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book1916

Democracy and Education

Disciplines:
philosophy
philosophy/philosophy of education

Summary

Dewey's most systematic work — arguing that education is not preparation for life but is life itself, and that democratic education is the key to democratic society.

Core Contribution

Education as experience: children learn by doing, not by passive absorption of information — experience and reflection on experience are the core of education. Democracy and education are mutually constitutive: democratic society requires educated citizens who can think; genuine education produces people capable of democratic participation. The school as embryonic society: schools should be democratic communities in miniature. Against dualisms: mind/body, thought/action, individual/society.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • More influential outside philosophy than within: read by every education school student but rarely cited by professional philosophers. The gap between Dewey's academic prestige and his actual influence on practice has been debated for a century.

Historical Influences

William James Hegel

Intellectual Lineage

American Pragmatism Progressive Education

Allied Works

Experience and Nature The Quest for Certainty How We Think

Contemporaries & Peers

Schools of TomorrowExperience and Nature

Minds Influenced

Progressive Education Constructivism Paulo Freire

Intellectual Posterity

Progressive Education Constructivism Project-Based Learning

Discussing

Democracy and Education

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