Il dispositivo logico del circuito organico nel pensiero di John Dewey: storia, teoria e prospettive contemporanee

This paper aims at showing that the logic device of organic circuit, introduced in the 1896 article The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology, is also acting in John Dewey’s theory of valuation (1939) and his socio-political analysis about individualism (1930). Particularly, the concept of organic circuit seems to constitute the logical anti dichotomic structure of Dewey’s thought in all its extent. In the final section of the paper, some difficulties raised by the application of this concept in the domain of social sciences will be discussed. Particularly, I will try to understand if the concept of organic circuit is able to account for the asymmetric nature of some social interactions.