Dewey’s Independent Factors in Moral Action

Abstract

Abstract This chapter builds on Dewey to illustrate the way a pragmatic pluralism can accommodate traditional monistic insights while delegitimizing moral fundamentalism’s single vision. Drawing on archival and published sources from 1926 to 1932, this is the culminating theoretical chapter. A primary focus is “Three Independent Factors in Morals,” Dewey’s (1930b) address at the Sorbonne. Exploring the hypothesis that problematic moral situations are heterogeneous in their origins and operations, Dewey traced traditional abstract categories of good, duty, and virtue back to their generative experiential roots. The chapter suggests that contemporary theorizing should foster a range of idioms and emphases which inform decision-making by (1) opening communication across diverse elements of moral and political life, (2) placing these elements in a wider context in which norms gain a better footing amid the discordance of nonideal conditions, and (3) expanding prospects for social inquiry and convergence on policy and action.