ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Dewey’s treatment of the self in Chapter 15 of the 1932 Ethics. It takes up a number of different topics: choice, motivation, interest, egoism and altruism, responsibility, freedom, and growth. The chapter focuses on two main issues. The first one concerns the relationship between Dewey’s pragmatic pluralism—in which the good is seen as one moral principle among two others—and his account of ultimate good for the self, i.e., freedom understood as growth. While some have taken there to be a tension here, the chapter argues that the good of growth is consistent with Dewey’s pluralism. The second issue that the chapter takes up is Dewey account of the relationship between self and other. Why does the self have an intrinsic interest in the good or welfare of others? Dewey argues that this question is not best addressed through the concept of altruism, but through the concept of “social interest.” The chapter explains the meaning of this concept and places it in the context of Dewey’s pragmatism.
