DOCSLIB.ORG

John Dewey & the Value of Moral

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
John Dewey & the Value of Moral The Good, the Right & the Exigencies of Life: John Dewey & the Value of Moral Disagreement Karen Bland School of Humanities/Department of Philosophy December 2018 ii Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 1 2. The Classical American Pragmatists ................................................................................................................. 14 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 14 2.2 Charles Sanders Peirce ........................................................................................................................................ 17 2.3 William James .......................................................................................................................................................... 25 2.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................. 31 3. Making Connections: David Hume & John Dewey ....................................................................................... 37 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 37 3.2 Impressions & Ideas .............................................................................................................................................. 38 3.3 The Passions & Reason ........................................................................................................................................ 43 3.4 The Role of Utility in Moderating the Passions .......................................................................................... 46 3.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................. 49 4. Making Connections: Immanuel Kant & John Dewey ................................................................................ 55 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 55 4.2 The Theoretical Groundwork of Kant’s Deontic Moral Theory........................................................... 57 4.3 Respect & Moral Motivation .............................................................................................................................. 63 4.4 The Interdependence of Moral Motivation, Moral Goodness & the Kingdom of Ends .............. 67 4.5 Kant in Response to Hume ................................................................................................................................. 76 4.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................. 79 5. Making Connections: John Stuart Mill & John Dewey ................................................................................ 83 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 83 5.2 Mill’s Principle of Moral Happiness ................................................................................................................ 85 5.3 The Sanction of the Principle of Happiness ................................................................................................. 91 5.4 ‘Experiments in Living’ ........................................................................................................................................ 94 5.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................. 97 iii 6. John Dewey’s Experience .................................................................................................................................... 103 6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 103 6.2 Experience............................................................................................................................................................... 104 6.3 Habits & Perception ............................................................................................................................................ 107 6.4 Communication: Language & Meaning........................................................................................................ 113 6.5 Experience & Experiencing .............................................................................................................................. 119 6.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................... 121 7. John Dewey’s Enquiry ........................................................................................................................................... 125 7.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 125 7.2 Dewey’s Process of Social Enquiry................................................................................................................ 126 7.3 Moral Judgments & Warranted Assertability ........................................................................................... 132 7.4 Conclusion: Hume, Kant, Mill & Dewey ....................................................................................................... 137 8. Cognitivism & Non-Cognitivism ........................................................................................................................ 144 8.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 144 8.2 Moral Disagreement: the Cognitivist vs. Non-Cognitivist.................................................................... 146 8.3 Pragmatism: Morality Without Metaphysics ............................................................................................ 153 8.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................... 157 9. Monism & Pluralism .............................................................................................................................................. 160 9.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 160 9.2 Foundational Pluralism and Monism ........................................................................................................... 162 9.3 Pragmatic Pluralism & Monism ...................................................................................................................... 169 9.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................... 175 10. Pragmatic Proceduralism ................................................................................................................................. 178 10.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 178 10.2 Proceduralism ..................................................................................................................................................... 180 10.3 Thin Proceduralism .......................................................................................................................................... 185 10.4 Self and Societal Realisation ......................................................................................................................... 191 10.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................ 195 11. Three Case Studies ............................................................................................................................................... 197 iv 11.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 197 11.2 Case 1: The Westboro Baptist Church....................................................................................................... 199 11.3 Case 2: Chris Lilley’s Jonah from Tonga .................................................................................................... 205 11.4 Case 3: Murray Darling Basin ......................................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Teaching for Apostasy: How Educational Methods and Philosophies Work Against the Church
    The Lutheran Clarion – July 2018 (Volume 10, Issue 6) Teaching for Apostasy: How Educational Methods and Philosophies Work Against the Church Dr. Thomas Korcok gave the presentation below at the 2018 Lutheran Concerns Association conference in Fort Wayne, IN, in January 2018. Since that time it has been slightly revised. Currently in colleges of education across America, almost all future teachers learn from a standard canon of educational thinkers whose work forms the basis for the goals, methods, and structure of the modern American classroom. When students are introduced to these educationists, there is rarely, if ever, any consideration given to what they taught, believed, or confessed in their personal lives. Furthermore, their theories are presented as though they were all based purely on unbiased scientific research. Such an approach should be of concern for the Christian because it is radically different from how the church has traditionally measured teachers. In the history of Western education until the 20th century, (which has always been inseparably linked with Christian education), theology has been the measuring stick for all areas of knowledge, including education. A teacher’s confession of faith was always considered to be the first criterion in judging whether or not his or her teaching was acceptable. In the 16th century, the influential Lutheran educator, Valentin Trotzendorf, insisted that “Those who belong to our school, let the same also be members of our Church and those who agree with our faith, which is most sure and true; because of perhaps one godless person out of the whole body, some evil happens.” 1 In this day and age, we are to believe that the contrary teaching is true: that what a researcher teaches, believes, and confesses has little or nothing to do with the methods he advocates.
