John Dewey and Moral Imagination Pragmatism in Ethics [Paperback]

While examining the important role of imagination in making moral judgments, John Dewey and Moral Imagination focuses new attention on the relationship between American pragmatism and ethics. Steven Fesmire takes up threads of Deweys thought that have been largely unexplored and elaborates pragmatisms distinctive contribution to understandings of moral experience, inquiry, and judgment. Building on two Deweyan notionsthat moral character, belief, and reasoning are part of a social and historical context and that moral deliberation is an imaginative, dramatic rehearsal of possibilitiesFesmire shows that moral imagination can be conceived as a process of aesthetic perception and artistic creativity. Fesmires original readings of Dewey shed new light on the imaginative process, human emotional make-up and expression, and the nature of moral judgment. This original book presents a robust and distinctly pragmatic approach to ethics, politics, moral education, and moral conduct.

This is an important book that provides a superb treatment of the moral imagination. It should be welcome both as a catalyst for the revitalization of ethics and as a needed clarification of Dewey's moral philosophy. It will be useful to a diverse group of scholars and intellectuals, including philosophers, teachers, politicians, sociologists, cognitive scientists and all those who are concerned with enhancing our opportunities for forging more satisfying communities.Sept. 2004[J]ohn Dewey and Moral Imagination is a most welcome addition to the scholarship of Dewey's moral philosophy.20.1 Journal of Speculative Philosophy2006[P]rovides a rich reading of the ethical implications of philosophical pragmatism . . . Highly recommended.John Dewey and Moral Imagination sets forth an opportunity for teachers of so-called practical ethics. Fesmire is in effect asking us to find ways to use Deweys rich account of moral imagination as a tool for the discovery of more intelligent solutions to the l&