Dave Breese in his book, Seven Men Who Rule the World From the Grave, gives us a glimpse into the mind of John Dewey and his radical ethos. Many people have never heard of John Dewey, but his name is significant in that he changed the implementation of new ideas on young impressionable minds and the way education is structured as a whole. As Breese so accurately points out: Dewey was a prime mover in the struggle for the minds of men, a contender in the battle of ideas- the battle that really matters, "in this regard, we must remind ourselves that the essential battle of the world is exactly that, a battle for the minds of men. The struggles that matter today and tomorrow are not fought with submarines, bombers, missiles, and moving armies. Those machines of visible conflict are but the final reductio ad absurdum of the unseen conflicts brewed earlier in the imaginations of people that later boiled up into external, empirical reality. Millions who have perished in the nameless battles of history and who are now buried in unmarked graves died because someone failed at intellectual and moral persuasion" (p. 155-156). I will give a summary of this chapter (9) and paraphrase the most important points and will include specific quotations that are useful to ponder.
John Dewey presided over what was called the "vast emergence" or simply, the vast emergence of ideas and philosophies that ushered in the 20th century. Optimism and idealism were all the hype and trend as the Industrial Revolution replaced feudalistic attitudes and brought nothing but promise and anticipation for a bright future brimming with hope. Man no longer considered God in his vast emergence of ideas and thoughts of Darwin replaced God and so man was consumed with his great ability to solve all his and the world's problems. Social Darwinism fed the great juggernaut of Human Secularism and while it's tentacles proliferated, it convinced man that he had really progressed from primordial slime into an enlighten bliss; "natural selection" had selected him to be a steward of the future. Man's unlimited potential must not be denied and there must be no boundaries, for not even the sky was the limit. The strong, thunderous voice of the Christian Church faded away as they too succumbed to the tide of Humanism. The church felt the corrosive effects of this new emergence as they co-mingled with pagans, adopting paganism into their fold-an outright defiance against the Living God who clearly states, "Thou shalt have no other god before Me." The biggest consequence of this collaborative move is the now present [missing element] in the American culture: the Living God. No longer does man in reverence ask the question, "what does God think of this," for there is no room in most people's minds for God. No, man is now consumed with government, education, healthcare, politics, economics, etc., and a million other things in our materialist culture. He is thinking about utopia, man's unlimited potential, and how these new Humanist philosophies can fill and restructure society.
In time's past, new philosophies and ideas would take a considerable amount of time to gain credibility in the minds of most men, long before they moved into the upper echelons of society, the "movers and shakers" of society. This is where John Dewey comes onto the world scene. He took the circulating philosophies of Humanism, Liberalism, and the fluid way of thinking and pushed them through the American education system, "the world's greatest instrument for the dissemination of ideas" (p. 155). As previously pointed out in my last post on Humanism, Dewey restructured the entire education system, moving it from static concepts to a confluence of fluid ideas that redefined just about everything. His influence had such a profound impact that practically the whole world was thinking like Dewey. And how was it possible for a man who was not extraordinary by any measure, (he did not serve or fight in war, he held no public office, he was not a hero), to make such a profound impact? In academia of course. Dewey's poisonous influence left many without a foundation as he believed ideas, issues, problems, and concerns were always changing and so they had to be reconsidered in the light of new, ever-changing ideas, issues, problems, and concerns; a posteriori. Most of Dewey's own belief system was derived from Georg Hegel, as was Kierkegaard and Marx, especially in the area of idealism. Hegel saw reality as something dynamic and not fixed, and so we can see the progression of this concept from one man to another. The biggest fallacy in this concept, however, is that there is never a reality to be found, "For Dewey, reality was something in between, but was not even permanently that" (p. 157). Ridiculous you say, but so many have swallowed this belief and have appropriated it to their lives and sadly their mind has never been able to grasp one solid concept.