    [Show full text]
  • Mark Schroeder [email protected] 3709 Trousdale Parkway Markschroeder.Net
    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ USC School of Philosophy 323.632.8757 (mobile) Mudd Hall of Philosophy Mark Schroeder [email protected] 3709 Trousdale Parkway markschroeder.net Los Angeles, CA 90089-0451 Curriculum Vitae philosophy.academy ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EDUCATION Ph.D., Philosophy, Princeton University, November 2004, supervised by Gideon Rosen M.A., Philosophy, Princeton University, November 2002 B.A., magna cum laude, Philosophy, Mathematics, and Economics, Carleton College, June 2000 EMPLOYMENT University of Southern California, Professor since December 2011 previously Assistant Professor 8/06 – 4/08, Associate Professor with tenure 4/08 – 12/11 University of Maryland at College Park, Instructor 8/04 – 1/05, Assistant Professor 1/05 – 6/06 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ RESEARCH INTERESTS My research has focused primarily on metaethics, practical reason, and related areas, particularly including normative ethics, philosophy of language, epistemology, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, the philosophy of action, agency, and responsibility, and the history of ethics. HONORS AND AWARDS Elected to USC chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, 2020; 2017 Phi Kappa Phi Faculty
    [Show full text]
  • The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought 1
    The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought 1 The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought Department Website: http://socialthought.uchicago.edu Chair • Robert Pippin Professors • Lorraine Daston • Wendy Doniger • Joel Isaac • Hans Joas • Gabriel Lear • Jonathan Lear • Jonathan Levy • Jean Luc Marion • Heinrich Meier • Glenn W. Most • David Nirenberg • Thomas Pavel • Mark Payne • Robert B. Pippin • Jennifer Pitts • Andrei Pop • Haun Saussy • Laura Slatkin • Nathan Tarcov • Rosanna Warren • David Wellbery Emeriti • Wendy Doniger • Leon Kass • Joel Kraemer • Ralph Lerner • James M. Redfield • David Tracy About the Committee The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought was established as a degree granting body in 1941 by the historian John U. Nef (1899-1988), with the assistance of the economist Frank Knight, the anthropologist Robert Redfield, and Robert M. Hutchins, then President of the University. The Committee is a group of diverse scholars sharing a common concern for the unity of the human sciences. Their premises were that the serious study of any academic topic, or of any philosophical or literary work, is best prepared for by a wide and deep acquaintance with the fundamental issues presupposed in all such studies, that students should learn about these issues by acquainting themselves with a select number of classic ancient and modern texts in an inter- disciplinary atmosphere, and should only then concentrate on a specific dissertation topic. It accepts qualified graduate students seeking to pursue their particular studies within this broader context, and aims both to teach precision of scholarship and to foster awareness of the permanent questions at the origin of all learned inquiry.
