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5: THE INFLUENCE OF CHINA ON DEWEY’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
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87 chapter 5 THE INFLUENCE OF CHINA ON DEWEY’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY ﱝﱝﱝﱝﱝEﱝﱝﱝﱝﱝ The previous chapter explored Dewey’s learning experiences in China during his visit. This chapter is devoted to tracing Dewey’s intellectual development in relation to his visit to China, focusing mainly on his social and political philosophy. I compare Dewey’s political writings during the twelve years between German Philosophy and Politics (1915) and The Public and Its Problems (1927). To expound the thesis of Dewey’s intellectual development , I also draw on his earlier and later writings wherever relevant and appropriate. Importantly, we should note that Dewey’s thinking was always evolving. The arguments I make concerning the development of Dewey’s ideas do not exclude other factors in his life and thinking that may have contributed to the development. In addition, I understand that I am presenting only plausible but not conclusive arguments concerning how China may have influenced Dewey. Despite these caveats, his visit to China undoubtedly stimulated his thinking, and the contours of his philosophy were expanded as a result. Having an alternative place to stand and from which to look, Dewey was able to review his ideas in a fresh light. Above all, when Dewey’s philosophy and his experiences in China are considered together, we get a fuller understanding of his ideas. Rethinking Internationalism Dewey’s support for U.S. participation in World War I reflected a rejection of isolationism and an affirmation of internationalism. Unlike those who thought that the United States could remain isolated and thus protected 88 john dewey in china from the political crises that were plaguing Europe, Dewey understood that the destiny of any one nation in the modern epoch was invariably linked to the rest of the world and that isolationism was not only undesirable but also impossible. Nonetheless, embracing internationalism was one thing, but knowing what it entailed was quite another. How, for example , would the colonial world order be replaced by a democratic one? What would this new democratic order look like? Or was the attempt to “make the world safe for democracy” simply a high-sounding slogan? Are wars between nations inevitable? In his earlier writings, Dewey was primarily concerned with the political implications of internationalism. He saw an urgent need to establish a political agency or machinery that would mediate disputes and facilitate communication among nations. Much to the dismay of his paci- fist friends, Dewey considered the war a means for realizing the possibility of “a democratically ordered international government” and “the subsequent beginning of the end of war” (MW 11: 181). He thought that genuine love of peace obligated one to establish “the machinery, the speci fic, concrete social arrangements . . . for maintaining peace” (MW 10: 263). Peace in and of itself was only a negative idea. “There were ideals more important than keeping one’s body whole and one’s property intact” (MW 8: 203). During the war years, Dewey believed that future human prosperity and peace depended on new international agencies of cooperation and control, the establishment of which, he thought, would foreclose the nineteenth-century idea of independent, isolated nationstates , thereby ushering in a new century of internationalism. The new age of internationalism also required a reexamination of existing political theories, which had dealt largely with internal questions about the relationships between the individual and society. This internal focus tended to leave untouched important questions about the proper relations between nations. The war in Europe represented the failure to acknowledge and deal with the wider, cross-cultural relationships created through free trade and assisted by modern methods of transportation and communication. It signified a breakdown in the relations between independent nations. Dewey said, “In commerce, we are proceeding on an international basis,” but in politics, “we are doing business . . . upon the basis of isolated international sovereignty.” We must “either internationalize our antiquated political machinery or we must make our commercial ideas and practices conform to our political”(MW 10: 241–42). The onset of war in Europe propelled Dewey to inquire into the nature and problems of the nation-state. Dewey sought to reexamine the political tradition of the West to diagnose causes for contemporary international problems. He took as his point of departure one of the defining moments of modern Western civilization, namely, the rise of the individual. As Dewey [54.221.43.155] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 01:14 GMT) The Influence of China on...