Dewey On The Utility of Philosophy

In chapter Twenty-Four of Democracy and Education, titled 'Philosophy of Education' Dewey starts by reiterating his classification of philosophy from previous discussions, where he defines it as a generalized theory of education. From here, Dewey draws a sharp distinction between philosophy and the hard sciences, mathematics, and fact based humanity courses. Philosophy is stated to be a form of thinking, which, like all other forms of thinking, is derived from the relative uncertainties found in human experiences. Subjects such as biology, chemistry, calculus and history on the other hand are stated to be forms of grounded knowledge, in that they consist of established empirical facts which have been set down and categorized as such. Despite this distinction, the factual knowledge of such disciplines are necessary prerequisites for one's engagement in philosophical thinking due to the true nature of thinking being the amelioration of disturbances. The disturbances that Dewey is eluding to are those which arise when contrasting views pertaining to the application of grounded knowledge are present between individuals, groups or cultures. The function of philosophy is thus, to think/hypothesize/speculate upon what response, if any, the 'known' can or should elicit. Given the relative nature of humanities understanding and employment of the 'known,' philosophy is not in the business of establishing grounded facts, but rather, in analyzing shortcomings and positing stratagems for managing them.

The current trend in public education is to draft curriculum and present course materiel in a starkly exclusionary manner. What I mean by this is, our schools and thus our students regard the sciences, humanities, arts, and mathematics as individual entities, each with their own skill sets, personalities, requirements and future careers. Given the nature of standardized testing, and the specialized skill sets of each teacher, this segregation of disciplines is a logical strategy if the goal of our schools is simply the rendering of knowledge unto the student body, which unfortunately many seem to think it is. Where both myself and Dewey find fault with such a narrowly contrived directive for our schools is that it does little to facilitate thoughtfulness and the application of knowledge across disciplines... which is what the world beyond the classroom requires of us. A fulfilling social life, happy marriage, innovative and creative thinking, sound investment, informed voting, strong leadership, service to humanity, etc... all necessitate the ability to think about what we know, do and experience. The failure to exercise this faculty in our students leaves their rational capabilities, individuality, and perceptive skills sorely underdeveloped. The end result is that they view school as a compartmentalized source of incongruent facts with little contemporary relevance, and upon graduation, struggle to apply this grounded knowledge when, as Dewey puts it, "claims of different ideals of conduct affect the community as a whole, and the need for readjustment is general." There are a number of strategies we might use to curtail these educational shortcoming, the cheapest and laziest of which would be to raise the standards placed on teachers at present to include cross disciplinary thought and discussion. However, doing so would place additional demand on them through the addition of mandated course content that they lack both the time and training to adequately incorporate. The perspective alternative that Dewey develops, and I strive to push further, is the adoption of philosophy and ethics into main stream education.