    [Show full text]
  • Expressivism About Making and Truth -Making
    EXPRESSIVISM ABOUT MAKING AND TRUTH-MAKING EL EXPRESIVISMO ACERCA DE LAS DECISIONES Y LA VERDAD EN LA TOMA DE DECISIONES STEPHEN BARKER University of Nottingham, UK. [email protected] RECIBIDO EL 25 DE MARZO DE 2014 Y APROBADO EL 25 DE JUNIO DE 2014 RESUMEN ABSTRACT El objetivo es iluminar la verdad acerca My goal is to illuminate truth-making de la toma de decisiones a modo de dar by way of illuminating the relation of luces sobre la relación de las decisiones. making. My strategy is not to ask what La estrategia no es preguntar lo qué es una making is; in the hope of a metaphysi- decisión; con la esperanza de una teoría cal theory about is nature. It’s rather to metafísica sobre lo que la naturaleza es. look first to the language of making. The Es, más bien, observar primero el lenguaje metaphor behind making refers to agency. de las decisiones. La metáfora detrás de la It would be absurd to suggest that claims toma de decisiones se remite a la agencia. about making are claims about agency. It No es absurdo, sin embargo, proponer is not absurd, however, to propose that que el concepto de toma de decisiones the concept of making somehow emerges de alguna manera se desprende de una from some feature to do with agency. característica que tiene que ver con la That’s the contention to be explored in agencia. Esta es la afirmación que explora this paper. The way to do this is through este trabajo. La manera de hacerlo es a expressivism.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    1 Introduction Reading Democracy and Education DAVID T. HANSEN What is John Dewey’s Democracy and Education? In a literal sense, it is a study of education and its relation to the individual and society. More- over, Dewey tells us, it is a philosophical rather than historical, sociologi- cal, or political inquiry. His original title for the work was An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. That was the heading he had in view when he signed a contract to undertake the project on July 21, 1911, with the Macmillan Company of New York (MW.9.377). However, his publishers convinced him to change the title in light of pressing political issues triggered by the cataclysm of World War I. Dewey completed the text in August 1915, and it came out the following year with his original title converted into a subtitle. The book constitutes Dewey’s philosophical response to the rapid social, economic, political, cultural, and technologi- cal change he was witness to over the course of his long life. Born in 1859, when the United States was largely an agrarian society, by the time Dewey pens his educational treatise the country had become an indus- trial, urban world undergoing endless and often jarring transformations, a process that continues unabated through the present. Dewey sought to articulate and justify the education he believed people needed to com- prehend and shape creatively and humanely these unstoppable changes. At the same time, Dewey endeavored in the book to respond to what many critics regard as the two most influential educational works ever written prior to the twentieth century: Plato’s Republic (fourth 1 © 2006 State University of New York Press, Albany 2 John Dewey and Our Educational Prospect century B.C.E.) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile (published in 1762).
    [Show full text]
  • Metaethical Expressivism
    5 Metaethical Expressivism Elisabeth Camp Expressivism is the view that certain kinds of language have the function of expressing states of mind rather than representing facts. So according to expressivists, when I say “Murder is wrong!” I don’t describe a state of affairs, but avow or display or advocate a negative attitude toward murder. More specifically, expressivism holds that words like ‘ought’ or ‘wrong’ conventionally function to express non-cognitive attitudes: attitudes other than straightforward belief, such as emotions or intentions. It holds that these non- cognitive attitudes explain those words’ meanings rather than just happening to be fre- quently correlated with their use. And it holds that the meaning and function of these words differ in a fundamental way from ordinary description. Different expressivists tar- get different kinds of language, associate them with different attitudes, and locate the contrast with description in different ways, producing a diverse family of views. Although expressivism is a view about linguistic meaning, it is natural to assume that language and psychology operate in parallel, especially if one takes the job of language to be communicating thoughts, as many do. As a result, expressivism is naturally allied to non-cognitivism, which is a view about the basic psychology of engagement with a topic, paradigmatically ethics. For both, the core idea is that we distort the shape of ethical inquiry, commitment, and disagreement if we treat ethical thought and talk in descriptiv- ist terms, as a matter of exchanging information about how the world is. Metaphysically, a descriptivist model threatens to commit us to ‘spooky’, non-natural facts: abstract prop- erties like being wrong that are unanchored to time, place, or particular social practices.
