Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude
Written by John Dewey,James Hayden Tufts,Horace Meyer Kallen,Boyd Henry Bode,Harold Chapman Brown,George H. Mead,Addison Webster Moore,Henry Waldgrave Stuart
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About this book
Reading guide
Themes, characters and key ideas in Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude, written by Chaptra AI.
- about 20 hours
- advanced
- Intellectual
- Analytical
- Reformist
Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude is a foundational collection of early 20th-century philosophical essays by prominent American pragmatists, including John Dewey and George H. Mead. The book collectively champions 'creative intelligence' as a dynamic, problem-solving approach to understanding the world, contrasting it with static, traditional philosophical methods. It argues for a pragmatic philosophy rooted in experience and inquiry, seeking to make thought relevant to contemporary social, scientific, and ethical challenges. The essays explore this attitude across logic, psychology, and ethics, aiming to revitalize philosophy by emphasizing intellectual collaboration and practical application over dogmatic adherence.
“Philosophy recovers itself when it ceases to be a device for dealing with the problems of philosophers and becomes a method, cultivated by philosophers, for dealing with the problems of men.”
Key themes
- The Nature of Creative Intelligence
- This is the central, eponymous theme of the book. It explores intelligence not as a passive capacity for understanding fixed truths, but as an active, dynamic, and reconstructive process inherent in human experience. Creative intelligence involves problem-solving, adaptation, inquiry, and the continuous reconstruction of beliefs and values in response to novel situations. It emphasizes the instrumental function of ideas and the experimental nature of knowledge.
- Pragmatism and Experience
- The collection is a foundational text for American pragmatism, emphasizing experience as the fundamental medium of knowledge and interaction. It rejects dualistic philosophies that separate mind from body, subject from object, or theory from practice. Instead, experience is presented as a continuous, transactional process where humans are actively engaged with their environment, and knowledge emerges from this engagement. Truth is evaluated by its practical consequences and effectiveness in guiding action within experience.
- Critique of Traditional Philosophy
- A major thrust of the book is a critical re-evaluation and rejection of what the authors perceive as the static, detached, and often irrelevant concerns of traditional Western philosophy. They argue that philosophy became isolated by pursuing absolute, unchanging truths, creating artificial problems, and failing to engage with the dynamic realities of scientific discovery and social change. The essays seek to dismantle these inherited frameworks and replace them with a more dynamic, instrumental, and socially engaged approach.
Worth discussing
How does 'creative intelligence' as defined in the essays differ from traditional notions of intelligence or philosophical inquiry?
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