Publicity as a Problem of Philosophy: Returning to J. Dewey’s Ideas

Abstract

The article analyses John Dewey’s ideas on the ‘recovery’ or ‘reconstruction’ of philosophy. Essential to the life of society and inextricable from its condition, philosophy can provide a tool for the prevention of social cataclysms. Yet some cataclysms are conditioned by philosophy – the matrix of thinking that has un­derpinned culture for two thousand years. Dewey’s approach to the tasks of philosophy is radical: the way to the intellectual transformation of society is through the reconstruction or ‘recovery’ of philosophical discourse. This point of view is juxtaposed with attempts found in the literature to limit the function of public philosophy to politicisation. The study investigates the ideas of Walter Lippmann and Michael Sandel, which are crucial for the approach in question, about public philosophy as a changing political reality. The major lines of Dewey’s ‘reconstruction’ of philosophy are examined, with special attention paid to the critical revision of the metaphysical foundations of philosophy and the re­consideration of the problem of the subject-object relationship. Arguments are made in favour of these ideas having the potential for stimulating the modern public ‘upgrade’ of philosophy and transforming current intellectual and educa­tional practices. In ceasing to be a theoretical tool to solve specific philosophical tasks, philosophy may become an intellectual method used by philosophers to eliminate urgent problems of the modern age