Contemplations on the Philosophy of John Dewey
| Autor: | Robert Ulich |
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| Rok vydání: | 1967 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Comparative Education. 3:79-84 |
| ISSN: | 1360-0486 0305-0068 |
| Popis: | Dewey, together with Charles Peirce and William James, liberated American philosophy, especially American educational philosophy, from misunderstood European idealistic and semi-theological speculation. The application of Hegelian philosophy to education, as expounded by Hegel's disciple Rosenzweig, was laughed at in Europe when it was still in vogue among the American Hegelians of St. Louis and other cultural centres. From Herbart, Kant's successor at the University of K6nigsberg, who started a seminary for the pedagogical training of teachers, the Americans imported only Hegel's theory of learning and teaching without regard to its deeper philosophical background. Thus they created an educational practice that had the advantage of being methodical but was lacking in profundity and inspiration. Against this pseudo-Hegelianism and pseudo-Herbartianism, John Dewey developed his philosophy of pragmatism or experimentalism. It combined Darwinian 'natural' evolutionism with 'social' evolutionism, and praised American democracy as the crown of man's historical development. It brought philosophy and education close to actual life, and it expressed the optimistic spirit of a prosperous nation that has never been defeated. Dewey's most influential book, "Democracy and Education" was written in 1916, in the middle of World War I, when the United States helped England and France to defeat the imperial powers of Germany and Austria, described as 'despotic' by propagandists of American intervention. America, so went the slogan, was chosen by destiny "to make the world ripe for democracy". One forgot that at the same time one also fought on the side of a truly despotic power, Tzarist Russia. But history, and especially nationalistic ideologies, has always been full of contradictions. American pragmatism appealed also to the Japanese people. According to the introduction by Robert Schinzinger to the speculative ideas of Kitaro Nishida,('1 German 'idealism', particularly Fichte's philosophy of will-"was apparently congenial to the heroic impulses of the Meiji Period"; Bergson's irrationalistic philosophy of the dlan vital"had a special appeal to Japan's feeling for life and nature"; whilst American pragmatism attracted the Japanese in "their inclination toward immediate practicality" by virtue of its "anti-speculative common sense philosophy". All three views of life correspond to certain elements inherent in the basic Japanese traditions of Shintoism, Buddhism (including Zen) and Confucianism (including Taoism). |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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