Dewey’s Pragmatism For Follett’s Dynamic Administration Theory

John Dewey borne in 1859-1952, is the most famous philosopher, social practitioner, political scientist and educator in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. With Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, George Herbert Mead together, he is recognized to be one of the main representatives of classical pragmatism. Dewey’s pragmatism philosophy draws from Hegel’s philosophy, Darwin’s theory of evolution, Peirce and James’s pragmatism philosophy, and is a complete philosophy system including ontology of relation, law of situation, empirical naturalism, Instrumental truth.Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933), a celebrated American woman managerialist, political scientist, social activist and philosopher at the turn of the 20th century. She has a broad knowledge, combining the comprehensive advantage of different subjects, and blends them in her managerial theory and philosophy. In her theory and philosophy we can clearly find out that she fit in the arguments of the relationship of circle response and context, the integration of conflict, the power, authority and control in organization, the interconnection of administrative expertise and administrative leader, democracy and small group theory, the issue of occupation and development of administration that original thinking and ingenious insight from subjects of philosophy, psychology, politics, biology, science of law, historiography, physiology, economics and religion.In this article, I think that John Dewey’s pragmatism philosophy has a necessary link with Mary Parker Follett’s dynamic administration thoughts. It is conceivable that close relations between the two ideas are well justified. Dewey and Follett at their early age were great fans of Hegel’s philosophy that influences the two theorists pursuing an integrative philosophy to integrate all the existing oppositions into a relevant body all their life and wipe out as many contradictions and conflicts as possible. Charles Robert Darwin’s biological theory of evolution and William James’s pragmatic psychology enlighten Dewey and Follett philosophically with an experimental and scientific attitude, and make the two firmly believe of man’s spiritual value a determining factor in promoting integrative philosophy to eliminate the conflicts and contradictions in reality. They believe we can apply the methods of science and experiment to explore the occurrence of human psychological process. In addition to the common theoretical basis and in terms of social background, the progressive reform movement committing to restore America’s democracy, equality and freedom also touched Dewey and Follett, plus the same experience of social work they all had, the inevitable connection between the two theorists. What really pushes Follett to begin paying close attention to and attaching importance to Dewey’s pragmatism philosophy occurred in a post-war democracy controversy between the industrial democratic and democratic realists. Follett chose on the side of industrial democratic and became one of the main forces. Follett showed in her works a large number of references to her opinion on pragmatism, which proves that Dewey’s pragmatism philosophy for Follett’s dynamic administrative theory is important even more.From the third to fifth part, I try to show the trace of the influences of the two theories and I think that Dewey’s ontology of relation, existence of situationism, empirical naturalism and instrumentalism of truth enlighten Follett a lot, shown in the arguments of human nature, relationship, situation, experience and the truth on issues. The enlightenment combining in the cognitive and thinking developed from management problems and phenomena become the source of the dynamic administrative theory. In the last part, I want to make a further sublimation on the basis of the previous texts. Now that Dewey’s pragmatism has a significant impact on Follett’s administrative theory, if placed on the whole scale of public administration, what Dewey’s pragmatism can bring to public administration in the United States? After unremitting analysis, I found that Dewey’s pragmatism philosophy is not only able to reshape the America’s democracy in public administration, but also can resolve the theory and practice dual dilemma.This article will apply the literature research, historical analysis and multidisciplinary approach to the study of arguments above in detail. By reference to the research results of predecessors and combining with my own comprehension and realization, I think this article should be discussed from the following six sections:The first part is the introduction, which mainly introduces the research significance, research methods and possible innovations, relevant definition of concepts as well as defines the related concepts and reviews the current research situation at home and abroad.The second part is to introduce how Dewey’s pragmatism affects Follett’s administrative ideas. This part is composed of the generation of Dewey’s pragmatism, the influence of Dewey’s pragmatism on American society in the early 20th century, the way of Dewey’s pragmatism philosophy for Follett’s dynamic effect of administrative management and the Follett’s review to Dewey’s pragmatism.The third part will details Dewey’s pragmatism philosophy system and Follett’s dynamic administrative management. The fifth part tells of Dewey’s pragmatism for Follett’s administration. It is also the main part of this article. The sixth tells us on philosophy of John Dewey’s pragmatism implications of public administration in the United States. This part mainly discussed from the following two parts:firstly, Dewey’s pragmatism philosophy can help reshape the view of democracy of public administration in the United States; Secondly, Dewey’s pragmatism philosophy helps public administration to get rid of the binary dilemma of theory and the practice.The seventh part is conclusion.