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Title: Freedom and Culture (Great Books in Philosophy) by John Dewey ISBN: 0-87975-560-1 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: December, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Freedom & Culture shock
Comment: An eye-opening book. Especially in view of the fact that Dewey was a totalitarian socialist who wanted government to take over all education via government schools. He called Edward Bellamy his "Great American Prophet" after Bellamy wrote the book "Looking Backward" wherein Bellamy penned his totalitarian vision. Edward Bellamy was the cousin of Francis Bellamy, another national socialist in the U.S. who, in 1892 created the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag (using a straight-armed salute) to promote government schools. They all wanted the government to takeover all schools and create an "industrial army" of totalitarian socialism as described in "Looking Backward" (an international bestseller written in 1887). Government-schools spread and they mandated racism and segregation by law and did so through WWII and beyond.
Dewey was "Johnny Socialism-Seed" as he spread Bellamy ideas at home and abroad.
Dewey was fascinated by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and between 1920 and 1928 wrote many articles praising the "new" educational system imposed by the totalitarian socialists. At the invitation of the Commissar of Education in 1928, Dewey traveled to the fledgling police state. None of the socialist "utopia" espoused in 1917 had developed. Their educational ideal of "collective liberation" was in tatters. The individual (student)-collective (society) creed of Dewey's socialist education appealed to the Soviet socialists. Dewey studied its educational system, prepared educational surveys, and wrote several articles and a book on the topic.
After the First World War, Dewey also studied education in China and lectured there from 1919 to 1921. The Chinese literary reformer Hu Shih (1891-1962), completed his Ph.D. in philosophy at Columbia University under John Dewey in 1917. He was greatly influenced by Dewey and became a lifelong advocate of Dewey's ideas.
Dewey and his "new" education expanded government-schools and totalitarian socialism everywhere.
The socialist Wholecaust followed shortly after the worldwide impact of Bellamy's totalitarian ideas. While the Holocaust was monstrous, it was part of the bigger Wholecaust. Under the industrial army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 62 million people were slaughtered; the People's Republic of China, 35 million; and the National Socialist German Workers' Party, 21 million (numbers from Professor R. J. Rummel's article in the Encyclopedia of Genocide (1999))
Dewey was also interested in the socialist economic experiments in the Union of the Soviet Socialists Republics. He imported their cockamamy ideas, after exporting his own.
Dewey's ideas have also been criticized for their alleged neglect of the basic skills of literacy and numeracy.
It is a tragedy that he is considered a "great philosopher" in the U.S. He was probably also considered a "great philosopher" by the totalitarian socialists in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Peoples' Republic of China.
Rating: 5
Summary: A very helpful work.
Comment: FREEDOM AND CULTURE is particularly helpful in understanding the different views of freedom and liberty found within the Anglo-American school of thought as compared to the Continental school of thought. Dewey is always an informative read and he explains things very well, though that doesn't mean he would grab the attention of the uninterested. I greatly enjoyed this book, along with Dewey's other works.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good but Remarkably Short Scope.
Comment: Like so many other of Dewey's books, this could've been- indeed should've been- longer. It was also a bit more muddled than other Dewey-penned titles I've read. The ideas are many, but if one underlying theme had to be given, it would be the shattering of the nature/nurture dualilsm (as relating to political debate.) I've long since agreed with Dewey here. It is absurd to postulate as to what man's nature is apart from an environment for her to act on. This does not mean that Dewey is denying biological traits- nor is he saying that we are simply products of environment. He breaks through the dualism by suggesting that just as our environments exist the way they do because of our action upon them, we exist the way we do because of how our environemt acts on us. Any line drawing between inside and outside is dangerous and leads to bad theory.
From here, he takes the above theory to a few problems in political debate. Do capitialism and democracy HAVE to be exlusive and is there any good reason they can't function seperately? Does Marxism undermine itself by acknowledging environmental factors to the elimination of human autonomy? If, as Marxism holds, that environment is ALL there is, how can someone be class-conscious- isn't that an autonomous actiion? Dewey's point in asking these questions is to tell us that the answers (if there are any) are not as easy as poltical science might have us believe. For every decision (capitalism, totalitarianism, welfare state etc.) there are trade offs. Here's where Dewey brings in science.
As we know, the pragmatists are ga-ga over science and rightfully so. Science as Dewey knows it is a process, not a concrete method. Science is debate and discovery through experiment and dialogue. While the natural sciences have been quick in their advances, the social sciences barely creep along. Dewey suggests a few reasons. So as not to give away the book (which you should buy after this review!) the one I'll relay is that of commercialism. He who has the money can decide what research to do and why. Dewey is not a Feyerabendian flake who thinks that this makes science a mere myth, but
he does see the problem when only a few hands hold the ability to do science. To his credit, he sees totalitarian states as even more harmful to scientific progrss.
My only problem with the book is that at 133 pages, the readers appetite will be wet by every chapter but she will have to look elsewhere for detailed explanations and more thorough discussion. My reccomendation is to read Dewey's "The Quest For Certainty" before, after or during this book.
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Title: Experience and Nature by John Dewey ISBN: 0486204715 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1958 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: How We Think by John Dewey ISBN: 0486298957 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 17 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Liberalism and Social Action (Great Books in Philosophy) by John Dewey ISBN: 1573927538 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Democracy And Education by John Dewey ISBN: 0684836319 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology by John Dewey ISBN: 1591020328 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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