    [Show full text]
  • Expressivism, Truth, Ingly Similar, Whereas in Their Sophisticated Forms They Are Strikingly Dissimilar
    Philosophers’ volume 9, no. 3 may 2009 Imprint I. Introduction There are two interestingly similar but also notably different theories that go under the moniker ‘expressivism’. Each kind of expressivism has a crude original form that has been supplanted by more and more sophisticated versions. In their crude forms, the theories are strik- Expressivism, Truth, ingly similar, whereas in their sophisticated forms they are strikingly dissimilar. Ethical expressivism is, at least originally, the view that ordinary ethical statements — such as statements about what is ethically right and (Self-) Knowledge or wrong1 — express not beliefs but some pro- or con-attitudes.2 The 1. A point of terminology that will become clearer as we move along: unfortu- nately there is no uniform usage of the terms ‘statement’ and ‘sentence’ in ordinary discourse or in the metaethical literature. A rough way to distin- guish these terms that I think good enough for present purposes is as follows: a statement is a speech-act that involves the tokening of an unembedded declarative sentence; a sentence is an abstract form of words, which obeys syntax rules and has semantic value recursively explicable in terms of the se- mantic values and concatenations of its parts. When one makes a statement, we can say that one has produced a token of a declarative sentence. In light of this distinction, we can say that semantics attempts to explain the semantic value of sentences and their parts, while pragmatics attempts to explain the norms of proper use of sentences and their parts to perform speech-acts like making statements.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Xunzi 1St Edition Free Ebook
    XUNZI 1ST EDITION DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK Burton Watson | --- | --- | --- | 9780231521314 | --- | --- Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works: —Vol. I, Books 1-6 Escape the Present with These 24 Historical Romances. These creations are not part of one's nature, but rather stem from a departure from nature. Why, poses Xunzi, should music be renounced if created Xunzi 1st edition the sage kings to create order in expression, or if it brings people into unity and harmony and soldiers into order for example, via war dances? Confucian churches and sects:. Portrait of Xunzi. We observe regulations concerning funerary ceremonies and grave goods, for example, in order to learn how to avoid incivility and miserliness Human nature at birth, he maintained, consists of instinctual drives which, left to themselves, are selfish, anarchic, and antisocial. Thus when societies fail and Xunzi 1st edition Way is lost, it is not the work of Heaven. Views Read Xunzi 1st edition View history. Thanks for telling us about the problem. When a wound is colossal, its duration is long; when pain is profound, the recovery is slow. And if we achieve any goodness, it must be because of our artifice: whereas. Subscribe today. The rectification of names is an important one considering the Xunzi 1st edition of Chinese philosophy Xunzi 1st edition this era. Undoing Fixation. The year of his death is unknown, [10] [11] though if he lived to see the ministership of his supposed student Li Sias recounted, he would have lived into his nineties, dying shortly after BC. Dave Sammath marked it as to-read Jul 07, When music is centered and balanced, the people are harmonious and not dissipated.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophical Foundations CEEF6301 New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Christian Education Division Spring 2017 Online
    Philosophical Foundations CEEF6301 New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary Christian Education Division Spring 2017 Online Emily Dean, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor, Christian Education Coordinator of Women’s Programs Office: (504) 282-4455 ext.8053 Email: [email protected] Mission Statement The mission of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is to equip leaders to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandments through the local church and its ministries. Core Value Focus The seminary has five core values. 1. Doctrinal Integrity: Knowing that the Bible is the Word of God, we believe it, teach it, proclaim it, and submit to it. This course addresses Doctrinal Integrity specifically by preparing students to grow in understanding and interpreting of the Bible. 2. Spiritual Vitality: We are a worshiping community emphasizing both personal spirituality and gathering together as a Seminary family for the praise and adoration of God and instruction in His Word. Spiritual Vitality is addressed by reminding students that a dynamic relationship with God is vital for effective ministry. 3. Mission Focus: We are not here merely to get an education or to give one. We are here to change the world by fulfilling the Great Commission and the Great Commandments through the local church and its ministries. This course addresses Mission Focus by helping students understand the biblical foundations for fulfilling the Great Commission and the Great Commandments. 4. Characteristic Excellence: What we do, we do to the utmost of our abilities and resources as a testimony to the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Characteristic Excellence is addressed by preparing students to excel in their ability to interpret Scripture, which is foundational to effective ministry.
