logical form, "You are one of those
who should invest in these bonds," the proposition is more clearly the
expression of a judgment, and leads back to its premises. Attention
turns from specific action as such to action as a typical or universal
fact. In short, Dewey's practical judgment is not a true judgment; it
will be seen that it is studied, not as a logical, but as a
psychological phenomenon.
In pursuance of his psychological method, Dewey discovers several
interesting facts about judgments of practice.(1) These judgments imply
an incomplete situation,--concretely and specifically incomplete; they
express a need. (2) The judgment is itself a factor in assisting toward
the completion of the situation, since it directs an action necessary to
the fulfilment of the need. (3) The subject-matter of the judgment
expresses the fact that one outcome is to be preferred to another. The
element of preference is peculiar to the practical judgment, for it is
not found in merely descriptive judgments, or those 'confined to the
given.' (4) A practical judgment implies both means and end, the act
that completes, and the completeness. It is in this respect 'binary.'
(5) The judgment of what is to be done demands an accurate statement of
the course of action to be pursued and the means to be employed, and
these are to be determined relatively to the end in view. (6) It finally
appears that what is true of the practical judgment may be true of all
judgments of fact; it may be held that "all judgments of fact have
reference to a determination of courses of action to be tried and the
discovery of means for their attempted realization."[262]
This ingenious reading of functionalism out of the practical judgment
is, after all, merely a drawing forth of the psychological implications
previously placed in it. That judgment is an instrument for completing a
situation; that it is linked up with action through desire and
preference; that it seeks to determine the means for effecting a
practical outcome,--these typically instrumental notions are of one
piece with the system of belief that led Dewey to hit upon the practical
judgment as the embodiment of a direction to action. It is important to
distinguish between the logical and the psychological aspects of these
propositions. Action as psychological is one thing; as the
subject-matter of judgment, it is another. In coming to a decision as to
how to act, the agent sets his proposed action over against himself, and
considers it in its universal and typical character. His motor
tendencies, his feelings, his desires factor in the situation
psychologically considered; but they do not enter judgment as
psychological facts, but rather, if at all, as data which have a
significance beyond their mere particularity. Dewey remains at the
psychological standpoint, giving no attention to the genuinely logical
aspects of his 'judgments of practice.'
From the study of the practical judgment, Dewey passes on to a
consideration of judgments of value, proposing to maintain that "value
judgments are a species of practical judgments."[263] There will be a
distinct gain for moral and economic theory, he believes, in treating
value as concerned with acts necessary to complete a given
need-situation. There is no obvious reason why Dewey should pass to the
pragmatic theory of value through the medium of the practical judgment,
since it could be directly considered on its own account. At any rate,
the discussion of value judgments which follows must stand on its own
merits; it has no vital relation to what precedes.
It is, as usual, the psychological characteristics of the value judgment
that attract Dewey's attention. Any process of judgment, according to
his analysis, deals with a specific subject-matter, not from the
standpoint of any objective quality it may possess, but with reference
to its functional capacity. "Relative, or comparative, durability,
cheapness, suitability, style, esthetic attractiveness [_e. g._, in a
suit of clothes] constitute value traits. They are traits of objects not
_per se_, but _as entering into a possible and foreseen completing of
the situation_. Their value is their force in precisely this
function."[264]
Attention should not be distracted from this interpretation of value,
Dewey warns, through confusing the value sought with the price or market
value of the goods. Price values, like the qualities and patterns of the
goods, are data which must be considered in making the judgment, but
they are not the values which the judgment seeks. The value to be
determined is here, is specific, and must be established by reference to
the specific or psychological situation as it presents itself.
It is true, as Dewey says, that in judgment a value is being established
which has not been determined previously. But it must be insisted that
this value is not estimated by reference to the specific situation in
its limited aspects. The weight of the past bears against the moment;
the act of judgment bases itself upon knowledge objective and
substantial; the test of the value of the thing is its place and
function, not in the here and now, but in the whole system of
experience. Dewey has excluded the reference of the thing to objective,
organized reality, by specifying that its value shall be decided upon
with reference to a specific situation. This limitation of the judgment
situation is imposed upon it from without, and from a special point of
view,--that of functional psychology. Every object and every situation
has its quality of uniqueness and particularity; but the judgment, as
judgment, is not concerned with this aspect of things. Judgment seizes
upon the generic aspect of objects; this kind of a suit of clothes is
the kind that is appropriate to this type of situation. The movement of
judgment is objective and universal, not subjective and psychological.
