Dewey, Ebbinghaus, and the Frankfurt School: A Controversy Over Kant Neither Fought Out nor Exhausted
Series
Routledge Studies in American Philosophy
ISBN
9780367486792
Type
book section
Date Issued
2020
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This chapter discusses the controversy over the legacy of Kantian moral philosophy in Dewey’s German Philosophy and Politics. It argues that the polemical reaction to Dewey’s book by Julius Ebbinghaus, reiterated through Axel Honneth and Ebbinghaus’s student Georg Geismann, is based on talking at cross-purposes. While Dewey’s reading of Kant is, indeed, flawed, Ebbinghaus and Geismann misconceive Dewey’s argumentative intent. Nevertheless, the controversy serves to clarify Dewey’s line of argument and to discuss parallels with and differences from the world war genealogy and the Frankfurt School’s theory of immanent critique. Furthermore, the chapter suggests that the role of Hegel’s Emptiness Charge in German Philosophy and Politics should be considered in light of Dewey’s theory of growth. Accordingly, Dewey’s book is not merely a piece of “world war literature”, first, because its line of argument also appears in books by Dewey, which are surely not part of this category, and second, because the Hegelian Emptiness Charge is a variant of what Dewey calls a philosophical fallacy.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Book title
Pragmatism and Social Philosophy: Exploring a Stream of Ideas from America to Europe
Publisher
Routledge
Publisher place
New York
Start page
163
End page
180
Pages
18
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
262158