Without grasping one solid concept, you may wonder how could such an abstract concept gain so much credibility in the mind's of so many so fast? How could any sensible thinking person align their beliefs with such inconsistencies? And how can any reasonable thinker place more emphasis on the outcome rather than mechanics as Breese points out? Since Dewey was a prolific writer, his inundation of words lent persuasion and credibility to his ideas. In other words, his credibility was achieved through proof of verbosity. And yet in many of the books, essays, and magazines that he wrote, he can be quoted on both sides of the argument. In Dewey's contradicting style, he can be found psychologically gaslighting his followers as everything was subject to reinterpretation at any given moment, for their was no fixed reality in Dewey's mind. For example his says, "meaning is wider in scope as well as more precious in value than is truth, and philosophy is occupied with meaning rather than with truth," while at the same time affirming truth, "making such a statement is dangerous; it is easily misconceived to signify the truth is of no real importance under any circumstances; while the fact is that the truth is so infinitely important when it is important at all, namely, in records of events and descriptions of existences, that we extend its claims to regions where it has no justification. But even as respects truths, meaning is the wider category; truths are but one class of meanings, namely, those in which a claim to verifiability by their consequences is an intrinsic part of their meaning" (p. 160). In much of his words, his quintessential Deweyian logic resides not in truth, but in meaning or the results (consequences) of experience.
Dewey's rise to influence began at John Hopkins in 1884 where he took a doctorate, presenting a dissertation on the psychology of Immanuel Kant. The same year, Dewey took a professorship at the University of Michigan. He was discontent with speculative philosophy and tried to make philosophy relevant and applicable to the practical affairs of men (Breese 158). Dewey wrote his first book, Psychology, and then his second book, Applied Psychology, both in 1889. The biggest platform where he made the largest gains in influence was at Columbia University in New York as chairman of education. He spent a total of 26 years there and traveled abroad, joining the "lecture" circuit. Dewey's philosophy, of course, was endorsed and taught there as many students circulated throughout the University and his ideas spread like the black death that brought Europe to its knees. New York was and is the hub for media and journalism, so Dewey founded The Journal of Philosophy. He also wrote for the magazine, The New Republic, on a regular basis. So vast and prolific his writing and words in lecture and print, that Dewey rose to stardom and was seen as a godlike figure with supreme knowledge who had all the answers and could guide men. He was so respected by the intellectual elite and earned one of the most well respected educators in modern day. And so this is how Dewey rose to such a influence. Once there and in a position of power to implement his ideas, he needed an instrument to disseminate his ideas....that being, of course, the American education system.
Dewey used his power and influence to work continual change in the education system. He felt it needed an overhaul and an "upgrade" from the pre-scientific age to the greater use of the scientific method which inundates just about every course that a student is enrolled in. He also felt that the American education system was not meeting the needs of the imminent future, "Dewey was critical of anyone who opposed the studies called modern and the methods called progressive" (p. 164). Dewey worked tirelessly to rid the education system of any dogma and since religion and its dogma was an impediment to progress, dogma had to be done away with. With all that being said, Breese sums up Dewey's faulty logic in five brief power points:
John Dewey presided over what was called the "vast emergence" or simply, the vast emergence of ideas and philosophies that ushered in the 20th century. Optimism and idealism were all the hype and trend as the Industrial Revolution replaced feudalistic attitudes and brought nothing but promise and anticipation for a bright future brimming with hope. Man no longer considered God in his vast emergence of ideas and thoughts of Darwin replaced God and so man was consumed with his great ability to solve all his and the world's problems. Social Darwinism fed the great juggernaut of Human Secularism and while it's tentacles proliferated, it convinced man that he had really progressed from primordial slime into an enlighten bliss; "natural selection" had selected him to be a steward of the future. Man's unlimited potential must not be denied and there must be no boundaries, for not even the sky was the limit. The strong, thunderous voice of the Christian Church faded away as they too succumbed to the tide of Humanism. The church felt the corrosive effects of this new emergence as they co-mingled with pagans, adopting paganism into their fold-an outright defiance against the Living God who clearly states, "Thou shalt have no other god before Me." The biggest consequence of this collaborative move is the now present [missing element] in the American culture: the Living God. No longer does man in reverence ask the question, "what does God think of this," for there is no room in most people's minds for God. No, man is now consumed with government, education, healthcare, politics, economics, etc., and a million other things in our materialist culture. He is thinking about utopia, man's unlimited potential, and how these new Humanist philosophies can fill and restructure society.
