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The Journal of School & 9 ISSN 2575-9922 6(1) 9–20 ©Author(s) 2019

The aim of is to inculcate John Dewey and ren (humanity) through li (normative 1 behaviours) so that learners could in Dialogue: 1919-2019 realise and broaden dao (Way). To achieve this aim, the Leonard J. Waks should be holistic, broad-based and Hangzhou Normal University integrated where students constant- ly practise what they have learnt through self-cultivation and social interaction.3 In April 1919, when John Dewey arrived in China, the time was not ripe for a dialogue—on Unfortunately, as the educational program pre- fair and equal terms—between his philosophi- scribed by Zhu Xi became institutionalized, cal standpoint and the Confucian tradition. students took up the study of the classic Con- Dewey’s reputation as and ed- fucian works primarily to compete in the rigid ucator was sharply on the rise. He had just, examination system. The aim of Confu- three years earlier, published his magisterial cian education eroded, and the orthodox cur- and Education. In this work, he built riculum impeded the introduction of educa- on his theory, advanced in The School and Society, tional arrangements more suited to modern of through school occupations, conditions. and offered a new vision of democratic educa- At the time of Dewey’s arrival, leading Chi- tion for inter-ethnic understanding and world nese scholars including Cal Yuanpei, Chen . As World War One came to an end, Duxiu, and were denouncing the Con- both he and this groundbreaking book had fucian past and calling for a new forward- gained worldwide attention. looking Chinese culture shaped by Western ide- By contrast, the Confucian tradition, which as. “Democracy” and “” were their had dominated Chinese education for more watchwords. They demanded the rejection of than 2000 years, was in sharp decline. This tra- hierarchical and paternalist structures, the re- dition had developed directly from the works of placement of traditional Chinese with an acces- Confucius, and became frozen in orthodoxy sible vernacular language, mass education, and after the revival of the Confucian tradition by the liberation of women. “Down with Confu- the Song period philosopher Zhu Xi (1130- cius and Sons!” was the popular slogan of the 1200), whose work became regarded as the day.4 benchmark in further Confucian discourses.2 The educational ideals expressed in this tra- dition have recently been elegantly synthesized 3 C. Tan, “ and education,” in G. Noblit by Charlene Tan (2017) as follows: (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education (: Oxford University Press, 2017), 1-18. Draft retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326412668_C 1 An earlier version of this paper appeared in the Journal onfucianism_and_Education. of East China Normal University 2 (2019), 59-66. 4 Ho Hsin-chuan & Prof. Axel Schneider, “Workshop 2 John H. Berthrong, “Neo-Confucian Philosophy,” In- Report” (paper presented at Confucianism and Modern ternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (n.d.), available at Society, Leiden, Netherlands, May 28-29, 2009), available https://www.iep.utm.edu/neo-conf/. at http://www.doc88.com/p-9743327692163.html.

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The challenge to Confucian orthodoxy was By the time of Dewey’s visit in 1919, the not unprecedented. In the Ming period, the humiliating defeats in the Sino-Japanese War great philosopher-poet Wang Yangming (1472- (1905) and the First World War proved that 1529) offered an opposing account of self- importing science and technology as mere cultivation of the xin, or mind-heart, which im- “function”—cut off from its cultural roots in plied a different pattern of education.5 From the scientific and Enlightenment— the 17th century, when Chinese scholars were could not protect China from Japan and the introduced to Western ideas by Jesuit mission- West. ary Matteo Ricci and others, the Confucianism The table was thus set for Dewey’s arrival. cultural monopoly was itself eroding. New China was calling for help from “Mr. Science” trends of and converged and “Mr. Democracy” and Dewey exemplified in the School of Evidential Learning, which both. subjected Confucian classics to philological crit- icism, and adapted the slogan “seek from Dewey in China facts.”

