- 著者
-
古屋 恵太
- 出版者
- 教育哲学会
- 雑誌
- 教育哲学研究 (ISSN:03873153)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.2000, no.82, pp.65-80, 2000-11-10 (Released:2010-01-22)
- 参考文献数
- 54
This paper inquires into Dewey's conception of individuality in those of his later works which developed an anti-dualistic philosophy, through an examination of his holistic and transactional understanding of situation and context.The study of his conception of situation indicates that individuality means a new mode of cognitive and practical transaction in which an individual, together with things and other individuals, re-emerges through his reflective thinking. This occurs when a syncretic, determinate situation is recovered from an indeterminate situation in which the subject and the object are separate. The present study also shows that individuality represents a phase of context because, according to Dewey, the new mode of interaction turns into another context that will tacitly influence one's reflective thinking in the next indeterminate situation.Thus, the conception of individuality as shown in Dewey's later works does not refer to individual differences as discriminated by a spectator; rather it is a metaphorical representation of a succession of reconstructions in the mode of transaction, which is realized when participants transact among themselves or with things.From the point of view of education, individuality is valuable, not because it brings up autonomous individuals or helps individuals achieve differentiation, but because the emergence of a new meaning as well as a new manner of act is expected to facilitate actual and continuous transactions. Individuality is not an educational goal to be realized through transactions, but rather a mark for the recognition of the establishment of transactions or the new modes of transaction. Thus, individuality has a function of testing the medium of transaction.