In 1925 John Dewey publishes Experience and Nature, the fullest statement of his naturalism: experience is nature known from inside, mind is a function of the organism in its environment, and philosophy's task is criticism of culture by the method of intelligence. Dewey's empirical naturalism becomes the American form of the position.
Tagged: Naturalism
The Event
- Date
- 1925 (exact)
- Era
- Pragmatism and Positivism; Standard periodization of naturalist history
- Location
- New York; today New York, New York
- Traditions
- Naturalism
- Streams
- Naturalism
- Key figures
- John Dewey
- Key texts
- Experience and Nature
Primary Sources
- Dewey, John. Experience and Nature. Chicago: Open Court, 1925.
Secondary Sources
- De Caro, Mario, and David Macarthur, eds. Naturalism in Question. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
- Gregory, Frederick. Scientific Materialism in Nineteenth Century Germany. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1977.
- Papineau, David. Philosophical Naturalism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
Provenance: HIST-1411; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
Related on This Site
History Event
Büchner's Force and Matter
1855
History Event
D'Holbach's System of Nature
1770
History Event
Huxley's Man's Place in Nature
1863
History Event
La Mettrie's Man a Machine
1747
History Event
Laplace's Exposition of the System of the World
1796
History Event
Mill's A System of Logic
1843
History Event
Newton's Principia Mathematica
1687
World View
Naturalism
Naturalism holds that nature is all there is: the universe of matter, energy, and natural law needs no god, soul, or purpose beyond itself.