By the mid-19th century, even traditional Among the young who greeted Confucian scholars were aware of the vulnera- Dewey upon his arrival in China, many had bility of China to foreign military and industrial studied abroad; seeing China from a distance, powers. Recognizing that the long- standing they appreciated it as one nation among others Confucian aversion to technical had con- in the modern world and asked: In what direc- tributed to China’s military weakness, they tion should the new China advance? They now sought to import Western science and technol- sought in modern science, technology, and de- ogy.6 But the attitude of Confucian elites was mocracy new cultural ideals for China. deeply ambivalent. They wanted to import sci- While in China, Dewey gave almost 200 lec- ence and technology, but also to contain them tures in eleven provinces. He was welcomed as mere add-ons to Confucian culture. They everywhere—his audiences frequently num- tolerated Western technology as “function,” but 7 bered in the thousands. He spent the majority sought to retain Confucian “substance.” of his time, however, in two provinces (Jiangsu and Zhejiang), homes of the dynamic industrial 5 Significantly, Wang’s position on the sequence of and commercial cities of Nanjing and Hang- and action in learning opposed that of both Confucius and Zhu Xi. For the latter, investigating the zhou. It was there that he had the most lasting 8 classic works was the preliminary stepping stone to action influence. as a wise person. Wang, like Dewey, conceived on the Two series of Dewey’s lectures were trans- contrary that thought grew directly out of action situa- lated into Chinese and widely circulated during tions, and that thought and action were always discrete Dewey’s visit. These have been re-translated facets of one complex action-thought-action complex. As 9 a result, my account of Confucian educational theory into English. He also gave many lectures on does not fit Wang and his followers. 6 Jessica Ching-Sze Wang, John Dewey in China: To Teach 8 Zou Zhenhuan, “The ‘Dewey Fever’ in Jiangsu and and to Learn, (Albany: State University of New York Zhejiang During the and Its Re- Press, SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture, lation to the Cultural Tradition in Jiangnan,” Chinese Stud- 2007). ies in History 43, no. 4, (Summer 2010), 43–62. 7 James Yang, When Confucius “Encounters” John Dewey: A 9 Robert W. Clopton & Tsuin-Chen Ou, John Dewey, Historical and of Dewey's Visit to China, Lectures in China, 1919-20, (Honolulu: University Press of PhD dissertation, (University of Oklahoma, 2016). Hawai, 1975).

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educational topics—ranging from popular edu- persisted through the Republican period.13 Lat- cation, student self-motivation, and the im- er, China adopted a model for higher secondary provement of teaching materials—all of which and tertiary education with many American fea- were widely reported in the Chinese press.10 tures, though one far from Dewey’s ideal vi- Most of these have not yet been translated into sion. In the wake of the “Four Modernizations” English. movement, science and technology have now Dewey’s primary message in his published replaced Confucianism as the basis for Chinese lectures was that the conception of “science” higher education. Indeed, unless today’s Chi- had failed to penetrate China—Chinese intellec- nese students major in Chinese studies, they tuals, in the wake of the Boxer rebellion, had may complete their entire period of university been interested not in science, but only on its study without even coming into contact with technological payoff. Dewey stated that “Orien- classical Confucian texts or ideas.14 tal people . . . do not really grasp the signifi- Contemporary Chinese scholars are, how- cance of the development of science; they con- ever, now reconsidering the Chinese fuse the results of science—the development of tradition. The term “New Confucianism” is technology—with science itself, and conse- currently used to refer to a movement to revive quently fail to develop a scientific attitude.”11 elements of the Confucian tradition and bring This “scientific attitude” implied, for Dew- them into conversation with Western ideas. ey, not just the acceptance of science as the best New Confucianism holds that China must learn method for understanding the natural world, from the West’s modern science and democra- but also the wholehearted embrace of an empir- cy, while the West must learn from China’s ical mindset in addressing problems of everyday Wisdom traditions.15 The time for a dialogue on social life. He condemned the “predisposition equal terms between the Deweyan and Confu- to obey the ancients”—to treat as cian traditions has arrived. already fixed and transmitted through memori- zation, recitation, and examination. In 1921 he Dewey’s Contribution to the Dia- wrote that, for China to adapt to prevailing world conditions, “a new mind must be creat- logue ed.”12 In the immediate aftermath of Dewey’s vis- What does Dewey bring to the table for this it, new experimental schools were established— dialogue? We can understand Dewey’s vision of especially in Nanjing and Hangzhou. These education only by setting it within his theory of the individual in society, and the relations 10 Zhenhuan, “The ‘Dewey Fever.’” 11 Robert Clopton and Tsuin-Chen Ou, John Dewey, Lec- tures in China, 238. 12 Sor-hoon Tan, “The Pragmatic Confucian Approach 13 Zhenhuan, “The ‘Dewey Fever.’” to Tradition in Modernizing China,” History and Theory 51 14 Wm. Theodore De Bary, “Confucian Education and (December 2012), 23-44. See also John Dewey, the ‘Point of Democracy’” in Wm. Theodore de Bary MW13:95, in Jo Ann Boydston (Ed.), The Collected Works (Ed.), Confucian Tradition and Global Education, with contri- of John Dewey, 1882-1953, (Carbondale and Edwardsville: butions by Cheung Chan Fai and Kwan Tze-wan, (New Southern Illinois University Press, 1967-1991). All subse- York: Press, 2007): 18ff. quent citations to the collected works will be cited in 15 See Umberto Bresciani, Reinventing Confucianism: The notes, with EW standing for Early Works, MW for Middle New Confucian Movement (Taipei: Taipei Ricci Institute, Works, and LW for Late Works. 2001).

