Experimentalism (Pragmatism

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Experimentalism (Pragmatism Instrumentalism)
Philosophy may be defined as the general theory
of education
John Dewey
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Review Branches of Philosophy

• Metaphysics
• The study of ultimate reality (what is real?)
• Epistemology
• The question of truth and knowledge (how knowing
  takes place, how we know that we know, how we
  decide what knowledge is most worth having?)
• Axiology
• The question of value (value in what people do
  and enjoy)

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Review Plato Aristotle
PLATO ARISTOTLE
Metaphysics The World of Ideas, Forms The physical world and our perception/experience of it
Epistemology A rational, orderly body of truth The discovery of logical, orderly truth of the external world
Values Absolute, eternal, and universal Natural law
The Learner A mind, soul, and spirit capable of emulating the Ideal An orderly, sensing, and rational being capable of understanding the world of things
Education Spiritual and intellectual development Development of the rational faculties and proper dispositions (a balance between passion reason)
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Pragmatism Metaphysics

• Experience
• It is our inquiry rather than the real world,
  that is the author of of genuine and authentic
  reality
• Transaction
• We do things to the world, and then we undergo
  the consequences (intelligence is our ability to
  associate our doings with their consequences)
• Process
• Reality is a process Experience
• Educational Implications
• Subject matter of social experience, the social
  studies

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Pragmatism Epistemology

• Knowing as a process
• A kind of dialectic with cosmos, reflective
  thinking
• Inquiry / Scientific method
• The Complete Act of Thought (see the schema of
  scientific method)
• Truth as what works
• Only experience that is common to everyone,
  testable and warranted is capable of yielding
  what we call knowledge
• Educational Implications
• Problem solving, project method

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Pragmatism Axiology

• Ethics The public test
• Every ethical situation arises from a desire to
  improve some state of affairs
• Aesthetics The public taste
• The work of art and is what the product does with
  and in experience
• Educational Implications
• Making group decisions in light of consequences
• Participating in art projects