Toward a theoretical foundation for the teaching of philosophy: A reconstruction of C. S. Peirce's pragmaticism

This dissertation is an inquiry into the philosophical foundations of the teaching of philosophy. After critically reviewing the current modes of philosophy teaching, I propose a more inclusive horizon for the teaching of philosophy. In my “matrix of philosophy teaching,” I show how the current competing ideals for philosophy instruction—such as “rationality versus life-examination” and “advanced intellectuals versus cooperative inquirers”—can be bridged. I construct this matrix with concepts from the philosophy of the American pragmatist Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914). In particular, I draw on Peirce's unique notion of “creative love,” which helps us recover the true meaning of philosophy, the “love of wisdom.” Peirce's pragmaticism, I suggest, helps us to establish a new complex approach to the teaching of philosophy for the twenty-first century.; Not only does Peirce help us rethink the teaching of philosophy, but this application to educational theory helps us begin to reexamine pragmatism itself, which is too often misunderstood as an anti-intellectual American practicality. I argue that Peirce's ideas of genuine inquiry, thirdness , and evolutionary love should be revalued in American pragmatism. These concepts are the main characteristics of the pragmaticistic spirit that I want to revive in our educational field, because they lead to the profound sources of doing philosophy, such as philosophical humility and symbiotic naturing, which I associate with the basic foundation of the pragmaticistic self and the pragmaticistic community respectively. I hope that this dissertation can be a transformative springboard for the pragmaticistic movement of teaching philosophy, both in Eastern and Western cultures, and both in South and North Korean education.