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among individual action, learning, and simply fail to achieve their desired ends. In knowledge.16 both cases, individuals then sense frustration The Individual in Society. Dewey shared and the hesitation of doubt. This hesitation with classical Chinese thought the idea that in- marks the terminus of “primary” experience. dividual human beings are thrown into histori- For Dewey, the first response to doubt is cal society between past and future.17 Through “thinking”—considering possible alternative early cultural conditioning grounded in cultural means to the desired ends. This may involve tradition, human infants acquire the ways of the the utilization of available knowledge, and when group, which filter down into habit. Individuals it does, it enters the realm of “secondary expe- are thus thoroughly saturated by society and rience.”20 If individual thinking, even when as- inconceivable apart from their social relations. sisted by available knowledge, fails to resolve Dewey wrote, “men are not isolated non-social doubt, individuals can seek further insight from atoms, but are men only when in intrinsic rela- others, including peers and elders through tions to one another.”18 Indeed, humans only communication. When informal knowledge become “individuals” through social habitua- sharing still fails to resolve problems, individu- tion and social relationships. als and groups must then resort to more me- Acting, Thinking, and Learning. Habits thodical . Contemporary industrial and acquired through social experience can guide post-industrial establish research uni- individuals through qualitative feeling and versities as the primary homes for systematic spontaneous thought-in-action as they act to inquiry. 21 satisfy needs and ends.19 By “experience,” Dew- A society for Dewey is a democratic ey meant the complex of acting and undergoing society, characterized by rich communication the consequences that result. By “primary expe- within and across all social groups, so that each rience,” Dewey meant action undertaken with- individual gains access to the best ideas for out the guidance of explicit knowledge. Some- solving individual and collective problems. For times such acts prompted by habit fail qualita- Dewey, individuals develop democratic disposi- tively to fit emerging situations; action impulses tions and thus become moral agents by acting may not feel quite appropriate. Or acts may cooperatively and openly exchanging ideas. Schools and universities conduce to democracy 16 In this section I draw on materials from my article by building learning experiences around coop- “Thinking in Dewey’s Experimentalist Education: The erative inquiry and ameliorative social action. Contribution of the Internet and Digital Tools,” ECNU Dewey’s Critique of Conventional Class- Review of Education 1, no. 2, (2018), 1–22. Retrieved from http://www.roe.ecnu.edu.cn/_upload/article/files/87/d room Education. On the basis of these ideas, b/4437d47342a0acc3f0b7cbc39152/e4dd08e5-3e41- Dewey offered a sharp critique of conventional 4554-8d84-3782a4dba555.pdf education. By the late-19th century, a conven- 17 Dewey lays out this picture of human action in his first tional model for top-down classroom learning China lecture, Dewey, “Lectures in China,” 45ff, and many other places. For Confucian parallels, see Geir Sigurds- son, Confucian Propriety and Ritual Learning, (Albany: SUNY 20 Dewey drew this distinction between primary and Press): 19-38. secondary experience in John Dewey, Experience and Na- 18 John Dewey, “The of Democracy,” in ture, in LW1. EW1:231-2. 21 For further elaboration of this point, see Leonard J. 19 Dewey discussed the role of qualitative awareness and Waks, “John Dewey’s Conception of the University,” in the non-cognitive background of action in John Dewey, Steven Fesmire (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Dewey, “Qualitative Thought,” in LW5: 243–262. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018).

