view of liberal theology, Green’s flaw was his static dichotomy of the spiritual
world between individual selves and the absolute Self, precluding the evolution
of the former into the latter. At Hopkins, Dewey encountered an ingredient for
overcoming this problem, the experimental psychology introduced by G. Stan-
ley Hall. The theological issue could be approached by scientific research; and
this, Dewey concluded, showed the human mind to be a teleological activity
of the living organism, whose trajectory points to the divine.
So far Dewey was just another theological liberal with an affinity for
Hegelianized evolutionism. He found a more distinctive slot in legitimating the
burgeoning research disciplines of the reformed university. Philosophy depart-
ments were establishing psychology laboratories, in which a branch of the old
metaphysical terrain was made into an empirical study. Dewey propagandized
for the significance of experimental psychology; it was an Ur-science (Kuklick,
1985: 239), foundational to other disciplines, since psychology is the point at
which the absolute manifests itself in the world. From an Idealist viewpoint,
the connection of psychology with the physiological organism was a gateway
for attaching spirituality to the physical and biological sciences as well.^59
At Michigan (1884–1894), Chicago (1894–1904), and Columbia (1905–
1952), Dewey encouraged what would become some of the leading psychology
labs. Under Angell at Chicago and Thorndike at Columbia, researchers were
moving away from introspective-mentalistic studies in the style of Wundt and
toward behavioral research. Recruitment to psychology was burgeoning, and
tension was growing between the new-style researchers and traditional phi-
losophers. By 1912, psychologists had an independent professional association
and separate psychology departments in a dozen universities.^60 Militant behav-
iorism, which Watson announced in 1913, became the ideology for maximally
separating psychology from philosophical content. Dewey himself never made
the break, but during these years the experimental method displaced Idealism
as his principal philosophical commitment. In the 1890s, Dewey called psy-
chological research “experimental Idealism” (Kuklick, 1985: 239); by the early
1900s he was regarding it as the basis of “instrumentalism.”
Having disposed of formal logic, and of the gaps between finite and infinite,
between the human and natural worlds and the Absolute, Dewey no longer
needed Idealism. Science exemplified the biological propensity of the organism
to adjust to circumstances in order to survive. The scientific method of repeated
ongoing experiments, with new goals and values emerging from every step,
became the method applicable to all his concerns. Dewey grew less religious,
more oriented toward good works in the movement for settlement houses,
labor rights, and public education. The Idealist worldview of spiritual commu-
nity was naturalized as the democratic cooperation of human society, and
democracy was made the equivalent of the religious ideal; both were equated
Intellectuals Take Control: The University Revolution^ •^681