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CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION
Number II
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION
Number II
Psychology and SocialPractice
BY
JOHN DEWEY
PROFESSOR AND HEAD OF DEPARTMENTS OF
PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION
CHICAGO
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
1901
Copyright, 1901, by
The University of Chicago
CHICAGO, ILL.
Psychology and Social Practice
[pg 07]PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL PRACTICE.[1]
In coming before you I had hoped to dealwith the problem of the relation of psychologyto the social sciences—and through them tosocial practice, to life itself. Naturally, inanticipation, I had conceived a systematicexposition of fundamental principles coveringthe whole ground, and giving every factor itsdue rating and position. That discussion isnot ready today. I am loath, however, completelyto withdraw from the subject, especiallyas there happens to be a certain phaseof it with which I have been more or less practicallyoccupied within the last few years. Ihave in mind the relation of psychology toeducation. Since education is primarily a socialaffair, and since educational science isfirst of all a social science, we have here a sectionof the whole field. In some respectsthere may be an advantage in approaching themore comprehensive question through the mediumof one of its special cases. The absence[pg 08]of elaborated and coherent view may be madeup for by a background of experience, whichshall check the projective power of reflectiveabstraction, and secure a translation of largewords and ideas into specific images. Thisspecial territory, moreover, may be such as toafford both sign-posts and broad avenues tothe larger sphere—the place of psychologyamong the social sciences. Because I anticipatesuch an outcome, and because I shallmake a survey of the broad field from the specialstandpoint taken, I make no apology forpresenting this discussion to an association ofpsychologists rather than to a gathering ofeducators.
In dealing with this particular question, it isimpossible not to have in mind the brilliantand effective discourses recently published bymy predecessor in this chair. I shall accordinglymake free to refer to points, and at timesto words, in his treatment of the matter. Yet,as perhaps I hardly need say, it is a problemof the most fundamental importance for bothpsychology and