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prevailed in the . By the 20th cen- nipulated, rather than as genuine realities, intel- tury, this model has been extended throughout ligently appreciated.”23 the world—from Albania to . Learning by Doing. In Dewey’s alterna- In picture after picture of classrooms, stu- tive model, student thinking about their own dents sit facing forward, pencil poised, note- issues and concerns replaces rote memorization books opened, listening to their teachers and and shallow understanding. Learners learn by taking notes, trying to understand and memo- acting and getting feedback from the world. rize their lessons. The lesson content is pre- They face difficulties and are forced to think. scribed and pre-organized. Learners have no Thinking does not take place in the students’ input. Teachers give tests to assure that lessons heads. Their thinking is not something distinct have been learned. This conventional approach from their doing. Consider a schoolgirl growing has been called the “factory” model of educa- tomatoes in the school garden. Expressing her tion because it uses an assembly line approach. expansive personality, she sets out to grow the In The School and Society, Dewey demonstrat- biggest tomatoes. To achieve this end, she will ed his total rejection of this conventional mod- have to think—for example, by researching dif- el: ferent tomato varieties, testing her soil for nec- essary nutrients, perhaps experimenting with If we put before the mind’s eye the ordinary different varieties under varying soil conditions. schoolroom, with its rows of ugly desks She has to make observations, gather data, rec- placed in geometrical order, crowded to- ord and analyze results. gether so that there shall be as little moving Learning by Communicating. In addi- room as possible, desks almost all of the tion to learning by doing, which implies learn- same size, with just space enough to hold ing by thinking, we also learn by communicating. books, pencils and paper, and add a table, To listen and to speak to another, a learner some chairs, the bare walls, and possibly a must think about points of contact with others, few pictures, we can reconstruct the only trying and testing so as gradually to receive other’s educational activity that can possibly go on way of experiencing and being, and responding to in such a place. It is all made “for listening” contribute to a meaningful exchange. Pictures ... passivity, absorption; there are certain of students in schools influenced by Dewey ready-made materials . . . which the child is show images of students growing gardens, to take in as much as possible in the least building sheds, taking care of farm animals, ex- possible time.22 perimenting with robots, sharing in groups, and making presentations. The contrast with pic- The subject matter, he added, “remains unas- tures pf conventional classrooms is stark. similated, unorganized, not really understood. It Learning from Teachers and Other stands on a dead level, hostile to the selective Adults. Teachers and other adults help to bring arrangements characteristic of thinking; matter young people along by designing settings and for memorizing, rather than for judgment; ex- activities which stimulate acting in pursuit of isting as verbal symbols to be mechanically ma- ends made specific by the learners. They con-

23 Dewey, MW7:269. Dewey also spoke of the “the traits which are characteristic of° thinking, namely, uncertainty, ambiguity, alternatives, inquiring, search, selection, exper- 22 Dewey, MW1:22. imental reshaping of external conditions,” in LW1:63.

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sult with and coach the learners. They think with The survival of such practices—top-down, the learners about how the ends may be teacher-centered learning aimed at memoriza- achieved; through these consultations the learn- tion for test preparation—is seen in contempo- ers acquire moral dispositions and thinking rary China as a problem to be overcome by habits and skills in these areas of activity. They school reform. When we place Dewey and learn to think as gardeners, builders, athletes, or Confucius in dialogue in the context of school writers. Teachers eventually gather together the reform, we seek to stimulate new ideas that lessons that their students learn by doing and might be useful—in different ways—for educa- thinking and communicating, summarizing tional renewal, in both East and West. them, and eventually connecting them to the What, then, can Confucian educators offer stream of organized knowledge as may be in dialogue with Dewey?25 found in textbooks. Confucian and Deweyan educators have What is most important is the sequence in the important common starting points. They both presentation of subject matter. First, action in see individuals as historically and culturally situ- pursuit of learner ends—like growing the big- ated, and existing only in their social-cultural gest tomatoes. Action on the environment gen- relationships. In both traditions, individuals are erates feedback, including setbacks and difficul- seen not as distinct from the socio-cultural or ties, giving rise to thinking. Second, informal natural environments, but saturated with both.26 communication with peers and teachers and Through language learning and early cultural other adults. Third, instruction that combines conditioning, the brute human individual be- what has already been learned in the first two comes a member of the group and a morally stages with pre-existing, already organized considerable person. Both traditions share the knowledge, in a form that guide and enrich fur- explicit goal of harmonious living for “all under ther action. heaven.” Both also offer a view of knowledge as inherently practical, existing for the sake of The Confucian Contribution to action for and peace. From these common starting points, the traditions diverge. the Dialogue Theory, Practice, Production. I borrow some conceptual distinctions from ancient The Confucian education tradition, as has been to explain this divergence. suggested above, is diverse. Confucian philoso- For , there were three basic activities of phers over the centuries have developed differ- ent—and in some cases conflicting— 25 In this section I draw on materials from my article educational ideas. These ideas, nonetheless, “Democracy and the Research University: Confucian have been adapted by educational officials Tradition and John Dewey’s Pragmatist Ideal,” (Proceed- throughout East Asia in school practices aimed ings of the Conference Fudan University, December at obedience and conformity.24 2017) | ”. 26 For the Confucian view of the relational self, see David 24 T. Kim, “Confucianism, Modernities and Knowledge: L. Hall and Roger T. Ames, Thinking Through Confucius China, South Korea and Japan,” in R. Cowen & A.M. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), and Kazamias (Eds.), International Handbook of Comparative Sor-hoon Tan, Confucian Democracy: A Deweyan Reconstruc- Education, (Dordrecht: Springer International Handbooks tion, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004), of Education, vol. 22, 2009). 18-61.

