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yet can never recreate an absolutely perfect circle. This is also true for happiness and

goodness. There are universal forms of goodness that if not followed to the fullest of

your abilities make you evil. Plato's great works like the Republic used dialogue to

show Socrates' argument refuting that pleasure and pain can not occur at the same

time. Thereby showing that pleasure is not equal to good and pain is not equal to evil.

Plato searched for the (perduring) last permanently enduring spiritual meaning

beneath the changeable physical world.


John Dewey's writings and his influence on twenty century philosophy,


aesthetics, education, and the social sciences, place him among the great

philosophers. He was most concerned with ethics. He believed that forming an

adequate ethical code would happen only when people based their value systems on

human experience in the natural world. Dewey advocated experimenting and trying

out new methods in every area of life. In education, he opposed the traditional method

of learning by memory under the authority of teachers. He believed education should

be concerned with manual skills, the interests of the students, and current problems,

as well as the mind. He stated that education must include a student's physical and

moral well-being, in addition to intellectual development. In Democracy in Education,

Dewey said "(A)ll education which develops power to share effectively in social life is

moral. Interest in learning from all the contacts of life is the essential moral interest."


Dewey was a leader in the philosophical movement called pragmatism.


Pragmatism is about practical approaches to solving problems. It was the most

influential philosophy in the United States at that time. He thought of intelligence as a

power that people use when they face a conflict or challenge. He believed that most

people live by custom and habit. In most situations, it works to think and act as we

have done in the past. However, some physical and social situations present problems

calling for new responses. Dewey stated we cannot solve such problems by habitual