Dewey finds one alternative especially opposed to his 'specific'
judgment of value; that is, the proposition that evaluation involves a
comparison of the present object with some fixed standard. When the
fixed standard is investigated, it is found to depend on something else,
and this on something else again in an infinite regress. Finally, the
_Summum Bonum_, as the absolute end term of such a _regressus_, turns
out to be a fiction. Dewey is quite right in maintaining that value is
not something eternally fixed. This does not, however, remove the
possibility of 'real' value, as opposed to mere expediency.
Value as established, Dewey continues, must be taken into consideration
in making a value judgment. At the same time, it will not do to accept
the established value from mere force of habit. Ultimately, he finds,
all genuine valuation implies a degree of revaluation. "To many," he
observes, "it will appear to be a survival of an idealistic
epistemology,"[265] presumably because it implies a real change in
reality, as opposed to a fixed and rigid order of external reality. But
practical judgments, Dewey says, as having reference to proposed acts,
necessarily look toward some proposed change which the act is to effect.
It is not in an epistemological, but in a practical sense, that judgment
involves a change in values.
The outcome of the discussion so far, Dewey believes, is to show, first
of all, that "the passage of a proposition into action is not a miracle,
but the realization of its own character--its own meaning as
logical,"[266] and, in the second place, to suggest that all judgments,
not merely practical ones, may have their import in reference to some
difference to be brought about through action.
In the third part of the essay, Dewey's discussion leads him back to
sense perceptions as forms of practical judgment. There is no doubt, in
his mind, that many perceptions do have an import for action. Not merely
sign-posts, and familiar symbols of the kind, but many perceptions
lacking this obvious reference, have a significance for conduct. It must
not, of course, be supposed that all perception, at any one time, has
cognitive properties; for some of the perceptions have esthetic, and
other non-cognitive properties. Only certain elements of a situation
have the function of cognition.
Dewey goes on to say that care must be taken in the use made of these
sign-functions in connection with inference. "There is a great
difference between saying that the perception of a shape affords an
indication of how to act and saying that the perception of shape is
itself an inference."[267] No judgment, Dewey seems to imply, is
involved in responding to the motor cue furnished by a familiar object.
Again, the common idea that present perception consists of sensations as
immediate, plus inferred images, implies that every perception involves
inference. But the merging of sensations and images in perception can be
explained naturally, by the fusion of nervous processes, and no
supplementary (transcendental) act of mind is needed to explain the
integrity of experience.
The tendency to take perception as the object of knowledge, Dewey
continues, instead of as simply cognitive, a term in knowledge, is due
to two chief causes. The first is that in practical judgments the
pointing of the thing towards action is so universal a trait as to be
overlooked, and the second is that signs, because of their importance,
become objects of study on their own account, and in this condition
cease to function directly as cognitive. Dewey means, apparently, that
because the cognitive aspect of things is never attended to except when
they are 'known,' or treated as objects of judgment, there is a tendency
to suppose that they always have the character that pertains to them as
'known' things.
Again, Dewey says, perception may be translated as the effect of a cause
that produced it. But the cause does not ordinarily appear in
experience, and the perceptions, as effects, remain isolated from the
system of things. Truth and error then become matters of the relation of
the perception to its cause. The difficulties attendant upon this view
can be avoided by taking sense perceptions as terms in practical
judgments. Here the 'other term' which is sought is the action proposed
by the perception. "To borrow an illustration of Professor Woodbridge's:
A certain sound indicates to the mother that her baby needs attention.
If there is error it is not because the sound ought to mean so many
vibrations of the air, while as matter of fact it doesn't even suggest
air vibrations, but because there is wrong inference as to the act to be
performed."[268] The idea is tested, not by its correspondence with some
formal reality, but by its ability to lead up to the experience to which
it points.
From the consideration of error as cognitive, Dewey passes on to
consider its status as primitive sense data. He draws a distinction
between sensation as psychological and as logical. Ordinary sensation,
just as it comes, is often too confused to serve as a basis for
inference. "It has often been pointed out that sense qualities being
just what they are, it is illegitimate to introduce such notions as
obscurity or confusion into them: a slightly illuminated color is just
as irretrievably what it is, as clearly itself, as an object in the
broad glare of noon-day."[269] But when a confused object is made a
datum for inference, its confusion is just the thing to be got rid of.
