From "Organic Interaction" To "Maintain Community"

As a representative of American pragmatism,John Dewey,the founder of the Chicago School,and his thoughts on communication,once influenced a large number of well-known scholars such as Mead,Parker,Cooley and Kerry,and enjoyed high social prestige.With the change of historical context and cognitive field,Dewey's communication thought has evolved,and then produces different social effects.This article defines the period from 1882 to 1904 as the growth period of Dewey's thought of communication.During this period,Dewey stand on areas of education and psychology to discuss communication,He constructing the idea of communication named "organic interactive".This concept thought that the audience was an organic entirety,should not take a simple dualism that thinking of physical and mental was separated,consider that the audience response to environmental stimuli as a response to the mechanical "stimulus-response" model,but should be organic "stimulus-interpretation-reaction " Mode,they will follow their own interests in the selective understanding of information.At the same time,the idea also thought that human communication behavior is interaction,the significance of symbol and element produces in the process of interactive dissemination;In the research method,Dewey advocated the introduction of experimental psychology to compensate for the lack of traditional research methods during this period.After joining Columbia University in 1904,Dewey's communication ideas turn into maturity.During this period,Dewey's research on communication spread from the fields of pedagogy and psychology to the field of social philosophy,and his thoughts on communication have evoled on a certain extent.At the level of communication ontology,Dewey developed the idea of "organic interaction" to "share experience".Human communication is a kind of "sharing".People can form and maintain a democratic community by spreading,and this is the ultimate purpose;In terms of the social function of communication,Dewey argues that communication has the function of transmitting human social heritage,monitoring the environment to guide practice,and coordinating social conflicts;From the perspective of the relationship between people and the environment,he claimed that the communication will be subject to environmental constraints,the environment will have a subtle influence on people,shaping the human consciousness,resulting in specific behavioral tendencies,the individual will yield to the pressure of the group leaving their behavior,Opinions converge to groups.Many factors influence the emergence and evolution of Dewey's communication thoughts,such as the historical environment in the period of American social transformation;the academic thought of Hegel and James;Dewey's social interaction,Morris for example;Dewey's practice and his experience that visit to China,Japan,the Soviet Union and other countries.Re-excavating Dewey's communication thoughts,focusing on the construction of social democratic community,help to open up new historical space,finding new ideas of communication discipline's development.