Transforming A Great Society Into A Great Community: John Dewey's Construction Of The Democratic Way Of Life

As an American philosopher, educator, social critic, political activist, psychologist and a cofounder of the philosophical movement known as Pragmatism, John Dewey is widely acclaimed for his role in promoting the development of liberal and progressive democracy. Dewey's voluminous works are imbued with strands of his ideas about America's quest for democracy. Despite the context of the 20th century, Dewey's work is still of contemporary social relevance. Many scholars have mentioned Dewey's concept of community in their books or essays, but few have offered an explanation about the meaning of community. The systematic and detailed studies on the concept of Deweyan Great Community remain relatively an unplowed territory.After having done a thorough research in the academic field of the Dewyan studies, this thesis endeavors to give an explanation about Dewey's theory of the Great Community and the achievability of such an ideal. This thesis mainly relies on a textual analysis of such primary sources as Dewey's middle and later works on his political and social philosophy. A close reading of his philosophical works reveals main features of the Great Community:participatory democracy, bottom-up direction of organizing democratic community, and plurality. Dewey encouraged citizens to actively participate in public affairs to guarantee that final decisions of social policies could represent a consensus of the general public. Bottom-up direction of organizing community included two facets:education and self-government. The function of education lies in making citizens informative and equipping them with the expertise to affect collective decision-making. Dewey argued that plurality would enhance social stability and allowing more opinions to circulate in society could be beneficial for the solution of dispute and conflict.As to the achievability of the Great Community, inquiry and communication are two main conditions. The function of inquiry is to help citizens to achieve intellectual reconstruction. Through inquiry, citizens would grasp the knowledge about how to construct community. Communication helps the circulation of social intelligence and undertakes the task of bridging the gap between the citizens and government.With the 2016 U.S. presidential election fast approaching, representative democracy in the United States once again catches public attention. American democracy now suffers from many flaws such as the excessive role of money in American elections, assorted inefficiency and incompetence of government and party politics, etc. In this sense, studies of Dewey's ideas about democracy may provide us yet another opportunity to reflect upon the political institutions of our time. Dewey's ideas about the construction of a democratic community are the results of philosophical reflections or hypotheses which need to be tested in the changing social contexts. But the intellectual heritage can help us think about the future and a range of alternatives.