    [Show full text]
  • Liberal Cosmopolitan Ideas, History, and Modern China
    Liberal Cosmopolitan Ideas, History, and Modern China Edited by Ban Wang, Stanford University Wang Hui, Tsinghua University Geremie Barmé, Australian National University VOLUME 3 Liberal Cosmopolitan Lin Yutang and Middling Chinese Modernity By Qian Suoqiao（钱锁桥） LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Qian, Suoqiao. Liberal cosmopolitan : Lin Yutang and middling Chinese modernity / Qian Suoqiao. p. cm. — (Ideas, history, and modern China, ISSN 1875-9394 ; v. 3) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-19213-3 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Lin, Yutang, 1895–1976—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Lin, Yutang, 1895–1976—Political and social views. 3. Cosmopolitanism—China—History. 4. China—Intellectual life—20th century. I. Title. II. Series. PL2781.N2Z815 2010 895.1’85109—dc22 2010033348 ISSN 1875-9394 ISBN 978 90 04 19213 3 © Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. To my daughter Qian Simei Emily CONTENTS Acknowledgments ........................................................................ ix Chapter One Introduction: Re-Discovering Lin Yutang in the Post-Mao Era ..........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • MORAL OBJECTIVITY and the PSYCHOLOGY of MOTIVATION by Jude Ndubuisi Edeh a DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfilment Of
    Philosophy MORAL OBJECTIVITY AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MOTIVATION By Jude Ndubuisi Edeh A DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Dr.phil) University of Münster Münster, Germany 2017 Dekan:Prof. Dr. Thomas Großbölting Erstgutachter: PD. Dr. Michael Kühler Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Reinold Schmücker Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 04.10.2018 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am immensely grateful to Michael Kühler and Reinold Schmücker, my supervisors, for their generosity with their time, energy and support. It’s not always a given that you find people who are both interested in your project and believe you can handle it, especially at its budding stage. I benefited tremendously from your constructive criticisms and helpful comments, without which the completion of this project would not have been successful. I owe, in addition, a significant debt of gratitude to Nadine Elzein for supervising this project during my research stay at the King’s College, University of London. Nadine, your enthusiasm, philosophical insight and suggestions are invaluable. I owe special thanks also to Lukas Meyer for hosting me in August 2015 at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Graz. This project would not have been possible without the friendship, support, and insight of a good many people. In particular, I owe a significant debt of gratitude to: Nnaemeka’s family, Anthony Anih’s family, Anthony C. Ajah, Uzoma Emenogu, Vitus Egwu. I will always remain indebted to my family for their undying care and love. I would never have made it this far without your encouragement and support. ii ABSTRACT This dissertation provides a solution to the tension of specifying and reconciling the relationship between moral judgement and motivation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Problem of Ethical Vagueness for Expressivism
    Ethic Theory Moral Prac (2014) 17:593–605 DOI 10.1007/s10677-014-9493-0 The Problem of Ethical Vagueness for Expressivism Nicholas Baima Accepted: 15 January 2014 / Published online: 14 February 2014 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract Ethical vagueness has garnered little attention. This is rather surprising since many philosophers have remarked that the science of ethics lacks the precision that other fields of inquiry have. Of the few philosophers who have discussed ethical vagueness the majority have focused on the implications of vagueness for moral realism. Because the relevance of ethical vagueness for other metaethical positions has been underexplored, my aim in this paper is to investigate the ramifications of ethical vagueness for expressivism. Ultimately, I shall argue that expressivism does not have the resources to adequately account for ethical vagueness, while cognitivism does. This demonstrates an advantage that cognitivism holds over expressivism. Keywords Ethics . Meta-ethics . Vagueness . Expressivism . Non-cognitivism . Uncertainty Ethical vagueness has garnered little attention. This is rather surprising since many philoso- phers have remarked that the science of ethics lacks the precision that other fields of inquiry have.1 Of the few philosophers who have discussed ethical vagueness the majority have focused on the implications of vagueness for moral realism.2 Because the relevance of ethical vagueness for other metaethical positions has been underexplored, my aim in this paper is to investigate the ramifications of ethical vagueness for expressivism.3 Ultimately, I shall argue that expressivism does not have the resources to adequately account for ethical vagueness, while cognitivism does. This demonstrates an advantage that cognitivism holds over expressivism.
    [Show full text]