Democracy and Education & Experience and Education

Democracy and Education' synthesizes, criticizes, and expands upon the democratic (or proto-democratic) educational philosophies of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Plato. 'Experience and Education' stresses the importance of the social and interactive processes of learning. It also emphasizes experience, experiment, purposeful learning and freedom as essential components of progressive education. Excerpt: "Mankind likes to think in terms of extreme opposites. It is given to formulating its beliefs in terms of Either-Or, between which it recognizes no intermediate possibilities. When forced to recognize that the extremes cannot be acted upon, it is still inclined to hold that they are all right in theory but that when it comes to practical matters circumstances compel us to compromise. Educational philosophy is no exception." (Experience and Education) John Dewey (1859-1952) is one of the primary figures associated with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the founders of functional psychology. His ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Known for his advocacy of democracy, Dewey considered two fundamental elements—schools and civil society—to be major topics needing attention and reconstruction to encourage experimental intelligence and plurality.