John Dewey, Confucius, and Global Philosophy

Preface

❁ Preface The constant task of . . . thought is to establish working connections between old and new subject-matters. . . . [T]he greater the gap . . . the greater is the burden imposed upon reflection; the distance between old and new is the measure of the range and depth of the thought required. —John Dewey, Experience and Nature It is April 2001 as I write this preface and the words ricochet off the walls: “Apologize, regret, sorry, very sorry.” China and the United States are literally in a war of words that threatens to become something else. Jets and spy planes and world peace hang on the nuance of a word. How did it come to this? This book suggests an answer. The roots of this crisis are to be found in the cultural meanings by which these two global powers live. This is not the first time the threat of violence has emerged from misunderstanding nor will it be the last. What makes this situation important is that it so clearly marks out the cultural sources of this and future disputes. The dispute centers on the difference between “sorry” and “very sorry.” For want of a “very,” the world could be very different today. It is meanings that are at the root of this and other problems of globalization. Is there a way to span this division and bring these two powerful cultures into fruitful contact? Philosophy can be understood as the critic of cultures. Culture rests on meanings. These meanings are embedded in a nest of cultural presuppositions. Getting at these cultural assumptions is the most difficult aspect of coaxing different cultures to some level of mutual understanding. xiii I was therefore completely surprised when my graduate seminar on the philosophy of John Dewey given at the University of Hawaii in the late 1990s was so enthusiastically received by students of Asian descent and by students studying Chinese philosophy and culture. In fact Roger Ames, director of the Institute for Chinese Studies, attended these sessions and noted the similarity between Dewey’s thought and Confucian philosophy. He asked if he could use a transcript of the seminar in his own course on human rights in China and the West. That experience was also favorable. So this book is the result of many hands. What I have tried to do is point out as simply and clearly as possible what I take to be the parallel understandings of culture and the human person found in the works of John Dewey and Confucius. Hawaii is the midpoint of the Pacific poised to be the fulcrum around which future dialogue with Asia will occur. I saw that future as caught up in yet another question: what did Dewey share with Asia? The plot thickened when I recalled that Dewey had spent sixteen months lecturing in China. Now as the recent problems over language clearly demonstrate, the Chinese are a very serious people. Therefore when I learned that the National University of China granted Dewey an honorary degree with a citation calling him a “Second Confucius,” my ears pricked up. The Chinese are not flatterers given to easy compliments and to yoke this twentieth century philosopher with the founder of their cultural outlook is a matter of immense importance. In creating this work I have tried to write in a clear down-toearth style. Also I have deliberately created a short book, one that can quickly steer the reader toward what is important. To present in a clear way the insights of a great thinker is no easy task. And the difficulty is doubled when two thinkers are involved. Still: the way toward an adequate understanding remains open if a simple commandment is obeyed. A comparative philosopher’s golden rule ought always be: stick to what is central. Therefore: the themes presented in this volume have been narrowed down to a select few: experience, felt intelligence, and culture. These ideas are radically transformed in the hands of John Dewey and Confucius. By the time this study is completed, they will have taken on fresh meanings. Hopefully, this transformation will help create deeper cultural understanding in an increasingly interconnected world. xiv Preface Preface xv My method is straightforward. In discussing these themes, I will first let Dewey have his say and then reengage his notion through a discussion of similar ideas in Confucian philosophy.1 The result should be a set of interlocking ideas that take...