Eco on Dewey

This study seeks to examine Umberto Eco's views of the key ideas in John Dewey's Art as Experience. Eco's proferred suggestion of transactional psychology as a corrective to Dewey's views is criticized as a misreading of Dewey's position.     

Dewey and Rawls on Education

In this paper I compare the roles that the explicit and implicit educational theories of John Dewey and John Rawls play in their political works to show that Rawls’s approach is skeletal and inappropriate for defenders of democracy. I also uphold Dewey’s belief that education is valuable in itself, not only derivatively, contra Rawls. Next, I address worries for any educational theory concerning problems of distributive justice. Finally, I defend Dewey’s commitment to democracy as a consequence of the demands of productive public inquiry and education.

Dewey in Britain

Dewey's ideas were slower to be accepted in Britain than elsewhere. Reasonsfor this are considered under four headings: pedagogical, epistemological,social and political. Of these, only the pedagogical ideas elicited a modicumof support in the first half of the century. Developments after 1960,however, led to widespread implementation of Dewey's principles mainly inthe primary education sector.     

Dewey in Britain

Dewey’s ideas were slower to be accepted in Britain than elsewhere. Reasons for this are considered under four headings: pedagogical, epistemological, social and political. Of these, only the pedagogical ideas elicited a modicum of support in the first half of the century. Developments after 1960, however, led to widespread implementation of Dewey’s principles mainly in the primary education sector.     

John Dewey on Educating the Moral Self

Despite the affirmation below from a chapter entitled “The Moral Self” in his Ethics (1932), Deweyseems not to have used the term “moralself” outside that context. Perhaps he didn’t think it that crucial in his overall philosophy. I argue, on the contrary, that the concept ofthe moralself is fundamental to Deweyan moral psychology and that it provides an illuminating lens through which to view his philosophy of education. This paper explicates Dewey’s perspective on moral education as education of the moral self.     

John Dewey in France

The present article on John Dewey aims at pursuing thetraces of the reception of Dewey's work in France. Itis intended as a survey of the writers who have takennote of Dewey and his ideas, and is meant to functionas a sort of additive inventory, with no claim tocomprehensiveness. Some of the articles mentioned wereunfortunately unavailable for direct examination andare thus listed merely for purposes of information.Although the educational and philosophical writings ofJohn Dewey are actually indivisible, Dewey's oeuvrehas not been read in France and Europe generally as ofa piece, but has largely been registered in terms ofthose parts which have relevance to education andteaching. Indicative of this is the fact that it tookuntil 1975 for Democracy and Education (1916) –the book which, in Dewey's own view, most clearlypresented his linking of pedagogy and philosophy(Delledalle, 1975; Suhr, 1994) – to be published inFrance. Gérard Delledalle, the translator ofDemocracy and Education, is the only person so far inFrance to have dealt systematically with the whole ofDewey's writings. He has translated other works byDewey and has written several books on him, dealingexpressly with Dewey's philosophy of pragmatism as thefoundation of his theory of education.It is actually inadequate to restrict the reception ofDewey's work to France alone. Rather, one should speakof francophone Europe, for the first translations ofDewey's educational writings into French were made byAdolphe Ferriére, Ovide Decroly and ÉdouardClaparéde – a Swiss, a Belgian, and a Frenchman.It was thanks to them that Dewey's thoughts oneducation began to make an impact on the francophonemovement for school reform in the early twentiethcentury.Discussion of his theory of education is typified inFrance as well by a division into proponents of aconcept of `learning by doing' indebted to Dewey(particularly in France) and representatives ofauthoritarian forms of education, which reject Dewey.Although French thought has not yet concerned itselfclosely with pragmatism, Dewey's opponents believed(and still believe) that they could denounce him andhis theories simply by levelling the charge of``pragmatism.' This dualistic mode of thinking whichappears to be deeply rooted in France has proved to bean obstacle to the reception of Dewey and has led toneglect and rejection of his theories.     

Inquiry and Analysis: Dewey and Russell on Philosophy

In an environment characterized by the emergence of new and diverse (and often opposed) philosophical efforts, there is a need for a conception of philosophy that will promote the exchange and critical consideration of divergent insights. Depending upon the operative conception, philosophical efforts can be viewed as significant, insightful and instructive, or unimportant, misguided and not real philosophy. This paper develops John Dewey's conception of philosophy as a mode of inquiry in contrast with Bertrand Russell's conception of philosophy as a mode of analysis. I argue that while Russell's analytic conception of philosophy justifies the dismissal of non-analytic philosophies, Dewey's conception of philosophy provides a theoretical framework for the comparison, evaluation and interaction of alternatives.     

Dewey and the Question of Realism

An interpretation is given of John Dewey's views about “realism” in metaphysics, and of how these views relate to contemporary debates. Dewey rejected standard formulations of realism as a general metaphysical position, and interpreters have often been taken him to be sympathetic to some form of verificationism or constructivism. I argue that these interpretations are mistaken, as Dewey's unease with standard formulations of realism comes from his philosophical emphasis on intelligent control of events, by means of ordinary action. Because of his views about relations, Dewey's views in this area do risk collapsing into an overly holistic position. I discuss how these problems might be avoided, and consider also how Dewey's views about naturalism and realism might usefully inform ongoing work.