John Dewey On Imagination And Its Cultivation

Both the researchers in the field of educational research and the educators in the field of educational practice are paying more and more attention to imagination.No matter in the west or in China,a great number of valuable research results have appeared.In this context,scholars begin to explore Dewey's theoretical heritage on imagination in education.All the research achievements on imagination in education and on Dewey's theory of imagination are important resource for this study.This study is based on John Dewey's theory of imagination.The following three questions are mainly concerned: What is imagination? Why it is important? How to cultivate it? This study is based on two theories: the symbol theory and embodied cognition.These two theories are both promoted by Dewey himself,and they are of great help in illustrating the nature of imagination and the ways to cultivate it.The two main efforts this study takes are as follows: first,I have traced the development of Dewey's theory of imagination and divided it into three periods,that is,the early period,the middle period,and the later period.Meanwhile,I've interpreted Dewey's theory of imagination in these three periods from the perspectives of psychology,logic and aesthetics respectively.Second,I have tried to integrate Dewey's theory of imagination and his theory of instruction.The key hypotheses of the study are as follows: first,there exists a developing process in Dewet's theory of imagintion,which can de divided into the early period,the middle period and the later period.In these three periods,Dewey interprets imagination from perspectives of psychology,logic and aesthetics respectively.Second,the changes in Dewey's understanding of imagination mainly indicate the shift of perspectives,rather than the reversal of ideas.Third,the corresponding theory of instruction to Dewey's early theory of imagination is object teaching;the corresponding theory of instruction to Dewey's middle theory of imagination is storytelling(or teaching by storytelling);the corresponding theory of instruction to Dewey's later theory of imagination is natural education.Fourth,Dewey's theory of imagiantion is inspiring,but still there are weaker points in it.Fortunately,Dewey has a strong sense of reflection,so in the subsequent periods he corrects the weaker points appeared in the previous periods.In the first chapter,namely the introduction of this study,I first trace the rough fate of imagination in history,especially in the history of philosophy.At beginning,imagination is viewed as a dangerous factor in human which tries to violate the gods and to disturb the divine order between human beings and gods.Then imagination is regarded as the inferior part of the soul,and the opposite of reason.Slowly,men begin to admit the role of imagination in literature and art.Later on,imagination is seen as a general faculty of mind which is important for all fields of researches(the field of natural science included).These changes take place very slowly and cover a long period of time.Many philosophers have offered their opinions on imagination.I explore some of them.And among the ones I explore,the opinions of Aristotle,Thomas Hobbes,David Hume,Immanuel Kant and English romantic poets are closely related to Dewey's theory of imagination.Then I summarize the researches on imagination in the fields of psychology and education.From the literature of psychology,we can see that Dewey's understanding of imagination in the early period heavily relies on the psychological researches in his day,so his vision is also limited by them.The study of imagination in the field of education has made great progress and has achieved productive results.Furthermore,some effective educational practice has taken place.The most remarkable ones among them are Kieran Egan and his team in Canada;Lincoln Center Institute for Arts in Education in New York,US;the Project of Future and Imaginative Education & the Cultivation of Creative Individuals in Taiwan,China.At last,I summarize the researches on Dewey's theory of imagination.Many a scholars have already paid great attention to Dewey's theory.However,most of the scholars discuss Dewey's theory of imagination from the perspective of philosophy.Just a few scholars apply Dewey's theory of imagination to studies of education or teaching.In addition,there are few systematic studies on Dewey's theory of imagination.After the literature review,I discuss the definition and classification of imagination.From two different perspectives,I make two kinds of classification of imagination.At the end of the introduction,I discuss the theoretical bases,the hypotheses and the methodology of this study.There are two theoretical bases for this study.One is the symbol theory,the other is embodied cognition.The symbol theory holds that most of the time we don't know the world directly,but through symbols as a medium.Embodied cognition holds that in essence our cognition of the world cannot be separated from the senses and the perceptions of our bodies;body plays a foundational role in cognitive activities.There are two typical Chinese expressions of embodied cognition.The first is,"Knowing by your heart and your belly." The second is,"When you become an old hand at something,you will have a good knowledge of it in your heart." The symbol theory emphasizes indirect experience;embodied cognition emphasizes direct experience.There is a tension between these two.But it is just this tension that makes imagination flourish.In the second to the fourth chapters,I trace the evolution of Dewey's understanding of imagination.I also discuss the related teaching methods in different periods.I divide the development of Dewey's theory of imagination into three periods: the early period,the middle period and the later period(the time divisions are not the same as that of the Collected Works