Why did John Dewey oppose a strict separation between mind and nature?

John Dewey rejected the traditional dualism between mind and nature because he viewed it as a flawed and impoverished interpretation of reality. While Western philosophical tradition—notably influenced by René Descartes—often categorized the mind as a purely subjective, internal phenomenon separated from the physical world, Dewey argued that the human mind is fundamentally "part and parcel of nature".1

Dewey maintained that human experience is not a detached mental state but rather the outcome of interacting processes within the world. Because human beings are embedded in their environment, experience consists of an active interaction between living beings and their surroundings. Consequently, he viewed knowledge not as a static apprehension of an external world by a separate mind, but as a dynamic process of acting and being acted upon. By framing human life as a series of worldly events, Dewey emphasized that the challenge for humanity is to learn how to live well within these processes of change, rather than attempting to transcend them.12