John Dewey's Liberalism

Download or read book John Dewey's Liberalism written by Daniel M. Savage and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Applying John Dewey's philosophy of classical pragmatism to the current liberal/communitarian debate over the dichotomy between a community that is constructed around a particular conception of the good life and a society that is concerned with the protection of individual rights and freedoms, Savage (political science, U. of Science and Arts of Oklahoma) argues that the problems are false dichotomies and wither away when looked at with a Deweyan perspective. Although Dewey himself didn't address these problems, Savage believes that the spirit of his writings remain directly relevant, as Dewey argued that social, political, and economic institutions and norms could be evaluated on the basis of their ability to adapt individual quest for the good life (or self-development) to the objective environmental conditions in which the individual exists. In separate chapters, Savage discusses the relationship between freedom, on the one hand, and virtue, context, objectivity, and authority on the other. Finally, he presents a defense of liberalism, based on the neglected pragmatism of John Dewey. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR