Ri-descrivere la democrazia: un compito filosofico ed educativo

Rosa Maria Calcaterra

Abstract


The ‘Christian deposit’ of Dewey’s thought deeply affects his conception of democracy as a ‘regulative ideal,’ which nevertheless explicitly claims independence from supernatural beliefs. The ‘quasi-religious’ feature that he assigns to democratic ideals is a peculiar expression of his ‘naturalistic humanism,’ which enhances critical abilities and scientific knowledge as basic instruments for developing democracy through continuous re-descriptions of human potentialities, apart from both classic individualism and dogmatism. The complexity of Dewey’s thought, of its sources of inspiration as well as of its most original issues, offers resources for contrasting the risk of an incautious scientism and, at the same time, leaves room for further reflections about some crucial problems of current democratic societies, such as education for citizenship and for the socio-political value of disagreements, including those connected to religious attitudes. 

Riassunto: Il ‘Christian deposit’ del pensiero di Dewey rifluisce profondamente sulla sua concezione della democrazia come ‘ideale regolativo’, la quale è tuttavia delineata secondo una programmatica indipendenza dalle credenze nel soprannaturale. La marca ‘quasi-religiosa’ degli ideali democratici è un’espressione peculiare dell’‘umanismo naturalistico’ deweyano, il quale sostiene la centralità delle capacità critiche così come delle conoscenze scientifiche nella continua ri-descrizione delle potenzialità umane in cui si gioca la sopravvivenza della democrazia. La complessità delle fonti di ispirazione del pensiero deweyano e delle sue istanze più originali offre risorse interessanti per contrastare il rischio dello scientismo e, allo stesso tempo, lascia spazio per ulteriori riflessioni intorno ad alcuni problemi cruciali delle odierne società democratiche, quali quelli dell’educazione alla cittadinanza, al riconoscimento del valore positivo dei conflitti socio-culturali, inclusi quelli legati alle attitudini religiose.   

 


Keywords


continuism; religious faith; democratic faith; disagreement

Full Text

PDF

Riferimenti bibliografici


Calcaterra, R.M. (2011), “Varieties of Synechism. Peirce and James on Mind-World Continuity”, in Journal of Speculative Philosophy, vol. 25, n. 4, pp. 412-424.

Ead. (2016), Filosofi a della contingenza. Le sfide di Richard Rorty, Genova: Marietti.

Dal Pra, M. (1960), “Dewey e il pensiero del giovane Marx”, in Rivista di filosofia, n. 3, pp. 279-92.

Dewey, J. (1893a), “Ethics and Physical Science”, in The Early Works of John Dewey, 1882-1898, vol. 1, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972, pp. 205-226.

Id. (1893b), “Christianity and Democracy”, in The Early Works of John Dewey, 1882-1898, vol. 4, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972, pp. 3-10.

Id. (1911), “The problem of truth”, in The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, vol. 6, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978, pp. 12-68.

Id. (1920/1948), Reconstruction in Philosophy, in The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, vol. 12, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978, pp. 77-203.

Id. (1927), The Public and Its Problems, in The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925-1953, vol. 2, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985, pp. 235-372.

Id. (1929a), “From Absolutism to Experimentalism”, in The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925-1953, vol. 5, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985, pp. 147-160.

Id. (1929b), Characters and Events: Popular Essays in Social Philosophy, New York: H.Holt & Co.

Id. (1930), Individualism, Old and New, in The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925- 1953, vol. 5, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985, pp. 41-123. Id. (1931a), “Philosophy and Civilization”, in The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925-1953, vol. 3, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985, pp. 3-10.

Id. (1931b), “Science and Society”, in The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925-1953, vol. 6, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illi- nois University Press, 1985, pp. 53-63.

Id. (1934), A Common Faith, in The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925-1953, vol. 9, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986, pp. 1-58.

Id. (1935), Liberalism and Social Action, in The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925-1953, vol. 11, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985, pp. 1-65.

Id. (1939), “Creative Democracy – The Task Before Us”, in The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925-1953, vol. 14, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985, pp. 224-230.

Frega, R. (2012), Practice, Judgment, and the Challenge of Moral and Political Disagreement. A Pragmatist Account, Lanham: Lexington.

Gavin, W.J. (ed.) (1988), Context over Foundation: Dewey and Marx, Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.

Henrich, D. (2008), Metafi sica e modernità. Il soggetto di fronte all’assoluto, Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier.

Kaplan, A. (2008), “Introduction”, in The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925-1953, vol. 10, edited by J.A. Boydston, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, vii-xxxiii.

Kierkegaard, S. (1972), Postilla conclusiva non scientifica, Bologna: Zanichelli.

Maddalena, G. (2005), “Esperienza e soggettività: un confronto tra Peirce e Dewey”, in R.M. Calcaterra (a cura di), Semiotica e fenomenologia del sé, Torino: Aragno, pp. 111-123.

Maddalena, G., & Zalamea, F. (eds.) (2013), “Pragmatism and Creativity”, in European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, vol. 5, n. 1, pp. 6-120.

Madden, E. H., & Madden, D.W. (2002), “John Dewey: A Commentary”, in Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, n. 1/2, pp. 106-114.

Medina, J. (2012), The Epistemology of Resistance: Gender and Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and Resistant Imaginations, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mougan Rivero, C.J. (2007), “John Dewey and the Necessity of Civic Democratic Education”, in J. Ryder & G.-R. Wegmarshaud (eds.), Education for a Democratic Society, Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, pp. 11-20.

Oliverio, S. (2014), “The Democratic Public to Be Brought into Existence and Education as Secularization”, in Education and Culture, vol. 30, n. 2, pp. 5-20.

Id. (2015), “Educazione come paideía? Il misreading deweyano del mito platonico della caverna”, in M. Striano, S. Oliverio, & M. Santarelli (a cura di), Nuovi usi di vecchi concetti. Il metodo pragmatista oggi, Milano: Mimesis, pp. 205-220.

Pappas, G.F. (2010), “Dewey’s Ethical-Political Philosophy as a Present Resource”, in J. Shook & P. Kurtz (eds.), Dewey’s Enduring Impact, Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, pp. 98-112.

Putnam, H. (2005), “Intelligence and Ethics”, in J. Shook & J. Margolis (eds.), A Companion to Pragmatism, Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 267-278. Rockefeller, S.C. (1991), John Dewey: Religious Faith and Democratic Humanism, New York: Columbia University Press.

Rogers, M.L. (2008), The Undiscovered Dewey: Religion, Morality, and the Ethos of Democracy, New York: Columbia University Press.

Rorty, R. (1989), Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Id. (1993), “La fi losofi a come scienza, come metafora e come politica”, in R. Rorty, Scritti f losofi ci, vol. II, Roma-Bari: Laterza, pp. 15-38.

Talisse, R. (2005), Democracy after Liberalism. Pragmatism and Deliberative Politics, London-New York: Routledge.

Taylor, C. (1985), “Atomism”, in C. Taylor, Philosophy and Human Sciences. Philosophical Papers 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 187-210.

Id. (1994), Il disagio della modernità, Roma-Bari: Laterza.

West, C. (1989), The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism, Madison, WV: The University of Wisconsin Press.

Westbrook, Robert, John Dewey and Democracy, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.


Refback

  • Non ci sono refbacks, per ora.


Iscrizione al Registro Operatori della Comunicazione R.O.C. n. 10757