Experience, Democracy And Life

In terms of John Dewey's philosophical belief and academic interest, we holdthat Dewey's philosophical ideas cannot be fully realized without considering hispolitical philosophy. His idea of "Democracy" and "empirical method" are relatedintrinsically with each other so as to analyze his idea of "Democracy", which is thebasic concept of his political philosophy, is virtually a way to work out the meaningof Dewey philosophy, to reveal truthfully its fundamental tendency, practical qualityand philosophical spirit. Accordingly, Dewey's idea of "Democracy" is a basicexpression of his philosophical ideas and a fulfillment and extension of his"empirical" method.Dewey bases the orientation of his political philosophy on empirical philosophy.One of the primary purposes of his political philosophy is to reestablish traditionalpolitical philosophy and its concept of democracy. The arising problems of"democratic society", for him, lies in our understanding of the idea and in what senseit is realized as the operation of the life itself rather than whether to establish thenotion of "Democracy" or how to solve the specific problems of "democracysystem". Herein Dewey understands democracy from the point view of life, hopingto immerse the value of democracy into people's practical life so that people mayundergo it themselves and thus experience the meaning of democracy inlife. "Democracy" in Dewey's eyes is itself a way of life rather than a system, inanother word, it is a live ideal of life, which is realized in daily practice andexperience in life of the members of the society. Dewey attempts to make"Democracy" an ideal in life and a "visible goal" attached with "instrumentalism"and value, or in other words, transform a universal concept to an individual way oflife though reestablishing the concept of "Democracy", according which"Democracy" involves both the construction of government system and Dewey'sunderstanding of in what "united" way a human should live to get access to themeaning of life.Based on the above-mentioned philosophy, Dewey considers democracy fromthe following aspects: apart from the idea of democracy as government system,democracy can be also understood as a way of thinking, a way of communicating,cooperating and criticizing, a way of rebuilding and prospering society and a way ofliving. In this view, the values of justice, freedom, equality and the rue by law areincluded with no exception in the perspective of life of democracy. Holding thisessential political faith, Dewey examines how to realize "Democracy" as a way ofliving and the ideal society as a "democracy community" and how to make the idealof "Democracy" an experienced belief. He claims that education is the solo practicalway to realize it. Therefore, "Democracy" is more an "education" problem than atrue philosophical problem. Dewey's consideration on the relationship betweendemocracy and education pilots his pursuit in his whole life: on education ofdemocracy and democracy of education. His pondering on the idea of democracy inthe theoretical domain of modernism and postmodernism outstands the openness,richness and contemporary value of his democracy.For Dewey, "Democracy" is not only an idea of government system and a wayof living, but also a cultural idea. The democratic constructions in politics and cultureare related with other. It is safe to say that democratic construction is in vacuumwithout culturally constructed democracy, the democratic emotion in daily life andthe cultivation of democratic notion and awareness. The "Democracy" constructionshould be conducted both in politics and the daily communication, in which theharmonious communication, the respect and admission between people, the activeparticipation of common affairs and the exchange of thought---all these happeningsbecome the rich social soil in which democracy construction cultivates. What Deweyinspires us is that the only way out for the development of "Democracy" is thehealthy cultural education of citizenship.