Excellence: A Liberal View
A Popularization of John Dewey’s Experimentalism
Dedication
To the work of Democritus of Abdera,
To the work of John Dewey,
To cousin Paulie, without whose
Great and continuing help these books
Would never have become as good as they are,
And to all those with a passion to keep learning,
These books are lovingly dedicated.
May democratic liberty never die.
Hello, and welcome to a new e-book about liberal philosophic habit-models of excellence. It celebrates John Dewey's (1859-1952) science-based liberal philosophic ideas of excellence, and with a few of my own ideas added here and there.
Am I being too arrogant? After all excellence is a high-sounding word and many people might feel it's really beyond anyone's reach; after all, we're all just human, right? No doubt, but as we'll see, excellence of many different kinds have been a common philosophic topic and and study for thousands of years now, even in ancient Greece. Indeed, Socrates and Dewey both felt knowing what excellence is was life's supreme challenge and art. In fact, 3 basically different models of excellence have helped define Western philosophy's main goals since ancient times. What's more, many religions too have built models of excellence, but since Roman times they've been called virtues, rather than excellent habits. For me, at least, that was a big mistake. The word virtue simply doesn't put the same amount of importance on one's actions as does the word habit; in fact habit is one of Dewey's most important ideas. In any case, excellent Christian habits emphasized faith, hope, and love/charity as the most excellent habits; also excellent were obedience, fear of god, and humility. They became Christian virtures rather than excellent habit-arts. In short, there's absolutely no need to feel intimidated by such words like philosophic excellence; such ideas have been around for thousands of years in liberal, moderate, and conservative philosophic models of life and nature. These 5 books will simply show how they've been used for many thousands of years, and of course the results they produced.
Obviously philosophy books are normally intended for college students and professors. Many of Dewey's books were intended mainly for other college professors. Here, however, I've tried widening that audience as much as possible with the help of sim ple words and ideas! After all, what good is knowing about liberal kinds of excellence if only a few can understand what they are? Really, doesn't everyone have a right to easily know more about ideas of excellence and how best to use them? Essentially it's been philosophy's major goal for thousands of years. So, why shouldn't as many people as possible easily learn more about liberal models of excellence, rather than be make the task much more difficult with the help of philosophers' technical language? In truth, not very many people need to know words like metaphysics and axiology. And so I've worked to make these books as easy as possible to read and understand; they tell a story of human development from over 2 millions years ago to the present, and with the help of a few limericks help make the story even even fun to read.
Is telling such a story really possible? Why not? Basically I've simply avoided using almost all of philosophy's technical language; most people don't use it and hence don't feel their meanings. Instead of using words like epistemology, metaphysics, and axiology, I've used more familiar words most everyone already knows, like learning, nature, and ethical habits. I've also done something to make the story easier to understand, something almost no other philosophic writer has done, namely, divide philosophic models of life and nature into 3 main traditions: liberal, moderate, and conservative. Such a division based on 3 different assumptions about nature helped clarify many of my philosophic ideas, and hopefully it will do the same for readers. Also, it may help readers more easily create their own philosophic models of life and nature.
This book, then, is the first in a series of 5, as the Introduction will describe. The 5th book in the series, Liberal Models of Educational Excellence is already available at www. liberaleducation.weebly.com. Books 2 & 3 have recently been rewritten, and Book 4 will be my next project. Meanwhile, at this site I recommend first reading the Introduction; it gives a little background information about the books, some history of philosophy, and also briefly describes what all 5 books will talk about. Book 1 is a general survey of some important ideas and events in human mental history. Then, if you think you'd like to read it at this site, please go to the 'Contributions' page, and proceed from there. Please also note: as of April, 2015, I've downloaded an almost completely new edition of Book 1; only a few sections remain to be polished. The complete edition will hopefully be in place here within a few weeks, hopefully before the summer solstice in June.
In any case, thanks for your time and attention; I hope reading this new edition of Book 1, and Book 5 at www.liberaleducation.weebly.com will be as rewarding to the reader as writing them has been for me.
