Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude

Boyd Henry Bode

1873–1953

A leading American philosopher of education, he argued that schools should help build intelligent, democratic citizens rather than simply pass on fixed lessons. His work became an important voice within progressive education while also pushing that movement to think more clearly and critically.

A philosopher and Stanford teacher with a practical cast of mind, he wrote about science, learning, and the everyday meaning of philosophy. His career also reached beyond the classroom into labor education and public life in California.

Best known for helping popularize the idea of cultural pluralism in the United States, this immigrant-born philosopher wrote with energy about democracy, education, and the many identities that make up American life.

George H. Mead

A major American thinker of pragmatism and social psychology, he helped explain how the self grows through interaction with other people. His ideas later became central to symbolic interactionism and still shape sociology today.

A leading American pragmatist, he wrote about how thought grows out of experience and helped shape philosophy at the University of Chicago. His work is closely linked with the early development of Deweyan ideas in the United States.

Henry Waldgrave Stuart

1870–1951

A founding figure in Stanford philosophy, this early American thinker wrote about value, self-realization, and the pragmatic spirit of modern life. His work sits at the crossroads of philosophy, economics, and ethics.

James Hayden Tufts

1862–1942

A leading American philosopher of the early University of Chicago, he helped shape pragmatist ethics and linked academic philosophy to public life in Chicago. His long career joined teaching, writing, and civic work in ways that still make him interesting today.