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humans: theoria (thinking), praxis (doing), and For Aristotle, therefore, technical education poiesis (making, producing). was a contradiction in terms. Education aims at Theory, θεωρία, signified “looking at” or knowledge, but making does not use “beholding,” and in philosophy, came to mean knowledge—it relies on imitation and repeti- contemplative beholding, as in ’s theory of tion. He thus argued that the life as an artisan contemplation of the Forms. Theory was in- craftsperson is ignoble and inimical to , cluded in education in the four classical liberal and that it is impossible for craftsmen even to arts—geometry, astronomy, arithmetic and mu- engage in virtuous pursuits; the craftsperson sical harmony—in which mathematical objects only attains excellence as a craftsperson in pro- are treated as pure forms. Even today, deep portion as he or she becomes a slave. Indeed, thinking is considered to exist “in the mind”— so slavish was making that Aristotle in his Poli- as illustrated by Rodin’s The Thinker. tics refused even to admit makers as citizens of Aristotle sharply distinguished practice, a well-governed city.29 πρᾶξις, or doing—from theory. Even general Aristotle accepts that craft products may ideas used to guide action were not theory, be- have some basis in knowledge, e.g., of geometry cause theory was self-sufficient—involving no or physics. But makers merely go through mo- doing, apart from itself. Theoretical thinking is tions prescribed by those who possess such passionate contemplation. Those engaged in knowledge. In this, he agrees with Confucius praxis were doers—e.g., officials, that officials do not need to know how to make military officers. Making, ποίησις, signified ac- or produce, but only how to make use of those tivities in which people bring something into who do, and that just learning how actually to 30 being.27 For Aristotle, all making is a form of make or produce is servile. imitation of nature or mechanical repetition of Thinking and Doing in Confucian Edu- ideas formed by others. Aristotle thus had a low cation. For Confucian educators, the aim is the opinion of making, as an activity suitable for self-cultivation of learners, leading to their eventu- slaves, and of makers—craftspersons—whose al moral transformation. Confucian education aims repetitive, other-directed motions makes them to make learners junzi—superior persons. Like like slaves.28 Dewey’s model, the Confucian model has a normative sequence.31 It begins by initiating

29 Aristotle, Politics, 1277b, 1278a, 1260b, 1328. 27 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics: Book 6, chapter 4, 1140a 30 Confucius, Analects, 13.4. Aristotle, Politics, 1277a. 1-23: “making is different from doing ...All deals 31 As note 5 indicates, this sequence was challenged in with bringing something into existence; and to pursue an the 15th century by the Ming philosopher Wang Yang- art means to study how to bring into existence a thing ming. “Despite the emphasis on the need for knowledge which may either exist or not, and the efficient cause of to be put into practice, the traditional position presup- which lies in the maker and not in the thing made; for posed two possibilities: first, that one can have Art does not deal with things that exist or come into ex- knowledge without/prior to corresponding action; and istence of necessity, or according to nature, since these second, that one can know what is the proper action, but have their efficient cause in themselves. But as doing and still fail to act. Because of these two possibilities, the tra- making are distinct, it follows that Art, being concerned ditional position left open the possibility of separating with making, is not concerned with doing.” knowledge and action, but called for the overcoming of 28 The discussion of Aristotle here and in the next para- this separation. However, Wang denied both possibilities. graph cites Aristotle, Politics, translated with Introduction These two denials constitute the essence of Wang’s theo- and Notes by C.D.C. Reeve, (Indianapolis/Cambridge: ry of the unity of knowledge and action. First, according Hackett Publishing Company, 1998). to Wang, it is only through simultaneous action that one