of John Dewey).The second chapter explores Dewey's theory of imagination in the early period.In the early period(1887-1908),Dewey mainly discusses imagination from the perspective of psychology.He pays great attention to the relationship between perception,memory,experience and imagination.He also talks about children's imagination.Dewey holds that imagination and play are simply the inner and the outer side of the same thing.The playful spirit and the hard-working spirit are not contrary to each other.In fact,they can support each other.We Chinese people describe this situation as "serious as well as lively." In this period,Dewey's conception of imagination is most influenced by George H.Mead,William James,John Fiske,Samuel Taylor Coleridge and French psychologist Th�odule Armand Ribot.The related teaching method in this period is object teaching.Dewey points out that the key of object teaching is that it should promote the forming of "images."The third chapter discusses Dewey's understanding of imagiation in the middle period.In the middle period(1908-1925),Dewey mainly explores imagination from the perspective of logic("logic" in his broad sense).The key words are "dramatic rehearsal" and "deliberation." He emphasizes imagination's function of foresee in reflective thinking or the process of inquiry.He highlights the purposefulness,the directing power and control power of imagination."Dramatic rehearsal" is story-structured.The related teaching method is storyteling.Stories are description or simulation of experience.The ability of storytelling is the ability to exchange experience.The secret of story's effect lies in its power to evoke the listener or reader's emotional engagement.On the one hand,emotion is the impetus of imagination;on the other hand,when the imaginaiton is in operation,it can direct the emotion.That is,imaginaiton has powerful emotional appeal.The fourth chapter focuses on Dewey's theory of imagination in the later period.In the later period(1925-1952),Dewey begins to interpret imagination from the perspective of aesthetics or art.He also emphasizes the universality of imagination.Dewey insists that every conscious experience has of necessity some degree of imaginative quality,that is,it has esthetic quality.When discussing imagination in this period,Dewey values immediacy,integrality and the ability to perceive the most.In this period,Dewey's conception of imagination is deeply influenced by Coleridge(Coleridge comes back).The teaching method close related to the immediacy of aesthetic experience and the cultivation of perception is natural education.Natural education is a good trainning of individual's aesthetic sensitiveness.It can also provide a source for human's creativity.In addition,Dewey holds a special view toward creativity.In Dewey's viewpoint,creativity is not dominated by production,but by process.Dewey insists that the significance of creative activities lies not in its objective social value,but in the exercise it provides for individual's intelligence.In the early period,Dewey holds that imagination stems from experience;in the middle period,Dewey insists that imagination originates from man's impulsion;in the later period,Dewey begins to think that imagination is derived from nature.It sounds confusing,but actually these three statements are not contradictory with one another.Man's impulse/impulsion is man's nature.It is the embodiment of nature in human beings.Man's experience is the transformation or socialization of their impulse/impulsion.Human's experience is in nature(in Dewey's broad sense of "nature"),and illustrates the power of nature.Both nature and man's impulse/impulsion take shapes in man's experience.So the final conclusion is that imagination has its root in experience.The fifth chapter analyzes the continuity of Dewey's theory of imagination throughout its change.I believe no matter how Dewey's understanding of imagination shifts,he sticks to three principles all the time.First,imagination has its root in experience.Second,imagination(as well as experience)must be understood from the principle of integrity(or the Humpty Dumpty principle).Third,the healthy imagination,by nature,has a tendency to put itself into action or expression.Only action or expression marks the accomplishment of imagination.Whether it can direct action or not also distinguishes imagination from fantasy.Dewey values fantasy or the imaginary little from the beginning to the end.In his view,only imagination or the imaginative is the desirable type of imagination.The sixth chapter discusses the weaker points in Dewey's theory of imagination and how he revises them.Dewey's theory of imagination is inspiring,but it is not perfect yet.As far as I can see,there are two weaker points in Dewey's understanding of imagination.First,Dewey's classification of three kinds of imagination in Psychology(1887)is not quite convincing.From the lowest stage to the highest stage,the three kinds of imagination are mechanical imagination,fancy and creative imagination.Later on Dewey abandons this threefold division of imagination(replaced by a dichotomy between imagination and fantasy),which can be seen as evidence that Dewey himself finds this classification cannot hold water.Second,Dewey puts too much stress on the control of imagination.Dewey does so mainly because he wants to clear away the influence of fantasy on imagination.Dewey insists that it is fantasy that ruins imagination's reputation.So he tries so hard to "de-stigmatize" imagination that he goes to the extreme.Dewey insists that imagination is purposive;it must have a definite aim;it must serve for something.Fortunately,in the later period,Dewey changes his mind to some degree.He is less sticks to the "control" or "purposiveness" of imagination.He allows more room for the free play of imagination.I promote improvisation in teaching as a remedy to Dewey's second weaker point.