John Dewey joined a diverse philosophy department at Columbia University in 1905. His closest allies were the naturalists, Frederick J. E. Woodbridge, William P. Montague, and Wendell T. Bush, and later on John J. Coss (M.A. Columbia 1910). Many Columbia graduate students went on to become members of the American Naturalism movement, and several became committed pragmatists as well. During the first ten years of Dewey's career at Columbia, a handful of graduates were drawn towards pragmatism, including Savilla A. Elkus (Ph.D. Columbia 1907, professor at Vassar College and Smith College), William Forbes Cooley (Ph.D. Columbia 1909), Willystine Goodsell (Ph.D. Columbia 1910, professor at Columbia Teachers College), and Matthew T. McClure (Ph.D. Columbia 1912, professor at Tulane University and University of Illinois).
During Dewey's later years of active teaching, three pragmatic naturalists graduated from Columbia and subsequently joined the philosophy department: Herbert W. Schneider (Ph.D. Columbia 1917), Irwin Edman (Ph.D. Columbia 1920), and John Herman Randall, Jr. (Ph.D. Columbia 1922). Other pragmatists trained at Columbia in this period include Will Durant (Ph.D. Columbia 1917), Donald S. Mackay (Ph.D Columbia 1924, professor at University of California, Berkeley), Sidney Hook (Ph.D. Columbia 1927, professor at New York University), Gail Kennedy (Ph.D. Columbia 1928, professor at Amherst College), Ernest Nagel (Ph.D. Columbia 1930, professor at Columbia), Joseph Ratner (Ph.D. Columbia 1930), Sidney Ratner (M.A. Columbia 1931, professor of History at Rutgers), Abraham Edel (Ph.D. Columbia 1934, professor at City College, City University of New York, and presently Research Professor at University of Pennsylvania), John M. Brewster (Ph.D. Columbia 1937), and Justus Buchler (Ph.D. Columbia 1939, professor at Columbia until 1971, and SUNY at Stony Brook until 1981).
John Dewey's profound influence on philosophy of education continued through Columbia University's Teachers College. Many of its faculty were Deweyan pragmatists. They included some who were Dewey's students: William Heard Kilpatrick (Ph.D. Columbia 1911), Edward H. Reisner (Ph.D. Columbia 1915), Issac L. Kandel (Ph.D. Columbia 1919), John L. Childs (Ph.D. Columbia 1930), and George R. Geiger (Ph.D. Columbia 1931, also professor of philosophy at Antioch College). Others had become sympathetic to Dewey's views, particularly Harold Rugg (Ph.D. University of Illinois 1915), George Counts (Ph.D. Chicago 1916), and Jesse Newlon. While never a faculty member of the Teachers College, Ohio State University professor Boyd H. Bode was a pragmatic supporter of Deweyan progressive education. Bode worked in close concert with Dewey, Kilpatrick, and Childs on many publishing projects. While he leavened progressive education with his own unique views, Bode counted among the inner circle of Deweyans.
Besides education, pragmatism was also well-represented in the field of sociology, where C. Wright Mills (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin 1942) taught from the 1940s until his death in 1962.
After Dewey and his original colleagues had retired, the Columbia department led by Herbert Schneider, John H. Randall, Jr., and Ernest Nagel (the first John Dewey Professor of Philosophy) continued to train a third generation of philosophers sympathetic with pragmatism throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. These philosophers include: Ralph G. Ross (Ph.D. Columbia 1940, professor at University of Minnesota and Claremont Graduate School), Joseph L. Blau (Ph.D. Columbia 1944, professor at Columbia), John E. Smith (Ph.D. Columbia 1948, professor at Yale University), Frederic H. Young (Ph.D. Columbia 1951, professor of English at Monclair State College), Horace S. Thayer (Ph.D. Columbia 1952, professor at City College, City University of New York), Paul W. Kurtz (Ph.D. Columbia 1952, professor at State University of New York at Buffalo), Joseph Margolis (Ph.D. Columbia 1953, professor at Temple University), John Peter Anton (Ph.D. Columbia 1954, professor at Buffalo, Emory, South Florida), Ralph W. Sleeper (Ph.D. Columbia 1956, professor at Queens College, City University of New York), Victorino Tejera (Ph.D. Columbia 1956, professor at State University of New York at Stony Brook), Isaac Levi (Ph.D. Columbia 1957, professor at Columbia), John R. Burr, (Ph.D. Columbia 1959, professor at University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh), Thomas R. Martland (Ph.D. Columbia 1959, professor at State University of New York at Albany), Milton Mayeroff (Ph.D. Columbia 1961, professor at State University of New York College at Cortland), Steven D. Ross (Ph.D. Columbia 1961, professor at State University of New York at Binghamton), David Sidorsky (PhD Columbia 1962, professor at Columbia), Donald A. Crosby (Ph.D. Columbia 1963, professor at Colorado State University), Emmanuel G. Mesthene (Ph.D. Columbia 1963, The Rand Corporation), Douglas Greenlee (Ph.D. Columbia 1964, professor at Temple University), Peter H. Hare (Ph.D. Columbia 1965, professor at State University of New York at Buffalo), Steven M. Cahn (Ph.D. Columbia 1966, professor at City College, City University of New York), Joseph M. Ransdell (Ph.D. Columbia 1966, professor at University of California at Santa Barbara and Texas Tech University), Beth J. Singer (Ph.D. Columbia 1967, professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York), and James Gouinlock (Ph.D. Columbia 1969, professor at Emory University).
Sidney Morgenbesser (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 1956, the second John Dewey Professor of Philosophy), Isaac Levi (Ph.D. Columbia 1957, the third John Dewey Professor of Philosophy), and David Sidorsky (PhD Columbia 1962) maintained the pragmatic tradition at Columbia University for a fourth generation. Graduates from the 1970s and 1980s include: Roland W. Garrett (Ph.D. Columbia 1970, professor at Montclair State University), Gary M. Shapiro (Ph.D. Columbia 1970, professor at University of Richmond), Naomi Zack (Ph.D. Columbia 1970, professor at State University of New York at Albany and the University of Oregon), Steven C. Rockefeller (Ph.D. Columbia 1973, professor at Middlebury College), Mary Wiseman (Ph.D. Columbia 1974, professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York), and Hector J. Huyke (Ph.D. Columbia 1987, professor at University of Puerto Rico).
Philip Kitcher (PhD Princeton 1974, the fourth John Dewey Professor of Philosophy) is now the prominent pragmatist on the Columbia faculty.
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Sidney Hook (1902-1989) Sidney Hook Reconsidered, by Robert Talisse. Sidney Hook: Philosopher of Democracy and Humanism, ed. Paul Kurtz Sidney Hook: A Checklist of Writings, ed. Barbara Levine |
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Herbert W. Schneider (1892-1984) Herbert Schneider page by John Shook Ways of Being. Greenwood, 1974. |
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John Herman Randall, Jr. (1899-1980) John H. Randall, Jr. page by John Shook The Making of the Modern Mind, 50th Anniversary Edition |
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Joseph L. Blau (1909-1986) History, Religion, and
Spiritual Democracy: Essays in Honor of Joseph L. Blau |
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William Heard Kilpatrick (1871-1965)
And
There Were Giants in the Land: The Life of William Heard Kilpatrick |
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Boyd H. Bode (1873-1953) Democracy In
Education: Boyd H. Bode, by Robert Bullough Writings By and About Boyd H. Bode, by Ruth E. Seeger |
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John L. Childs (1889-1985) From Prayer
to Pragmatism, by Lawrence J. Dennis |
