How We Think

by John Dewey

Observation supplies the near, imagination the remote

The need for both imagination and observation in every mental enterprise illustrates another aspect of the same principle. Teachers who have tried object-lessons of the conventional type have usually found that when the lessons were new, pupils were attracted to them as a diversion, but as soon as they became matters of course they were as dull and wearisome as was ever the most mechanical study of mere symbols. Imagination could not play about the objects so as to enrich them. The feeling that instruction in "facts, facts" produces a narrow Gradgrind is justified not because facts in themselves are limiting, but because facts are dealt out as such hard and fast ready-made articles as to leave no room to imagination. Let the facts be presented so as to stimulate imagination, and culture ensues naturally enough. The converse is equally true. The imaginative is not necessarily the imaginary; that is, the unreal. The proper function of imagination is vision of realities that cannot be exhibited under existing conditions of sense-perception. Clear insight into the remote, the absent, the obscure is its aim. History, literature, and geography, the principles of science, nay, even geometry and arithmetic, are full of matters that must be imaginatively realized if they are realized at all. Imagination supplements and deepens observation; only when it turns into the fanciful does it become a substitute for observation and lose logical force.

Experience through communication of others' experience

A final exemplification of the required balance between near and far is found in the relation that obtains between the narrower field of experience realized in an individual's own contact with persons and things, and the wider experience of the race that may become his through communication. Instruction always runs the risk of swamping the pupil's own vital, though narrow, experience under masses of communicated material. The instructor ceases and the teacher begins at the point where communicated matter stimulates into fuller and more significant life that which has entered by the strait and narrow gate of sense-perception and motor activity. Genuine communication involves contagion; its name should not be taken in vain by terming communication that which produces no community of thought and purpose between the child and the race of which he is the heir.

