Democracy and Education - an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education

Originally published in 1916, this early work by American philosopher and educational reformist John Dewey is both expensive and hard to find in its first edition. It details Dewey’s ideas on Educational Philosophy and the formation of the mind in relation to society. This fascinating work is highly recommended for anyone interested in the concept of individuality during the early twentieth century along with its educational doctrines.

The following pages embody an endeavour to detect and state the ideas implied in a democratic society and to apply these ideas to the problems of the enterprise of education. The discussion includes an indication of the constructive aims and methods of public education as seen from this point of view, and a critical estimate of the theories of knowing and moral development which were formulated in earlier social conditions, but which still operate, in societies nominally democratic, to hamper the adequate realization of the democratic ideal. As will appear from the book itself, the philosophy stated in this book connects the growth of democracy with the development of the experimental method in the sciences, evolutionary ideas in the biological sciences, and the industrial reorganization, and is concerned to point out the changes in subject matter and method of education indicated by these developments.