It is broken up by analysis into simple elements, and the psychologist's
sensations are logical products, not psychological facts. "Locke writes
a mythology of the history of knowledge, starting from clear and
distinct meanings, each simple, well-defined, sharply and unambiguously
just what it is on its face, without concealments and complications, and
proceeds by 'natural' compoundings up to the store of complex ideas, and
the perception of simple relations of agreement among ideas: a
perception always certain if the ideas are simple, and always
controllable in the case of the complex ideas if we consider the simple
ideas and connections by which they are reached. Thus he established the
habit of taking logical discriminations as historical or psychological
primitives--as 'sources' of beliefs and knowledge instead of as checks
upon inference."[270] This way of treating perception found its way into
psychology and into empirical logic. The acceptance of the doctrine that
all sense involves knowledge, Dewey believes, leads to an
epistemological logic; but all perception must involve thought if the
'given' is the simple sensation.
There is nothing especially new in this critique of sensationalism.
Historically, sensationalism had been displaced by idealism, and the
idea that reality is a construct of ideas held together by logical
relations was given up long before functionalism arrived on the scene.
But if inference, or rationality, is not present in all experience as
the combiner of simple into complex ideas, it may be present in some
other form, even more vital. Dewey, however, does not consider such
possibilities.
Finally, in an article of slightly earlier date than the studies which
have just been considered, Dewey returns to a consideration of
metaphysics, and the possibility of a metaphysical standpoint in
philosophy. This article, entitled "The Subject-Matter of Metaphysical
Inquiry,"[271] deserves careful notice.
The comments of a number of mechanistic biologists on vitalism furnish
the point of departure for Dewey's discussion. These scientists hold
that, if the organism is considered simply as a part of external nature,
as an existing system, it can be satisfactorily analyzed by the methods
of physico-chemical science. But if the question of ultimate origins is
raised, if it be asked _why_ nature exhibits certain innate
potentialities for producing life, science can give no answer. These
questions belong to metaphysics, and vitalistic or biocentric
conceptions may be valid in the metaphysical sphere.
This raises the question of the nature of metaphysical inquiry. Dewey
says that the ultimate traits or tendencies which give rise to life need
not necessarily be considered ultimate in a temporal sense. On the
contrary, they may be viewed as permanent, 'irreducible traits,' which
are ultimate in the sense of being always present in reality. The
inquiry and search for these ultimate traits is what constitutes valid
metaphysics. "They are found equally and indifferently whether a
subject-matter in question be dated 1915 or ten million years B. C.
Accordingly, they would seem to deserve the name of ultimate, or
irreducible, traits. As such they may be made the object of a kind of
inquiry differing from that which deals with the genesis of a particular
group of existences, a kind of inquiry to which the name metaphysical
may be given."[272]
The irreducible traits which Dewey finds are, in the physical sciences,
plurality, interaction, and change. "These traits have to be begged or
taken in any case," for wherever and whenever we take the world, we must
explain it as "a plurality of diverse interacting and changing
existences."[273] The evolutionary sciences add another trait; that is,
evolution, or development in a direction. "For evolution appears to be
just one of the irreducible traits. In other words, it is a fact to be
reckoned with in considering the traits of diversity, interaction, and
change which have been enumerated as among the traits taken for granted
in all scientific subject-matter."[274]
The doctrine that plurality, interaction, change, and evolution are
permanent traits of reality gains in clearness when contrasted with the
opposed theories which involve creation, absolute origins, or temporal
ultimates. The term 'ultimate origins' may be taken in a merely relative
sense which is valid. The French language has an origin in the Latin
tongues, which is an ultimate origin for French, but this is not an
absolutely ultimate origin, since the Latin tongues, in their turn,
have origins. It is, for instance, meaningless to inquire into the
ultimate origin of the world as a whole; and it is equally futile to
trace any part of the world back to an absolute origin. "That scientific
inquiry does not itself deal with any question of ultimate origins,
except in the purely relative sense already indicated, is, of course,
recognized. But it also seems to follow from what has been said that
scientific inquiry does not generate, or leave over, such a question for
some other discipline, such as metaphysics, to deal with."[275]
Theories like that of Laplace, for instance, trace the world back to an
origin in some undifferentiated universe; or, in Spencer's terms, some
state of homogeneity. From this original state the world is said to
evolve. But the undifferentiated mass lacks the plurality, interaction,
and change which are presupposed in all scientific explanation. These
traits must be present before development can occur. "To get change we
have to assume other structures which interact with it, existences not
covered by the formula."[276] In short, although Dewey only implies
this, all scientific explanation presupposes a system of interacting
parts; nothing can be explained by reference to an undifferentiated
world which lacks such traits.
Dewey is particularly interested in the origin of mind or intelligence.