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INDEX

Abstract, [135-144]
Abstraction, [155] f.
Action, activity, activities, [46], [140] f., [157-169], [190] f.
Active attitude and the concept, [128]
Analysis, [111-115], [152] f.;
in education, [112]
Apperception, [199];
apperceptive masses, [203]
Application, [129] f., [212] f.
Apprehension, [119] f.;
see Understanding.
Artist, attitude of, [219] f.
Articulation, [3]
Authority, [4], [25]
Bacon, [22], [25], [33]
Bain, [155]
Balance, [38]
Behavior, [5], [42-4], [54] f.;
see Action, Occupations
Belief, [1], [3-7];
reached indirectly, [18]
Central factor in thinking, [7]
Children, [42] f.
Clifford, [148]
Coherence, [3], [80]
Comparison, [89] f., [202]
Comprehension, [120];
see Understanding.
Concentration, [40]
Concept, conception, [107], [125-9], [213];
see Meaning.
Conclusion, [3], [5] f., [40], [77], [80] f.;
technique of, [87] f.
Concrete, [135-44]
Congruity, [3], [72]
Connection, [7];
see Relation.
Consecutive, [2], [40], [42]
Consequence, consequential, [2];
consequences, [5]
Consistency, [40]
Continuity, [3], [40], [80]
Control, [18-28];
of deduction, [93-100];
of induction, [84-93];
of suggestion, [84] f., [93];
see Regulation.
Corroborate, corroboration, [9], [77]
Curiosity, [31] ff., [105]
Darwin, [38], [90], [127]
Data, [79] f., [95], [103] f., [106]
Decision, [107]
Deduction, [79], [93-100], [103];
control of, [93-100]
Definition, [130] f.;
definitions, [131-4], [212]
Development, of ideas, [83];
see Elaboration, Ratiocination, Reasoning.
Discipline, [63], [78];
formal, [45], [50]
Discourse, consecutive, [185] f.
Discovery, inductive, [81], [116]
Division, [131]
Dogmatism, [149], [198]
Doing, [139], [190]
Doubt, [6], [9], [13], [102];
see Perplexity, Uncertainty.
Drill, [52], [63]
Drudgery, [218]
Education, intellectual, [57], [62];
aim of, [143] f., [156]
Elaboration, of ideas, [75] f., [84], [94] f., [103], [106], [209];
see Development, Ratiocination, Reasoning.
Emerson, [173]
Emotion, [4], [11], [74]
Emphasis, [112], [114] f.
Empirical thinking, [145-9]
End, [11] f.
Evidence, [5], [7] f., [27], [103] f.;
see Grounds.
Experience, [132], [156], [199] f., [224]
Experiment, experimental, [70] f., [77], [91] f., [99] f., [151] f., [154]
Extension, [130] f.
Fact vs idea, [109];
facts, [3], [5]
Faculty psychology, [45]
Familiar, familiarity, [120-25], [136] f., [206], [214] f., [221] f.
Fooling, [217]
Formalism;
see Discipline.
Formal steps of instruction, [202], [206]
Formulation, [112] f., [209], [212], [214-17]
Freedom, [64] f.;
intellectual, [66]
Function, [123];
function of signifying, [7], [15]
General [80], [82], [99], [182] f.;
see Principles, Universal.
Generality, [129], [134]
Generalization, [211] f.
Grounds, [1], [4-8], [80];
see Evidence.
Guiding factor in reflection, [11]
Habits;
see Action.
Herbart, [202]
Herbartian method, [202-6]
Hobhouse, [31]
Hypothesis, [5], [75], [77], [81] f., [94] f., [108], [209]
Idea, [75], [77], [79], [107-10];
see Meaning.
Idle thinking, [2]
Image, [109]
Imagination, [165] f., [223] f.
Imitation, [47], [51], [160]
Implication, [5], [75], [77]
Impulse, [64]
Induction, [79-93], [103];
control of, [84-93];
scientific, [86]
Inference, [26] f., [75], [77], [101];
critical, [74], [82];
systematic, [81]
Information, [52] f., [197-200]
Inquiry, [5], [9] f.
Intellect, intellectual activity, [44], [50], [62]
Intension, [130] f.
Internal congruity, [3]
Isolation, [96-100], [117], [191]
James, [119], [121], [153] f.
Jevons, [91] f., [183], [192]
Judgment, [5];
factors of, [101];
good judgment, [101], [103], [106] f.;
and inference, [101] ff.;
intuitive, [104] f.;
principles of, [106] f.;
suspended, [74], [82], [105], [108];
tentative, [101]
Knowledge, [3] f., [6], [95];
spiral movement of, [120], [223]
Language, [170-87];
and education, [176-87];
and meaning, [171];
technical, [184] f.;
as a tool of thought, [170] ff., [179]
Leap, in inference, [26], [75]
Leisure, [209] f.
Locke, [19] n., [22-5]
Logical, [56] f.;
vs. psychological, [62] f.
Meaning, meanings, [7], [17], [79] f., [82], [94], [116-34];
capital fund of, store of, [118], [120], [126], [161], [174], [180];
individual, [173] f.;
organization of, [175], [185];
as tools, keys, instruments, [108] f., [120], [125] f., [129];
See Concept.
Memory, [107]
Method, [46-50], [58];
analytic and synthetic, [114];
formal, [60]
Mill, [18] n.
Mood, [5]
Motivation, [42]
Negative cases, [90]
Notion. See Concept.
Object lessons, [140], [192]
Observation, [3], [7], [69] f., [76] f., [85], [91], [96], [188-97], [223] f.;
in schools, [193-7];
scientific, [196]
Occupation, occupations, [43], [99], [167] f.
Openmindedness, [219]
Order, orderliness, [2], [39], [41], [46], [57];
see Consecutive.
Organization, [39], [41];
of subject matter, [62]
Originality, [198]
Particulars, [80], [82];
cf. General, Universal.
Passion, [4], [23], [25], [106]
Perception, [3], [190];
cf. Observation
Perplexity, [9], [11], [72]
Placing, [114], [126]
Play, [161-7], [217-21];
of mind, [219]
Playfulness, [162], [218] f.
Practical deliberation, [68] f.
Prejudice, [4]
Principles, [212] f.
Problem, [9], [12], [33], [72], [74], [76], [109], [120], [191] f., [199], [207]
Proof, [7], [27], [81]
Pseudo-idea, [109]
Psychological (vs. logical), [62] f.
Purpose, [11]
Ratiocination, [75] f., [83]
Reason, reasoning, [75-8], [94] f., [98]
Reasons, [5] f.
Recitation, [201-13];
factors in, [206-13]
Reflection, [2] f., [5] f.;
central function of, [116];
double movement of, [79-84];
five steps in, [72-8], [203] f.
Regulation, [18-28];
see Control.
Relation, relationship, [82], [97];
see Connection.
Scientific thinking, [145-6]
Sense training, [190-97]
Sequence, [2]; cf. Consequence.
Sidgwick, [127]
Signify, [7], [15]
Signs, [16], [171-6]
Spiral movement, see Knowledge.
Stimulus-response, [47]
Studies, types of, [50]
Subject matter, [58] f.;
intellectual, [45] f.;
logical, [61] f.;
practical, [49];
theoretical, [49];
and the teacher, [204] f.
Substitute signs, [177] f., [223]
Succession, [3]
Suggestion, [7], [12], [27], [74] f., [84] f.;
control of, [84] f., [93];
dimensions of, [34-7]
Supposition, [4], [9]
Suspense of judgment, [13], [74], [82]
Symbols, see Signs.
Synthesis, [114] f.
Terms, [3], [72] f., [76], [79], [95]
Testing, [9], [13], [41], [82], [116];
of deduction, [96], [99]
Theory, [138]
Theoretical, [137]
Thinking, complete, [96], [98] f., [100];
see Reasoning, Reflection.
Thought, [8] f.;
educative value of, [2];
reflective, [2];
train of, [3];
types of, [1]
Truth, truths, [3]
Uncertainty, see Doubt, Perplexity.
Unconscious, [214] ff.
Uncritical thinking, [12]
Understanding, [116-20];
direct and indirect, [118-20], [136]
Universal, [9]
Vagueness, [129] f., [182], [212]
Vailati, [81] n.
Venn, [17]
Verification, [77]
Vocabulary, [180-4]
Ward, [110] n.
Warrant, [7]
Wisdom, [52]
Wonder, [31], [33] f.
Wordsworth, [31]
Work, [162-7], [217-19]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This mode of thinking in its contrast with thoughtful inquiry receives special notice in the next chapter.

[2] Implies is more often used when a principle or general truth brings about belief in some other truth; the other phrases are more frequently used to denote the cases in which one fact or event leads us to believe in something else.