In time's past, new philosophies and ideas would take a considerable amount of time to gain credibility in the minds of most men, long before they moved into the upper echelons of society, the "movers and shakers" of society. This is where John Dewey comes onto the world scene. He took the circulating philosophies of Humanism, Liberalism, and the fluid way of thinking and pushed them through the American education system, "the world's greatest instrument for the dissemination of ideas" (p. 155). As previously pointed out in my last post on Humanism, Dewey restructured the entire education system, moving it from static concepts to a confluence of fluid ideas that redefined just about everything. His influence had such a profound impact that practically the whole world was thinking like Dewey. And how was it possible for a man who was not extraordinary by any measure, (he did not serve or fight in war, he held no public office, he was not a hero), to make such a profound impact? In academia of course. Dewey's poisonous influence left many without a foundation as he believed ideas, issues, problems, and concerns were always changing and so they had to be reconsidered in the light of new, ever-changing ideas, issues, problems, and concerns; a posteriori. Most of Dewey's own belief system was derived from Georg Hegel, as was Kierkegaard and Marx, especially in the area of idealism. Hegel saw reality as something dynamic and not fixed, and so we can see the progression of this concept from one man to another. The biggest fallacy in this concept, however, is that there is never a reality to be found, "For Dewey, reality was something in between, but was not even permanently that" (p. 157). Ridiculous you say, but so many have swallowed this belief and have appropriated it to their lives and sadly their mind has never been able to grasp one solid concept.
Without grasping one solid concept, you may wonder how could such an abstract concept gain so much credibility in the mind's of so many so fast? How could any sensible thinking person align their beliefs with such inconsistencies? And how can any reasonable thinker place more emphasis on the outcome rather than mechanics as Breese points out? Since Dewey was a prolific writer, his inundation of words lent persuasion and credibility to his ideas. In other words, his credibility was achieved through proof of verbosity. And yet in many of the books, essays, and magazines that he wrote, he can be quoted on both sides of the argument. In Dewey's contradicting style, he can be found psychologically gaslighting his followers as everything was subject to reinterpretation at any given moment, for their was no fixed reality in Dewey's mind. For example his says, "meaning is wider in scope as well as more precious in value than is truth, and philosophy is occupied with meaning rather than with truth," while at the same time affirming truth, "making such a statement is dangerous; it is easily misconceived to signify the truth is of no real importance under any circumstances; while the fact is that the truth is so infinitely important when it is important at all, namely, in records of events and descriptions of existences, that we extend its claims to regions where it has no justification. But even as respects truths, meaning is the wider category; truths are but one class of meanings, namely, those in which a claim to verifiability by their consequences is an intrinsic part of their meaning" (p. 160). In much of his words, his quintessential Deweyian logic resides not in truth, but in meaning or the results (consequences) of experience.
Dewey's rise to influence began at John Hopkins in 1884 where he took a doctorate, presenting a dissertation on the psychology of Immanuel Kant. The same year, Dewey took a professorship at the University of Michigan. He was discontent with speculative philosophy and tried to make philosophy relevant and applicable to the practical affairs of men (Breese 158). Dewey wrote his first book, Psychology, and then his second book, Applied Psychology, both in 1889. The biggest platform where he made the largest gains in influence was at Columbia University in New York as chairman of education. He spent a total of 26 years there and traveled abroad, joining the "lecture" circuit. Dewey's philosophy, of course, was endorsed and taught there as many students circulated throughout the University and his ideas spread like the black death that brought Europe to its knees. New York was and is the hub for media and journalism, so Dewey founded The Journal of Philosophy. He also wrote for the magazine, The New Republic, on a regular basis. So vast and prolific his writing and words in lecture and print, that Dewey rose to stardom and was seen as a godlike figure with supreme knowledge who had all the answers and could guide men. He was so respected by the intellectual elite and earned one of the most well respected educators in modern day. And so this is how Dewey rose to such a influence. Once there and in a position of power to implement his ideas, he needed an instrument to disseminate his ideas....that being, of course, the American education system.
