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Aligning Deweyan Pragmatism and Emersonian Perfectionism: Re‐imagining Growth and Educating Grown‐Ups
Author(s) -
COLAPIETRO VINCENT
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9752.2007.00569.x
Subject(s) - pragmatism , perfectionism (psychology) , epistemology , philosophy of education , sociology , pedagogy , psychology , philosophy , social psychology , higher education , political science , law
This essay examines in detail the triangulated conversation Naoko Saito constructs, in The Gleam of Light , among the voices of R. W. Emerson, John Dewey and Stanley Cavell. The pivot around which everything turns is the Emersonian ideal of moral perfectionism and, in particular, the implications of this ideal for the philosophy of education. As explicated by Cavell, this ideal concerns ‘the dimension of moral thought directed less to restraining the bad than to releasing the good’. For the conscientious person, it is, at once, unavoidable and unattainable. In constructing a conversation among these and other authors, Saito establishes herself as an arresting voice by her thoughtful contributions to many contemporary controversies bearing upon our educational practices, not least of all ones about curricular reform as well as personal transformation.