In dealing with mind, he says, we must begin with the present, and in
the present we find that the world has an organization, "in spots," of
the kind we call intelligence. This existing intelligence cannot be
explained by any theory which reduces it to something inferior. The
"attempt to give an account of any occurrence involves the genuine and
irreducible existence of the thing dealt with."[277] Mind cannot be
explained by being explained away, nor can it be explained as a
development out of an original source in which the potentiality, or
direction of change towards mind, was lacking.
The evolution of things, Dewey says, is a real fact, and is to be
reckoned with. Moreover, if everything that exists changes, then the
evolution of life and mind surely have a bearing on the nature of
physico-chemical things. They must have in them the trait of direction
of change towards life and mind. "To say, accordingly, that the
existence of vital, intellectual, and social organization makes
impossible a purely mechanistic metaphysics is to say something which
the situation calls for."[278] In other words, the world, metaphysically
considered, must have evolution, as well as the physico-chemical traits.
"Without a doctrine of evolution we might be able to say, not that
matter _caused_ life, but that matter under certain conditions of highly
complicated and intensified interaction is living. With the doctrine of
evolution, we can add to this statement that the interactions and
changes of matter are themselves of a kind to bring about that complex
and intensified interaction which is life."[279] Dewey holds that
evolution rests upon the reality of time: "time itself, or genuine
change in a specific direction, is itself one of the ultimate traits of
the world irrespective of date."[280]
This article presents on the whole a distinct advance over the position
taken in the earlier essay, "Some Implications of Anti-Intellectualism,"
which was reviewed in the last chapter. Dewey is not now, to be sure,
instituting a wholesale inquiry into the nature of being, but he betrays
an interest in the general, as opposed to the specific traits of
reality. He inquires into the real nature of the world, and believes
that he discovers its ultimate traits. This essay, of course, is
incomplete, and consequently indefinite in certain important respects.
It may be said, nevertheless, to give an accurate view of the
metaphysical back-ground against which all of Dewey's theories are
projected. His metaphysics, as would be expected, are evolutionary
throughout, and evolution is conceived, where he is at all definite, in
biological terms.
FOOTNOTES:
[249] _Influence of Darwin on Philosophy_, Introduction, p. iv.
[250] Vol. VIII: "I. Naive Realism _vs._ Presentative Realism," pp.
393-400. "II. Epistemological Realism: The Alleged Ubiquity of the
Knowledge Relation," pp. 546-554.
[251] _Op. cit._, p. 395.
[252] _Ibid._, p. 397.
[253] In this connection Dewey's disagreements with Professor McGilvary
are of especial interest. See especially McGilvary's article, "Pure
Experience and Reality" (_Philosophical Review_, Vol. XVI, 1907, pp.
266-284) and Dewey's reply, together with McGilvary's rejoinder
(_Ibid._, pp. 419-424). McGilvary failed to understand that Dewey's
argument was conducted on a purely 'naturalistic' basis, an almost
inevitable error, in view of Dewey's practical identification of
psychology, biology, and logic.
[254] _Ibid._, p. 399.
[255] Dewey is here dealing with the 'epistemological' realists, among
whom he includes such writers as Bertrand Russell. In an article
entitled "The Existence of the World as a Problem" (_Philosophical
Review_, Vol. XXIV, 1915, pp. 357-370), Dewey argues that Russell, in
making a problem of the existence of the external world, implies its
existence in his formulation of the problem. Dewey argues that, since
the existence of the world is presupposed in every such formulation, it
cannot be called in question. This is like disposing of Zeno's paradox
on the ground that arrows fly anyway.
[256] _Op. cit._, p. 548.
[257] _Ibid._
[258] _Op. cit._
[259] _Ibid._, p. 553.
[260] _Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods_, Vol.
XII, 1915. Parts I and II, pp. 505-523; Part III, pp. 533-543.
[261] _Ibid._, p. 506.
[262] _Op. cit._, p. 511.
[263] _Op. cit._, p. 514.
[264] _Ibid._, p. 515.
[265] _Op. cit._, p. 521.
[266] _Op. cit._, p. 522 f.
[267] _Ibid._, p. 536.
[268] _Op. cit._, p. 538.
[269] _Ibid._, p. 540.
[270] _Op. cit._, p. 541.
[271] _Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods_, Vol.
XII, 1915, pp. 337-345.
[272] _Op. cit._, p. 340.
[273] _Ibid._
[274] _Ibid._, p. 345.
[275] _Op. cit._, p. 339.
[276] _Ibid._, p. 343.
[277] _Ibid._, p. 344.
[278] _Op. cit._, p. 345.
[279] _Ibid._
[280] _Ibid._