Topic 2: Dewey on Democracy John Dewey was an American Pragmatist philosopher wh

Question

Topic 2: Dewey on Democracy

John Dewey was an American Pragmatist philosopher who wrote extensively on a broad range of issues from the nature of the mind, to education and politics. We read a text of his on the nature of democracy as a way of life (1937). He sees human nature as capable of democracy but also analyzes what he sees as pervasive positive and negative feedback loops in societies that already are respectively democratically or non-democratically organized.

Why is such a partial democracy, according to Dewey, always at risk of returning to a non-democratic authoritarian societal power structure?  

Explanation / Answer

A democratic society can become educated concerning the democracy by its own collective experience as well as the experience of same societies. A democracy justifies its modifications and practices, to those practices, by intelligent inquiry in how democracies work. A democracy has no distinct means of justifying democracy to non-democratic cultures.

Non-democratic cultures could learn how democracies trade and they occasionally persuaded to experiment along a small democracy, but it has been admited which democracy has no “knock-down” rational argument justifying democracy over all forms of government.

Dewey think that there is a complex argument, more of a sociological argument, explaining democracy. If we know the proper function of government as conflict management for the general good, then democracy could rationalize its superiority by its practical successes at these aims.

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