Human Nature and Conduct by John Dewey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book came recommended by Steven Jackson when he visited UMD last year. I’m a fan of Jackson’s work on repair, and was curious about how his ideas connected back to Dewey’s Human Nature and Conduct.

I’ve been slowly reading it, savoring each chapter on my bus rides to work since then. It’s a lovely & wise book. Some of the language puts you back into 1920s, but the ideas are fresh and still so relevant. I’m not going to try to summarize it here. You may have noticed I’ve posted some quotes here. Let’s just say it is a very hopeful book and provides a very clear and yet generous view of the human enterprise.

I don’t know if I was imagining it, but I seemed to see a lot of parallels between it and some reading I’m doing about Buddhism. I noticed over at Wikipedia that Dewey spent some time in China and Japan just prior to delivering these lectures. So maybe it’s not so far fetched a connection.

I checked it out of the library, but I need to buy a copy of my own so I can re-read it. You can find a copy at Internet Archive for your ebook reader too.