The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1952-06-13
Just Among Ourselves
Passing Comment Considered or lneonsidsrate

month. For 90 OF his w years ne taught fumD1ng
doctrine in fumblinJ manner, yet he managed to
exert as much influence on U.s. education and
and thinking as al man of his time" The cult
of Deweyism was widespread and strong for many
years and even it is only in the first stages
of its fading, The cult itself is fumbling the
matter and manner of the old professors teach
ing Teachers and judges became Deweyites and
so did millions of ordinary men and women, who
did not even know who he was or what his theories
we're"
Our two most prominent weekly reviews, noting
the death of John Dewey brushed off the "philos-
opher, educator, and prophet of progressive edu.
cation" with curtnesS and dispatch. One of them
gave him n short lines; the other allowed him
lis. total of about 300 words sufficed for the
final summing up and dismissal of figure long
seen in heroic proportions.
John Dewey wanted to be philosopher. Now
philosopher is, first and foremost a seeker after
wisdom. And wisdom involves a knowledge of
what is worthwhile and taste and skill in achev-
ing il, And knowledge, to be knowledge at all must
be the grasp of truth. Yet John Dewey said that
philosophy cannot rest changeleSs truths find
ultimate answers to its questions. There uti
mate answers. Thus for Dewey philosophy is an in
qulry with no purpose and possibility of
success; this is surely far any quest be
from a pursuit of wisdom Dewey's philosophy is
merely the denial of philosophy.
To Dewey, all things are in perpetual change
and How; there are no enduring truths Man has
no end or goal towards which his whole life and
all conscious effort to be directed he has only
constantly renewed series of immediate ends Man
is TO meet the needs of the moment, and youth is
to learn by doing progressing from situation TO
situation, making perpetual adjustments in world
where nothing is good or bad in itself but only
better or worse in view of the needs of the moment
II we enjoy affixng tags we may run through
the conflicting oddmentS OF Deweyism and label
them with very old and familiar names. The adage
that there is nothing under the sun is never
more manifestly true than when we turn our at.
tention TO the latest philosophical theories and
the most modern educational doctrines The ancient
Greek Herakleitos taught that "all is becoming;
there is no being" which is the Deweyte doctrine
OF perpetual change The old Sophists and Skeptics
denied the possibility of achieving ultimate truth
which is Dewey'S doctrine about absoutes they
also taught, implicitly the pragmatism of judg-
ing things truth goodness by its relation
to the circumstances of the current moment. All of
these philosophers and educators fourshed between
500 and 300 &c. So whatever may be said about
John Deweys teaching, ii certainly cannot be called
new modern.
Everybody has always known that children learn
by doing. But doing is not proposed something
out OF the void II is doing that conforms to
pattern of what is known at be worthwhile. child
ample by following its own inner urge to make ar
bitrary marks on paper; the child must accept
the absolute of an aphabet-or be genius enough
TO invent alphabet that he can impose on Others
making them conform TO its absolute value-before
he can write, read the writing presented to his
view.
And philosophy is not merely pursuit of ques-
tions ii involves the discovery of at least some
fundamental answers II cannot know all the
SwerS for IT is human and therefore an imperfect
science. But IL must know some answers or il is
completely stulhfied. An inquiry which is profess
edly search after what cannot be discovered is
simply not an inquiry at all; IL is merely aimless
mental wandering purposeless and entirely futile.
Neither John Dewey nor any other can even state
such philosophy without giving il the lie. II Dewey
says that there ultimate and permanent
truths, he makes that statement as the expression
OF an ultimate and permanent truth If there are no
Ultimate answers for philosophy education, Mr..
Dewey is an upsart and quack in furnishing the
answers he has formulated Folly always runs about
in silly circles, cutting back upon itself and can
ceiling the meaning of its teachings.
Dewey says that has "provabe" ultimate
end goal TO achieve, but only constantly shifting
series of immediate ends But without ultimate
end there immediate ends-for these them
selves would then be ultimate How can | serve the
demands of this moment unless | the moment
itself in relation to what is yet to come-my own
future wellbeing my enjoyment, my utility? The
moment has demands of its own; these read
into IL by its relation to the next moment and the
next moment has value with reference TO what
lies beyond. and so on till we come to the abso-
lutte and ultimate. A single step in stairway has
significance OF its own; ii has value only as it
leads to something else; one would never take the
first step except in view OF the last There is always
good, something desirable, some purpose,
to be served in taking any and all of the steps.
And over all human effort is the notion of good,
of fulflment, of the ultimately desirable In word,
there is necessarily absolute
Dewey is called an advocate of free thinking But
true free thinking is like free seeing A is
free to look where he likes but he is not free to
find what he likes where he looks. He is hampered
by the hard and compelling bonds of fact to see
what is actually there to be seen, The so-called
freethinker wants to make the universe conform TO
his thinking to manufacture truth. TO discount the
eompulson of fact But he is not thus truly free:
instead he hampers and binds himself in the unreal.
ties Of his fictons II is only knowledge of truth
and ultimate TRUTH that makes men free.