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John Dewey and the Habits of Ethical Life
The Aesthetics of Political Organizing in a Liquid World
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Publisher:
2010
Summary
This book uses John Dewey to articulate discursive practices that would help citizens form better intellectual and moral relationships with their fragmented, shifting political environment. These practices do not impart more or better information to citizens, but instead consist in dialog exhibiting rhythms and patterns that increase their interest in inquiring how distant events and communities affect their individual lives. The basis for these practices can be found in Dewey's claim that teachers can lead class discussions with particular 'aesthetic' qualities that encourage students to expand the scale of the realm of events that they deem important to their lives. The ability to forge moral and intellectual links with distant political events becomes all the more necessary in our current environment-not only are individuals' lives increasingly affected by global events, but also such events constantly shift across an increasingly 'liquid' social landscape comprised of decentralized institutions, instantaneous communication and easy transportation. Dewey saw early on how such 'aesthetics' of society, or its spatial and temporal qualities, might undermine citizens' understanding and concern for the larger public. This concern for how the movement and location of elements of the social environment might affect citizen perception ties Dewey to many contemporary geographers, economists and social theorists normally not associated with his work. If Dewey's classrooms were to be reinterpreted as political associations and his teachers as organizers, individuals discussing the origins of their seemingly local issues in such associations could forge passionate moral connections with the contemporary liquid public. Subsequently, they might begin to increasingly care for, participate in global politics and seek solidarity with seemingly distant communities.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2010
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-4464-0
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-4466-4
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
261
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Table of Contents No access
Abbreviations for Frequently Cited Texts No access
Acknowledgments No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 18
Chapter 1. Mapping the Liquid World No access Pages 19 - 52
Chapter 2. Neo-Habermasian Sittlichkeit as Social Mediation No access Pages 53 - 86
Chapter 3. Reconstruction: Social Mediation in a Liquid Society No access Pages 87 - 122
Chapter 4. The Habits of Thinking: Linking Oneself to the Liquid World No access Pages 123 - 160
Chapter 5. Mapping the Liquid Public No access Pages 161 - 196
Chapter 6. The Classroom/Association and the Teacher/Organizer No access Pages 197 - 240