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individuals, along with their peers, into ritual The concern is to be able to understand, practice and study of classical Confucian texts, for anything one might confront ... how it under the guidance of a Confucian scholar- fits with humanity in the big picture of eve- teacher. rything under Heaven. Having such a place For Dewey, text-based learning is last in the means having a use, a “function” (), a sequence. For Confucians, canonical texts come right, correct, best way of being handled. first—they are the initial focus of learning, and That is what the investigation of students are expected to master them. But the investigates.33 aim of study is not merely to memorize them or grasp their literal , but rather to absorb Knowledge in this sense in inherently moral. through discussions about them the ancient Knowledge attained through self-cultivation is wisdom they depict. As Barry Allen puts this thus not merely abstract, or, as we may say, point, in Confucian education, “classical learn- “theoretical,” but inherently practical ing is a school of experience ... The Classics are knowledge. the works of ancient sages and a record of their In sharp contrast with Aristotle, then, Con- experience. The study of this material is a fucian thought, like Dewey’s , method for establishing an intuitive continuity makes no sharp distinction between thinking 32 between that experience and our own.” and doing, theoria and praxis. As Elliot and Tsai While this form of education is said to en- put it: courage the “investigation of all things,” this investigation entails reflection upon, and dis- For Confucius, “pursuing knowledge” or cussion of, canonical classics so as to generate “knowing” refers to a dynamic process of moral knowledge. As Allen explains, investigat- becoming intelligent, of “realizing” new ing all things, as understood by Zhu Xi, signi- possibilities for action within a specific set fied investigating principle: not the truth but the of circumstances of which he is a participant right use of things, the right way to handle them. . . . Knowledge is not determined inde- pendently of action in the circumstances of everyday life; the relationship between knowledge and action is a non-instrumental can obtain knowledge: “If you want to know bitterness, one. Knowledge is only fully achieved in ac- you have to eat a bitter melon yourself.” Wang denied 34 any other possible routes to obtain knowledge. Accord- tion. ing to Wang, it is not possible for one to put something into practice after acquiring knowledge. This is because The aim of learning is effectiveness in these ac- knowledge and action are unified already, from beginning tions. “You can recite the 300 poems from the to end. We cannot unify knowledge and action because Book of Odes, but when you try to use them in they are already unified.” Youngmin Kim, “Wang Yang- ming,” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (n.d.), retrieved administration, they are not effective, and in from https://www.iep.utm.edu/wangyang/. See also, handling the outlying regions, you cannot apply Bryan Van Norden, “Wang Yangming.” Stanford Encyclo- pedia of Philosophy (2014), retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wang-yangming/. 32 Barry Allen, “Pragmatism and Confucian Empiricism,” 33 Allen, “Pragmatism and Confucian Empiricism,” 262. (Proceedings of the Conference Fudan University, De- 34 John Elliott and Ching tien Tsai, “What Might Confu- cember 2017), | cius Have to Say about Action Research?” Educational ”. Action Research 16, (2008), 569–578.

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them, then even though you know a lot, what gone out, the Master said, “A small man good is it?”35 (xiao ren), indeed, is Fan Xu!”37 This insistence on the practical point of learning and knowledge became a special em- Chinese devaluation of technical arts persisted phasis in the Neo-Confucian school of Wang through the Qing dynasty. While government Yangming. For Wang, as for Dewey, learners officials had to complete a classical education can gain knowledge only in and through action; and pass a daunting exam, medical practice was knowledge acquired in isolation from action for centuries unregulated and devalued.38 Even and then put into action—applied to situations— after examinations for medical practice were in- will always provide a false or misleading guide troduced in the Song period, medical doctors to action.36 still retained relatively low status. In mainstream Confucian education, how- Confucius characteristically asserts that if a ever, the “investigation of things” in the acad- superior man loves propriety and righteousness, emy does not involve active interventions in his influence will be immediately felt: “the people problematic situations. Thus, a thought-action from all quarters will come to him, bearing their gap between study and real-world action per- children on their backs—what need has he of a sists in Confucian education. knowledge of husbandry?”39 The superior man Doing and Making in Confucian Educa- relies on ordinary men (xiao ren) for technical tion. Unlike the theory practice distinction, tasks appropriate to their status. The superior however, that between practice and poesis, doing man, for example, would never work the land or and making/producing, is as strong in Confu- advise farmers. That would be “servile.” cius as in Aristotle. What kind of action is ap- propriate for the superior person? In the Ana- What Can Deweyans and Confu- lects, the actions appropriate for junzi are typical- ly consulting and advising leaders on policy de- cians Learn from One Another in cisions and regulations—actions appropriate for Dialogue? officials.

But like Aristotle, Confucius urges the junzi While Dewey agrees with the Confucian tradi- to stand away from technical arts, from making tion on the intimate relationship between or producing. The technical arts are denounced knowledge and action, his approach starts by as mean and petty: situating school learners directly in engaging social and technical action. Technical arts are not deval- When Fan Chi requested that he be taught ued, but honored. There is no place in Dewey’s animal husbandry, the Master said “I am not system of ideas for either moral self-cultivation so good for that as an old husbandman.” or textual study outside of the scene of cooper- He requested also to be taught gardening, ative action. and was answered, “I am not so good for that as an old gardener.” Fan Chi having

37 Confucius, Analects, 13.4. 38 Asaf Moshe Goldschmidt, The Evolution of Chinese Medi- cine: Song Dynasty, 960–1200, (New York: Routledge, 35 Confucius, Analects, 13.5. 2009): 19. 36 Van Norden, “Wang Yangming.” 39 Confucius, Analects, 13.4.

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Given these differences, can we find oppor- moral fact. Their presence makes itself felt; oth- tunities for fruitful dialogue? ers cannot help but bring themselves into align- I argue that we can. Confucians can gain ment. useful insight from Deweyan experimentalists The problem here is that in today’s techno- about education in technical arts, while experi- logical society, moral knowledge and virtuous mentalists can gain equally useful insights from character, while necessary, are not sufficient for Confucian educators about moral self- leadership in any sphere of life—especially in cultivation. technical areas. Leadership demands flexible We may start with the distinction between scientific and technical knowledge as well as social practice/doing and technical ac- moral . Wise action requires open tion/making. In the Confucian tradition, this exchange between leaders and technicians: une- has been the distinction between virtuous prac- qual statuses of wind and grass must be aban- tical arts requiring knowledge and judgment— doned. The superior person in scientific or those suitable for superior persons—and petty technical fields must be both a technical spe- arts requiring mere technical skill—those suita- cialist and a wise moral judge, and must com- ble for ordinary, servile underlings. municate with scientists and technologists on This distinction might have been appropri- equal terms. ate for Chinese society in the 6th Century BCE , a great American philoso- (or Greek society in the 4th century BCE). pher and essayist profoundly influenced by Farming and artisan crafts were governed by Dewey, insisted “technology is a branch of unchanging traditional norms. Ordinary people moral philosophy, not of science. It aims at (xiao ren) absorbed such norms by osmosis as prudent for the commonweal.”41 Tradi- they grew up. They were expected to demon- tionally, the education of technical specialists— strate conformity with convention and obedi- makers or producers—was not a concern for ence to officials in applying them. As Confucius Confucian scholars, and the devaluation of proclaimed, “The relation between superiors technical arts contributed to China’s technical and inferiors is like that between the wind and “backwardness.” Since the “Four Moderniza- the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind tions,” the Chinese have developed scientific blows across it.”40 and technical knowledge in the Western mode, This passage in the Analects may be read in but scrapped Confucian moral education. The two ways. We may take Confucius here as say- task today is to bring Confucian moral insights ing that officials and their advisers possess such to bear on science and technology education sufficient power and authority that ordinary and development. Imagine the following: people wouldn’t dare to disobey. This meaning, however, is not consistent with the main ideas Fan Chi requested that he be taught animal in the Analects, as it suggests that superior per- husbandry. The Master said, “I am not so sons rule by force. We should instead be taking good for that as an old husbandman.” He Confucius as telling us that when rulers have requested also to be taught gardening, and undergone moral self-transformation, their was answered, “I am not so good for that as worlds—inner and outer—are in proper order. an old gardener.” Fan Chi responded that Their integration can be felt by others as a

41 Paul Goodman, New Reformation: Notes of a Neolithic 40 Confucius, Analects, 12.19. Conservative, (Oakland: PM Press, 2010): p. 40.

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old husbandmen no longer exist. Animals through classical study would have no place in are now manufactured in factories like so his educational framework. many industrial parts. They suffer greatly. The idea of self-cultivation through study is Old gardeners also no longer exist. Plant- discussed only in one place in the Dewey cor- based foods are now produced by factory pus, where Dewey expresses a caution about methods using genetic engineering. People literary education. He says that traditionalists are greatly and deeply concerned about the urge classical studies as a means of strengthen- safety and nutritional of their food. ing moral and mental discipline merely to The order of nature is being undermined. screen them from “intellectual criticism and This is why I request that the Master teaches needed revisions.” But he adds: me animal husbandry and gardening. Fan Chi having gone out, the Master said, “A The past just as past is no longer our affair. wise man (junzi), indeed, is Fan Chi!” If it were wholly gone and done with, there would be only one reasonable attitude to- In this project of unifying moral and technical ward it. Let the dead bury their dead. But education, Confucian educators may thus have knowledge of the past is the key to under- much to learn in a dialogue with Dewey. standing the present. History deals with the past, but this past is the history of the pre- 42 Dewey and Self Cultivation sent.

