On John Dewey

(Letter)

24 October 2008

Dear Comrades:

In “Elections 2008: Economic Crisis and Imperialist War” (WV No. 923, 24 October), we should not have described John Dewey simply as a “20th-century American philosopher.” During his time, Dewey distinguished himself as one of the defenders of Trotsky against the Stalinist usurpers during the 1930s Moscow purge trials. But Dewey was a pragmatist who denied the existence of laws of social development.

Dewey was a conscious opponent of Marxism and dialectical materialism, writing in “Means and Ends” in 1938, among other things: “Orthodox Marxism shares with orthodox religionism and with traditional idealism the belief that human ends are interwoven into the very texture and structure of existence—a conception inherited presumably from its Hegelian origin” (reprinted in Their Morals and Ours [Pathfinder, 1973]).

Writing in response to Dewey’s attack on Marxism, Trotsky wrote to one of his secretaries at the time: “I completely agree with your idea about the necessity of giving a Marxist criticism of Dewey’s philosophy and I believe it is your direct duty to do this job” (16 August 1940).

It is our direct duty to defend Marxism in opposition to all forms of philosophical idealism, which is a bridge to reconciliation with one’s own bourgeoisie.

Comradely,
Don Alexander