He recognized the important role education plays in the survival of democracy, and the importance of democratic thought and action in the improvement of education. Pragmatism was then the most influential philosophy in the United States. Dewey's works on psychology, ethics, and social philosophy analyze the logical features of thought and action. Dewey's philosophy attempts to show how the conclusions of science affect the values guiding human conduct. Dewey was led to formulate an extensive naturalistic theory of existence that required no supernatural assumptions or conclusions.
Pragmatism is presented as the philosophic counterpart of democracy.
After the World War, pragmatism grew into a social philosophy. Pragmatists have applied their doctrine to every phase of social theory. Dewey made theory and living identical and applied his philosophy to economic, political, and pedagogical questions. Reality is declared to be changing, growing, developing in things. A real philosophy, according to Dewey, must abandon absolute origins and finalities and explore specific values in practical, moral, and social life.