John Dewey Phenomenological Awareness

There is no intention in this study to make a case that John Dewey is a "phenomenologist", however, this study stresses on the resemblance between Dewey and phenomenology on the terms of life, experience, habit and meaning by comparing Dewey with Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Van Manen. This study reveals Dewey's phenomenological sense.Dewey shared with Husserl the same attitude on "life". Dewey considered that the world had the last word in all human inquired and surmises. Dewey, no less than Husserl, recognized that predicative judgment could not be separated form that pre-reflective, habitual ordering of the world which prepares and ultimately fulfills the human possibilities of reflection and judgment.Dewey and Merleau-Ponty had similar opinions on "habit". One of the profound advantages of the notion of habit is that it offers a means of understanding the phenomenological notion of intentionality. This study analyzing Dewey's habit thought on the background of intentionality is to establish the relation between "Human is an habitual creature" and "man fundamentally is an habitual-being-in-the-world". Habits are, for Dewey, always silent and pre-objective intentional. They are, as Merleau-Ponty says, anonymous. The base of interaction between self and world is habit. Dewey said habits formed self. It is much the same with Merleau-Ponty's idea: "man fundamentally is an habitual-being-in-the-world".Dewey resembled Van Manen in the way of thinking on "experience". They both considered that experiences were animated, and experiences related to each other. Both of them paid attention to the teaching situation. Van Manen considered that teaching was ongoing under the concrete situation, and there was no such kind of theory that could guide the whole and concrete learning situation. In the special circumstance, educational theories were unique. Dewey also agreed that experience belonged to the situation, and meaning was embodied in the situation.In short, this study finds out the resemblance between Dewey and phenomenology in order to reveal Dewey's phenomenological sense. This thesis gains important inspiration on research and understanding education by comparing. The phenomenological sense, embodied in Dewey's experience method, in his understanding of teaching profession and in children's development, has a peculiar meaning in understanding the transformation of educational research methodology, teacher's education and children's development nowadays.