Abstract

SILVA, Tatiane da; MERCAU, Horacio Héctor  and  CUNHA, Marcus Vinicius da. John Dewey and Ralph W. Emerson: education, art and democracy. Rev. Educ. Questão [online]. 2021, vol.59, n.60, e-25102.  Epub Apr 19, 2022. ISSN 1981-1802.  https://doi.org/10.21680/1981-1802.2021v59n60id25102.

The article aims to analyze John Dewey’s conception of the interchanges between education, art and democracy, with the purpose of suggesting ways for a critique of the current pedagogical trends. To achieve this goal, we analyze John Dewey’s theses on the intellectual production of Ralph Waldo Emerson, published in the 1903 essay “Emerson, the philosopher of democracy”. The method used for this endeavor is the rhetorical analysis proposed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca. In line with such theses, Emerson’s ideas are examined in the Sophistic light, in a version opposite to that assumed by Plato, with special attention to the notions of perception, power and democracy, which are related to the Dewey concepts of immediate experience, experience aesthetic and democratic experience. The article concludes that John Dewey’s reflections inspired by Emerson suggest that education today must be guided by the transforming power of the imagination.

Keywords : John Dewey; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Sophistry; Aesthetics.

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