"By object is meant some element in the complex whole that is defined in abstraction from the whole of which it is a distinction"
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Dewey is quietly yanking the rug out from under the everyday confidence we place in “objects.” The line reads like technical housekeeping, but its intent is disruptive: what we call an object isn’t a self-contained chunk of reality waiting patiently to be named. It’s a selected feature of a living, messy situation, carved out by attention, language, and purpose. “Defined in abstraction” is the tell. Abstraction isn’t a neutral mirror; it’s an operation. We decide what counts as the “thing” by bracketing off the rest of the “complex whole” that gives it meaning.
The subtext is anti-metaphysical in the most practical sense. Dewey is pushing back against philosophies that treat objects as fixed essences with boundaries that exist independent of inquiry. For him, boundaries are functional: they’re drawn because they help us navigate, predict, fix, build, argue. An “object” is less a noun than a move in a human activity. That’s why he says it’s a “distinction” from a whole, not a freestanding entity.
Context matters: Dewey’s pragmatism and instrumentalism were formed in an era of industrial change and ascendant science, when knowledge was increasingly valued for what it could do. He wanted philosophy to stop floating above experience and start describing how experience gets organized. This sentence is a tool for that project: it makes “objectivity” look less like a God’s-eye view and more like disciplined selection. Reality isn’t denied; the fantasy is thinking we meet it without making cuts.
The subtext is anti-metaphysical in the most practical sense. Dewey is pushing back against philosophies that treat objects as fixed essences with boundaries that exist independent of inquiry. For him, boundaries are functional: they’re drawn because they help us navigate, predict, fix, build, argue. An “object” is less a noun than a move in a human activity. That’s why he says it’s a “distinction” from a whole, not a freestanding entity.
Context matters: Dewey’s pragmatism and instrumentalism were formed in an era of industrial change and ascendant science, when knowledge was increasingly valued for what it could do. He wanted philosophy to stop floating above experience and start describing how experience gets organized. This sentence is a tool for that project: it makes “objectivity” look less like a God’s-eye view and more like disciplined selection. Reality isn’t denied; the fantasy is thinking we meet it without making cuts.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
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