Dewey used his power and influence to work continual change in the education system. He felt it needed an overhaul and an "upgrade" from the pre-scientific age to the greater use of the scientific method which inundates just about every course that a student is enrolled in. He also felt that the American education system was not meeting the needs of the imminent future, "Dewey was critical of anyone who opposed the studies called modern and the methods called progressive" (p. 164). Dewey worked tirelessly to rid the education system of any dogma and since religion and its dogma was an impediment to progress, dogma had to be done away with. With all that being said, Breese sums up Dewey's faulty logic in five brief power points:
- Final Truth is illusionary. According to Dewey, since we live in a world that is constantly changing, our principles and beliefs must align with those changes as well and so people must adapt to those changes. This is simply the same thought process as evolution; everything is evolving, therefore man must evolve as well. There are no constants and everything is being planned as we go along in a process of change. In this radical ethos of his, "Dewey stood against the epistemologists of the past who held to any concept of eternal truth" (Breese 166). Dewey flat out denied objective Truth. He was against what C.S. Lewis called in his book, The Abolition of Man, "the doctrine of objective value." As C.S. Lewis explained, when we deny objective truth, we destroy mankind. Since "man is teleologically oriented and must have purpose and reason," Dewey's ethos is tantamount to chasing the wind and never catching it. With Dewey, his philosophy began with people and ended with people coming full circle but never anchoring in an absolute. Man is geared innately to desire a final outcome or a final conclusion that eliminates the doubts and yet Dewey's ethos leaves you on a constant wild goose chase. Contrast with what the Bible says, "A man's heart deviseth his ways, but the Lord directeth his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). In other words, we can make plans but Sovereign always rules out. There are many things we can not control that are outside our plans. So herein lies Dewey's faulty logic. He gives mortal man far too much power to produce an outcome that he desires.
- We must not think of truth but must concern ourselves with meaning. Since Truth is dogmatic, boxy with sharp corners and offensive, we must rather concern ourselves with something more palatable. And so simple concepts are sugar coated, glossed over and/or made politically correct and as a result effective communication slips away when Truth is arbitrary, "such a line of thought gives the reader of Dewey intellectual vertigo, for meaning is an ambiguous and arbitrary concept backing the universality of truth" (Breese 167). Dewey's mind was "spacious" filled with nothing but air as meaning was sublime and left many with a "fog of misunderstanding and miscomprehension" (p. 167).
- Truth is resident in experience. Dewey hated the lecture method where minds exchange between teacher and student. He felt it was an inferior method because Truth could only be known until one experiences it, "to him, truth does not consist in words, propositions, or assertions that can be communicated by language alone...but rather until we have experienced it" (p. 167). With Dewey's view of the ontological nature of experience, the door was opened for subversion in every field by existentialism (p. 167). The idea that {truth is experience} would have been considered absurd many years ago but such is not the case today. The emotionalists and their influence have created a society seeking colorfulness in experience rather than boring propositional truth. As Breese points out with mindfulness, where do you draw the line on experience? The truth being that experience is varied from individual to individual and each individual has any number of given emotions that he/she experiences from moment to moment, day to day. The cessation of lucid/straight thinking has left so many constantly seeking the next new high or experience.
- Teaching fundamentally depends upon experiment. There are valid reasons to perform experiments in science but with Dewey, children become the experiments. Instead of teaching children so they can learn objective truths, they are now being tested with new theories, new ideas, and new studies, "the schools of our land have, to a significant degree, become laboratories where social theories, scientific views, and educational hypotheses are tested in the lives of our young people" (p. 168). These experiments, according to Dewey, are the best way to change attitudes, convictions, outlooks, and prejudices, and this certainly placates the sociological "dilettante."
- The "idea of God" has meaning to those who believe: Religion, however, must be reformed to serve mankind. Dewey was not against religion or the concept of a god, he just considered any dogma in religion anathema to his ethos. Therefore god was to be used as a means to an end to serve mankind, similar to god being a genie than man serving, worshipping, and obeying God. The New-Agers love Dewey as his idea of religion should only be based in experience anyway, "he was a positivist in nearly every respect-except in the case of dogmatic region-such as fundamentalism-and therefore could not find a place in his cosmology for the most of the current ideas, especially those that were new or emergent" (p. 170). Most people flock to a message that "tickles the ear" but few line up to listen to the "hard, offensive, boxy, Truth" that ultimately sets people free.
In the end, Dewey can be summed up in one word: experience. To him, everything had to have experience in order for anything to be true. Dewey was also merely an instrumentalist, not a philosopher. He took his ideas and used the American education system to systematically change the whole structure of education and its core curriculum. His instrument used for change was the education system and unfortunately, he accomplished what he set out to do, his objective being: remove static concepts and objective truth from the classroom and teach students emotionalism and experience in feelings tailored to each individual. Is it any wonder why our world is filled with so much chaos?