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action and thought. We must use intelligence to overcome obstacles. Dewey's view of

pragmatism is therefore called instrumentalism.

In the year of John Dewey's birth, Charles Darwin published ...

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Dewey's faulting of Plato for using onlythree educational categories can be


dismissed because Plato's view accurately explains perceptions of his society, just as

Dewey's multitude of categories (one for each child) accurately explains perceptions

of his society. Plato's lack of support for education of women is explained in the same

fashion. As long as we remember that the purpose of a philosophy is sound

prescriptions for its time, we can say that Plato and Dewey used very different

perceptions of reality, but their notions of moral education are similar. The basic

components of education described by Plato have remained at the heart of liberal

education for more than 2,000 years. Both Plato and Dewey felt that students must

take an active role in their own education.


Plato spoke of an ideal that all truth already exists, and the ultimate aim of