Cordially, Jerome King
A Popularization of John Dewey’s Experimentalism
Dedication
To the work of Democritus of Abdera,
To the work of John Dewey,
To cousin Paulie, without whose
Great and continuing help these books
Would never have become as good as they are,
And to all those with a passion to keep learning,
These books are lovingly dedicated.
May democratic liberty never die.
Hello, and welcome to a new e-book about liberal philosophic habit-models of excellence. It celebrates John Dewey's (1859-1952) science-based liberal philosophic ideas of excellence, and with a few of my own ideas added here and there.
Am I being too arrogant? After all excellence is a high-sounding word and many people might feel it's really beyond anyone's reach; after all, we're all just human, right? No doubt, but as we'll see, excellence of many different kinds have been a common philosophic topic and and study for thousands of years now, even in ancient Greece. Indeed, Socrates and Dewey both felt knowing what excellence is was life's supreme challenge and art. In fact, 3 basically different models of excellence have helped define Western philosophy's main goals since ancient times. What's more, many religions too have built models of excellence, but since Roman times they've been called virtues, rather than excellent habits. For me, at least, that was a big mistake. The word virtue simply doesn't put the same amount of importance on one's actions as does the word habit; in fact habit is one of Dewey's most important ideas. In any case, excellent Christian habits emphasized faith, hope, and love/charity as the most excellent habits; also excellent were obedience, fear of god, and humility. They became Christian virtures rather than excellent habit-arts. In short, there's absolutely no need to feel intimidated by such words like philosophic excellence; such ideas have been around for thousands of years in liberal, moderate, and conservative philosophic models of life and nature. These 5 books will simply show how they've been used for many thousands of years, and of course the results they produced.
Obviously philosophy books are normally intended for college students and professors. Many of Dewey's books were intended mainly for other college professors. Here, however, I've tried widening that audience as much as possible with the help of sim ple words and ideas! After all, what good is knowing about liberal kinds of excellence if only a few can understand what they are? Really, doesn't everyone have a right to easily know more about ideas of excellence and how best to use them? Essentially it's been philosophy's major goal for thousands of years. So, why shouldn't as many people as possible easily learn more about liberal models of excellence, rather than be make the task much more difficult with the help of philosophers' technical language? In truth, not very many people need to know words like metaphysics and axiology. And so I've worked to make these books as easy as possible to read and understand; they tell a story of human development from over 2 millions years ago to the present, and with the help of a few limericks help make the story even even fun to read.
Is telling such a story really possible? Why not? Basically I've simply avoided using almost all of philosophy's technical language; most people don't use it and hence don't feel their meanings. Instead of using words like epistemology, metaphysics, and axiology, I've used more familiar words most everyone already knows, like learning, nature, and ethical habits. I've also done something to make the story easier to understand, something almost no other philosophic writer has done, namely, divide philosophic models of life and nature into 3 main traditions: liberal, moderate, and conservative. Such a division based on 3 different assumptions about nature helped clarify many of my philosophic ideas, and hopefully it will do the same for readers. Also, it may help readers more easily create their own philosophic models of life and nature.
This book, then, is the first in a series of 5, as the Introduction will describe. The 5th book in the series, Liberal Models of Educational Excellence is already available at www. liberaleducation.weebly.com. Books 2 & 3 have recently been rewritten, and Book 4 will be my next project. Meanwhile, at this site I recommend first reading the Introduction; it gives a little background information about the books, some history of philosophy, and also briefly describes what all 5 books will talk about. Book 1 is a general survey of some important ideas and events in human mental history. Then, if you think you'd like to read it at this site, please go to the 'Contributions' page, and proceed from there. Please also note: as of April, 2015, I've downloaded an almost completely new edition of Book 1; only a few sections remain to be polished. The complete edition will hopefully be in place here within a few weeks, hopefully before the summer solstice in June.
In any case, thanks for your time and attention; I hope reading this new edition of Book 1, and Book 5 at www.liberaleducation.weebly.com will be as rewarding to the reader as writing them has been for me.
Cordially, Jerome King