18 ♦ E&C/Education and Culture 21(1) (2005): 18–38 Locating John Dewey Place Theory and Dewey’s Retirement in Key West

Experimentalism is philosophy rooted in the interaction of the self with experi-ence and environment. While centuries of philosophic thought has attempted to disembody human experience and essentialize core elements (e.g., thought, emo-tion, logic), these efforts have been contested, particularly by twentieth-century experimentalists like John Dewey. Dewey lamented philosophers ’ attempts to dis-member experience and environment and reduce humanity to discreet elements and schema, thinking typified by the Cartesian mind/body dualism, wherein both are distinct substances that interact. Arguing against such dichotomies, Dewey and others sought a monistic understanding of experience wherein people exist in situations and engage experiences that shape thinking and future action. Place theory is a theoretical tool for understanding how specific locations shape and are shaped by people. The ubiquity of place makes it easy to neglect since people exist in specific places continuously. What is meant by place in this regard? Place is a broad concept that can be thought of in various dimensions, such as the physical/tangible, social/interactional, and metaphysical/educative