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. Man continues to change his ideas until they work. For more than forty years, Dewey maintained a leadership in American education, bringing increased human interest into school life and work, making for the increased encouragement of pupil initiative and responsibility. Among recent American thinkers few command greater respect than John Dewey. But though his philosophy was grounded in the past, deeper than is customary to believe, it was also inseparable from the living present.