The Philosopher as Parent: John Dewey's Observations of His Children's Language Development and the Development of His Thinking about Communication (original) (raw)

Accomplishing Modernity: Dewey's Inquiry, Childhood and Philosophy

Education and Culture, 2012

Against the backdrop of two remarks by Martha Nussbaum on Dewey and Socratic education (which can be connected with a statement by Matthew Lipman about his going beyond Dewey in a Deweyan way), the paper explores what seems to be a sort of ambivalence in Dewey's educational device. On the one hand, by recognizing children as inquirers and the attitude of childhood as "very near to the attitude of the scientific mind", Dewey infringes on the modern (Cartesian-Kantian) pattern which separates childhood knowledge and reflective thinking. Such a move represents a more radical Copernican revolution in comparison with the Kantian one and a way of accomplishing modernity in that, by reformulating the relationships between experience and thinking, it allows Dewey to recognize the child as an epistemic agent and at the same time as a pivot of the educational process. On the other hand, despite this valorisation of children's epistemic powers and despite his emphasis on philosophy as a general theory of education, Dewey failed to mobilise philosophical inquiry as a way of educating children for thinking. In the final part of the paper some possible explanations are advanced about why in Dewey philosophy does not take on the educational role that it will have in Lipman.

Linguistic pragmatism in Dewey: a unified conception of mind, thought and language

Cognitio-Estudos: revista eletrônica de filosofia

According to Stout (2002), Peirce invented pragmatism, James united the world of human experience and that of language and Dewey transformed pragmatism into an instrument of social, cultural progress and democratic awareness. This article analyses the views of language in Dewey and establishes their links with key concepts within his instrumental pragmatism. We begin by examining his theory of language that brings together the concepts of thought and language and explores the body as the origin of meaning. We analyse his conceptions of communicative action and highlight the role of language in the development of his theory of investigation. Finally, we appreciate the connections between his concept of warranted assertibility, social responsibility and the ethical implications of discourse.

John Dewey and His Philosophy of Education

Journal of Education and Educational Development, 2016

This review paper on John Dewey, the pioneering educationist of the 20th century, discusses his educational thoughts, and writings, which gave a new direction to education at the turn of the century. Dewey’s contributions are immense and overwhelming in the fields of education, politics, humanism, logic, and aesthetics. This discussion will focus on Dewey and his philosophy related to educational approaches, pedagogical issues, and the linkages that he made between education, democracy, experience, and society. At the heart of his educational thought is the child. Dewey’s idea on humanism springs from his democratic bent and his quest for freedom, equity, and the value of child’s experiences.

Spoken Language vs. Written Language in John Dewey's Philosophy

EIRP Proceedings, Vol. 16 (2021), Danubius University Press, Galaţi, 2020, p. 233-236

In this paper, I aim at presenting John Dewey's conception regarding the importance of spoken language for the development and the regulation of human social behaviour. Even if the famous American philosopher also appreciates written language, he states that modern man, precisely because he resorts so frequently to writing, overlooks the essential nature of human communication. Consequently, to Dewey, just as to the ancients, the observation that „verba volant” is more important than the consideration that „scripta manent”.

John Dewey's Philosophy of Education

2023

This paper on John Dewey, a leading educator of the twentieth century, examines his pedagogical ideas and works, which helped to shape teaching-learning practice. In the areas of education, politics, humanism, logic, and aesthetics, Dewey's contributions are enormous and overpowering. This paper will center on Dewey's educational theory, pedagogical concerns, and the connections he established between education, democracy, experience, and society. The child is at the center of his educational philosophy. Dewey's concept of humanism stems from his democratic leanings and search for liberty, justice, and the worth of a child's experience.

The concept of warranted assertibility in Dewey as the heart of his instrumental pragmatism

Cognitio-Estudos: revista eletrônica de filosofia

Pragmatism started in the second half of the 19th century in North America and, in many respects, is still with us today. This school of thought has been hugely influential in many areas such as in the philosophy of language, science, logic and metaphysics; in the philosophy of mind, ethics, aesthetics and in the philosophy of religion. This article introduces Dewey’s specific kind of pragmatism in the context of classical American Pragmatism, represented by Peirce and James. We then examine the formation of the core of Dewey’s instrumental pragmatism - his concept of warranted assertibility. The analysis is based on five pragmatic themes - pluralism, anti-foundationalism, fallibilism, the agents of perspective and the communities of inquirers -; one scientific paradigm - Darwinian evolutionism - and one philosophical - Kantian German Idealism. We propose the importance of Dewey’s enduring legacy lies in the fact that his concept of warranted assertibility­ involves discussions of ...

JOHN DEWEY ON CHILDREN, CHILDHOOD, AND EDUCATION

Childhood Philosophy, 2012

It is difficult to find just one place to look for children and childhood in the American philosopher John Dewey's work. This is not because he uses the terms so often, but because the concept of childhood pervades his opus in and through another set of terms-development, growth, experience, plasticity, habit, impulse, and education. In Dewey's language, none of these terms mean quite what they mean in other thinkers' language, and especially not in the language of the human development theorists of the early twentieth century and after, who based their thinking on a monological, unidirectional developmental trajectory that could be applied at all levels of the evolutionary continuum. Dewey is an interactionist through and through, and thus all his terms should be understood as dialectical. He does not invoke the concept "child" without invoking the concept "adult," nor does he describe anything that does not have a normative dimension, which by definition belies "pure" description. His is a language of possibility, and the limits of human possibility are incalculable. This is why the concept of childhood is so important in his work. In this text we present selections from two works, the first emerging at the sickening epicenter of the Great War, in 1916-a war in which youth was sacrificed to what he calls adult "infantilisms" on a historically unprecedented scale, and a war that, arguably, effectively suppressed the educational possibilities his work represents for the rest of the century. Democracy and Education (New York: Macmillan) is his magnum opus on education, and characteristically both garrulous and brilliantly pointed, maddeningly oblique and trenchantly critical, painfully dull and fitfully enthralling, explicitly conservative and implicitly radical. The next selections are from Human Nature and Conduct (Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press), published in 1922, when the orgiastic deathfeast of the tyrants, the politicians, and their hosts of blind acolytes was (temporarily) over.