Abstract

The recent discovery of the original manuscript Dewey wrote in preparation to his Lectures in China is an opportunity to revisit the question of what are the key texts in Dewey’s socio-political philosophy. The assumption in Dewey’s scholarship and teaching has been that The Public and its Problems or his other books on Liberalism are the main texts to be read.1 While these texts are important, much that is fundamental and that distinguishes Dewey’s approach from others would be missed without reading the Lectures. I will provide an analysis and reconstruction of this new manuscript that supports making the text central to understanding Dewey’s socio-political philosophy and the source of insights for any...