Some Remarks on Dewey’s Metaphysics and Theory of Education1

In a famous and much misunderstood passage in Democracy and Education, Dewey (1916/1980) proclaims: ”If we are willing to conceive education as the process of forming fundamental dispositions, intellectual and emotional, toward nature and fellow-men, philosophy may even be defined as the general theory of education (338; emphasis in original). My article examines some of what he means by this statement. We know Dewey as the philosopher of reconstruction. His most ambitious and overlooked reconstruction is that of Western metaphysics, which disrupts the entire framework of western thought and is a major source of the deep discomfort many have with his philosophy of education. I approach Dewey by examining the standard ingredients of western metaphysics that he rejects or reconstructs. They are: Fixed form or essence (eidos), ultimate origin, foundation, or first principle (arche), completion or purpose (telos), the state of completion, perfection, or complete actualization (entelecheia), and substance or subject (ousia). I will also consider actuality, activity, or function (energeia) and potential for change (dynamis). Metaphysics seems recondite and remote until we ask such existential and educational questions as: What is the ultimate essence of a human being? What is the absolute foundation of human development? What is the telos and perfection of a human life? What are the limits of human potential? What actualizes human potential and how may we Some Remarks on Dewey’s Metaphysics and Theory of Education1