Creating a democratic nation-state and sustaining its progress was seen by the founders of the Republic of Turkey as necessary to achieving the goal of becoming a distinguished member among developed civilizations. The founders conceived of education as a main instrument in disseminating this new ideology and ensuring the emergence of a culture of…

This paper focuses on the primary problem of the public, as advanced in "The Public and its Problems," which Dewey described as the need to improve "methods of debate, discussion, and persuasion" for the purposes of "perfecting the process of inquiry" (Dewey, 1927/1954, p. 208). I first situate these modes of…

The paper tackles the fundamental question of whether democracy has by now been turned into a meaningless liturgy of a past religion and proposes a Deweyan answer which points to the need to fully realize modernity in order to bring into existence a genuine democracy. By deploying an archaeological reading of "The Public and Its…

Interpretations of John Dewey's political theory grasp his respect for public deliberation, but typically overlook his ethical justification for democracy. Dewey gave two primary reasons why democracy is superior to other forms of government. First, a public educated in the tools of social intelligence can be more effective at managing their…

While the ideas of Western democracy and individualism are increasingly popular and influential in Korean society, the traditional Korean understanding of authority has been challenged, especially in Korean schools. In this essay, the author first tries to analyze some important educational problems in contemporary Korea as it relates to the…

I explore Montessori's story in terms of her initial warm reception by America to her educational research, and her later cooling off, once Dewey's student, Kilpatrick, published The Montessori System Examined and declared her work to be based on psychological theory that was fifty years behind the times. I argue that there is a troubling gendered…

With strikingly resonance William Morris and John Dewey independently imagined what utopian education might plausibly be. Neither remotely thought of utopia as a perfectly ordered society, but rather as a process. Each understood education functionally in terms of how it fits with art, work, and democracy within a holistic conception of utopia.…

This essay aims to demonstrate the theoretical purchase offered by linking Dewey's educational theory with a rigorous account of dialectical development. Drawing on recent literature which emphasizes the continuing influence of Hegel on Dewey's thought throughout the latter's career, this essay reconstructs Dewey's argument regarding the…

Most historical scholarship on John Dewey's 1924 educational mission to Turkey has focused on the degree to which the educator and philosopher's recommendations were actually implemented. By bringing the disciplinary lenses of history and philosophy to bear on Dewey's mission, this collaborative study differs from previous work by illuminating the…

Critics of Dewey's metaphysics point to his dismissal of any philosophy which locates ideals in a realm beyond experience. However, Dewey's sustained critique of dualistic philosophies is but a first step in his reconstruction and recovery of the function of the metaphysical. Detaching the discussion of values from inquiry, whether scientific,…

In this paper, I argue that many recent interpretations of John Dewey's vision of democracy distort that vision by filtering it through the prism of contemporary deliberative democratic theories. An earlier attempt to defend Dewey's theory of moral deliberation is instructive for understanding the nature and function of this filter. In James…

In an attempt to better understand the complexity of American racism and democracy, this paper explores racism through the plight of an African American sharecropper, Odell Waller, and the reaction and involvement of John Dewey, America's most liberal democratic philosopher of the 20th century. This exploration delves into the nature of American…

Excellent, democratic education that furthers each person's potential, success and happiness for her own and others' well-being is not yet widespread in the U.S. today. Dewey's The Public and Its Problems has much to say about the possibilities and challenges of achieving this goal. This paper examines Dewey's ideas about how a public for…

This article opens by raising a need to examine today's moral education for a new century. John Dewey insists that "arts are educative," so that "they open the door to an expansion of meaning and to an enlarged capacity to experience the world." This insight retains remarkable implications for today's moral education. Aesthetic experience is…

In this article, the author digs into John Dewey's writings to explore his democratic community to better understand the meaning and the value of community. The author begins by considering the connotation of the concept "community," which is distinguished from the more popular term "society" used in ordinary language. Then the author transitions…