Dewey’s Social Philosophy: Democracy as Education

194 Pages·2014·0.964 MB·English

by  John R. Shook (auth.)

Dewey’s Social Philosophy
Alsobytheauthor
JohnR.Shook,Dewey’sEmpiricalTheoryofKnowledgeandReality,2000.
JohnR.Shook,editor,PragmaticNaturalismandRealism,2003.
John R. Shook, co-editor with Joseph Margolis, A Companion to Pragmatism,
2006.
JohnR.Shook,co-editorwithHughMcDonald,F.C.S.SchilleronPragmatism
andHumanism:SelectedWritings,1891–1939,2008.
JohnR.Shook,co-editorwithPaulKurtz,TheFutureofNaturalism.Prometheus
Books,2009.
JohnR.Shook,co-authorwithJamesA.Good,JohnDewey’sPhilosophyofSpirit,
withDewey’s1897lecturesonHegel,2010.
John R. Shook, co-editor with Paul Kurtz, Dewey’s Enduring Impact: Essays on
America’sPhilosopher,2011.
JohnR.Shook,editor,TheEssentialWilliamJames,2011.
John R. Shook, co-editor with Tibor Solymosi, Neuroscience, Neurophilosophy,
andPragmatism:BrainsatWorkwiththeWorld,2014.
John R. Shook, co-editor with Tibor Solymosi, Pragmatist Neurophilosophy:
AmericanPhilosophyandtheBrain,2014.
Dewey’s Social Philosophy
Democracy as Education
JohnR.Shook
dewey’ssocialphilosophy
Copyright©JohnR.Shook,2014.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-46734-8
Allrightsreserved.
Firstpublishedin2014by
PALGRAVEMACMILLAN®
intheUnitedStates—adivisionofSt.Martin’sPressLLC,
175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010.
WherethisbookisdistributedintheUK,Europeandtherestofthe
World,thisisbyPalgraveMacmillan,adivisionofMacmillanPublishers
Limited,registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,
Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS.
PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabove
companiesandhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld.
Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnited
States,theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries.
ISBN 978-1-349-50001-7 ISBN 978-1-137-45478-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137454782
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Shook,JohnR.
Dewey’ssocialphilosophy:democracyaseducation/JohnR.Shook.
pages cm
Includesindex.
ISBN 978-1-349-50001-7
1. Dewey,John,1859–1952—Politicalandsocialviews.
2. Education—Philosophy. 3. Democracyandeducation. I. Title.
LB875.D5S472014
370.1—dc23 2014016787
AcataloguerecordofthebookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
DesignbyIntegraSoftwareServices
Firstedition:October2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1 WhatareDemocracyandEducationfor? 1
2 Pragmatism,Learning,andDemocracy 29
3 TheEthicalJustificationforDemocracy 55
4 EqualOpportunity,Education,andDemocracy 87
5 MoralEducation,Justice,andPunishment 113
6 Democracy,Religion,andEthicalProgress 139
Notes 159
Index 181
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgments
Portionsofpreviouslypublishedessaysandpaperpresentations
are contained in this book’s chapters, in revised and extended
form.Theoriginalessaysandpapersare:
“Der philosophische Hintergrund von Deweys pädagogische
Credo.” (The Philosophical Context of Dewey’s Pedagogical
Creed). Translated by Helmut Schreier. In Rekonstruktion der
Schule: Das pädagogische credo des John Dewey und die heutige
Erziehungspraxis, ed. Helmut Schreier (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta,
2001),pp.23–55.
“Dewey’s Vision of Equal Opportunity for Education in
a Democracy,” In William Lawson and Donald Koch, eds.,
Pragmatism and the Problem of Race (Bloomington: Indiana
UniversityPress,2004),pp.48–72.
“Dewey’s Ethical Justification for Public Deliberation
Democracy.”EducationandCulture 29,1(Fall2013):3–26.
“Dewey’s Rejection of Retributivism and His Moral-
EducationTheoryofPunishment.”JournalofSocialPhilosophy
35,1(Spring2004):66–78.
“Deliberative Democracy and Moral Pluralism: Dewey vs.
Rawls and Habermas,” In John Ryder and Emil Visnovsky,
eds., Deconstruction and Reconstruction: The Central European
Pragmatist Forum, Volume Two, (Amsterdam and New York:
Rodopi,2004),pp.31–41.
“Entrepreneurship and Values in a Democratic and Prag-
matic Economics.” Journal of Economic Methodology 10, 2
(June2003):181–190.
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Dewey’s Naturalized Philosophy of Spirit and Religion.”
InJohnR.ShookandJamesA.Good,eds.,JohnDewey’sPhilos-
ophy of Spirit, with Dewey’s 1897 Lectures on Hegel (New York:
FordhamUniversityPress,2010),pp.3–55.
“Pragmatism Caught between Church and State.” Paper
read at the Society for the Advancement of American Phi-
losophy meeting with the Eastern Division meeting of the
AmericanPhilosophicalAssociation,Boston,December2004.
“Dewey’s Hegelianism and His Repair of the Reli-
gious/SecularDivide.”PaperreadattheAmericanAcademyof
Religion, with the Pragmatism and Empiricism in American
Religious Thought group meeting, San Antonio, Texas,
November2004.
C h a p t e r 1
What are Democracy
and Education for?
John Dewey’s integration of education and democracy
encompasses,immediatelyorremotely,notjusthissocialand
political principles, but also his commitments across psychol-
ogy, epistemology, ontology, axiology, ethics, and legal theory.
Fully comprehending Dewey’s educational theory, including
how he defends it and how he would put it into practice, is to
fairlyunderstandhisentirephilosophy.Hedidassertthat“Phi-
losophy is the theory of education as a deliberately conducted
enterprise.”1
Dewey is known for his education theories promoting
democracy, but what is democracy for? His philosophy
advanced democracy as education itself, to reach ever-higher
levels of social intelligence. Praising the community and pro-
moting rights are Deweyan priorities, yet they depend on the
core of Dewey’s visionary philosophy, which seeks everyone’s
goodinasociallifethatisintelligentlylived.
This book explains Dewey’s political vision for democracy
as a form of deliberative polyarchy based on ethical princi-
ples.Thiskindofdemocracyamountstoacommunalexercise
in experimental civic education. This ethical project, suc-
cessfully pervading all of democratic society and leaving no
nondemocratic elements untouched, must be revolutionarily
comprehensive.Maintainingthecivilpeace,aproductiveecon-
omy, a participatory citizenry, an effective penal system, and
J.R. Shook, Dewey’s Social Philosophy
© John R. Shook 2014