RECONSTRUCTION IN
PHILOSOPHY

BY

JOHN DEWEY

Professor of Philosophy in Columbia University

NEW YORK.

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

1920

Copyright, 1920,

BY

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

The Quinn & Boden Company

BOOK MANUFACTURERS

RAHWAY     NEW JERSEY

PREFATORY NOTE

Being invited to lecture at the Imperial University of Japan in Tokyoduring February and March of the present year, I attempted aninterpretation of the reconstruction of ideas and ways of thought nowgoing on in philosophy. While the lectures cannot avoid revealing themarks of the particular standpoint of their author, the aim is toexhibit the general contrasts between older and newer types ofphilosophic problems rather than to make a partisan plea in behalf ofany one specific solution of these problems. I have tried for the mostpart to set forth the forces which make intellectual reconstructioninevitable and to prefigure some of the lines upon which it mustproceed.

Any one who has enjoyed the unique hospitality of Japan will beoverwhelmed with confusion if he endeavors to make an acknowledgment inany way commensurate to the kindnesses he received. Yet I must set downin the barest of black and white my grateful appreciation of them, andin particular record my ineffaceable impressions of the courtesy andhelp of the members of the department of philosophy of Tokyo University,and of my dear friends Dr. Ono and Dr. Nitobe.

J. D.

September, 1919.

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