SOURCE: "Democracy and the Individual: To What Extent is Dewey's Reconstruction Nietzsche's Self-Overcoming?" in Philosophy Today, Vol. 41, No. 2, Summer, 1997, pp. 299-312.

In the following essay, Sullivan finds similarities between Dewey's esthetics and the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche.

The mere combination of the names of John Dewey and Friedrich Nietzsche in the title of an essay might offend some readers. Many of the scholars of American pragmatism I have met view Nietzsche as just one more of those Continental, postmodern philosophers whose work, while perhaps stylish and currently en vogue, contributes little of value to philosophy because the issues with which they concern themselves in no way connect with the lives of the most people. The reaction of many scholars of Continental philosophy I know to American pragmatism has been to dismiss it as concerned only with "utility" narrowly conceived, e.g., with the usefulness of an idea for...