In holding that “knowledge of the past is the The more difficult question is whether Dew- key to understanding the present,” however, eyan experimentalists can embrace anything Dewey is in complete agreement with Confu- akin to Confucian moral self-cultivation as an cian educators. Dewey, however, offers three element of education. qualifications. In the Confucian tradition, self-cultivation First, he emphasizes economic and indus- progresses through study of canonical Confu- trial history as more valuable for moral purpos- cian texts. One opening for discussion is that es than political and military history. The - neither Confucius nor Neo-Confucians in the damental fact is that humans have to work—to traditions of Zhu Xi or Wang Yangming re- coordinate their actions with forces of nature— garded textual study as valuable for its own sa- to make their living. The historical texts that ke, much less for enhanced social prestige or inform the present must be expanded to in- exam success. They saw the study of literary clude documentary records of occupational texts—rich with practical lessons—as only one life—from invention and , to medi- element in a broad program of moral education cine and law. And we might well add agricul- that included reflection, dialogue, and fulfill- ture—gardening and animal husbandry. ment in action. Second, humane historical studies must be But what place can moral self-cultivation connected in concrete ways to social action. As play in Dewey’s action-based learning? Dewey Dewey labors this point: “A topic becomes a sees the growth of —empathy and matter of study—that is, of inquiry and reflec- practical efficacy—as growing directly out of coopera- tion—when it figures as a factor to be reckoned tive activity through action and reflection. Peri- ods of learning set aside for self-cultivation 42 Dewey, MW9:222.

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with in the completion of a course of events in which one is engaged and by whose outcome Conclusion one is affected.”43 Humanities study in schools and colleges should not merely investigate social Despite their differences, Confucian and Dew- and technical action, but actually engage in real eyan scholars and educators can engage in fruit- world action. ful dialogue regarding educational renewal. Third, Dewey draws back from the very idea New models emerging from such dialogues of classical study in moral self-cultivation. can include study of selected canonical texts “What is termed spiritual culture has usually from Confucian and other ancient wisdom tra- been futile, with something rotten about it,” ditions. Confucian educational classics have because spiritual culture is conceived as “a much to offer. What is wanted, however, is not thing which a man might have internally—and 44 mere study of these texts for cultural apprecia- therefore exclusively.” This is problematic be- tion, but moral and spiritual guidance in social cause the self-cultivation Dewey attacks is the and technical practice. Here, the contributions opposite of Confucian self-cultivation, which is a of Dewey-oriented philosopher-educators may social practice aimed at social action for a har- offer useful insight. monious community: “this cultivation brings about continuity when people’s purposes are Leonard J. Waks is Professor Emeritus of Educational engaged with things and events, as they partici- Leadership and Policy Studies at Hangzhou Normal pate in the world together.”45 This aim is one University in China, and at Temple University in the with Dewey’s ideal of the democratic commu- United States. Waks has earned doctorates in philoso- nity. phy and organizational studies. He is co-founder of the A Confucian-influenced conception of self- National Technological Literacy Conferences, and au- cultivation can enrich Dewey’s educational thor of the books, Education 2.0, The Evolution model. A period of moral self-cultivation and Evaluation of Massive Open Online grounded in canonical texts from ancient wis- Courses, and Technology's School, as well as dom traditions, prior to specialist scientific and more than 100 scholarly articles and book chapters. He technical studies, has already been proposed by is currently the Immediate Past President of the John the Dewey-influenced Abraham Dewey Society. Maslow. In his John Dewey Lectures, The Psy- chology of Science,46 Maslow argued that scientists and technologists today require heightened moral self-awareness precisely because their knowledge grants them potentially limitless power over humanity.

43 Dewey, MW9:142. 44 Dewey, MW9:129-130. 45 Haiming Wen, Confucian Pragmatism as the Art of Contex- tualizing Personal Experience and World, (Lanham, MD: Lex- ington Books, 2009): 64. 46 Abraham Harold Maslow, of Science: A Recon- naissance, (Chicago: Gateway Editions, 1969).