듀이의 종교적 경험에 관한 연구: 민주주의의 교육적 적용의 전체론적 근거

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that a practical logic revealing the totality(integration) of life can be inferred from religious experience based on a holistic understanding of Dewey’s theory of experience and the result of this discussion can be presented as a theoretical basis of the educational application of democracy. To this end, Dewey’s empirical method is applied systematically to his religious thought. This study is organized as follows. Section 2 clarifies the characteristics of religious experience based on a conceptual analysis of imagination. For Dewey, religious experience is the immediate experience of the ideal designed imaginarily and its function consists in the comprehensive and fundamental transformation of the self and the world. A quality accompanied by the immediate experience of the ideal is understood as ‘a feeling of oneness of the self and the world’, which initiates cosmic change. Section 3 attempts to reconstruct the concepts of faith and God based on a systematic examination of the practical meaning of the ideal. Dewey derives a practical logic that reveals the circular relationship of meaning and life from the conceptual reconstruction of faith and God. Within this relationship, the divisions and conflicts in life caused by the difference in interests(purposes) and the disharmony of beliefs(meanings) are gradually dissolved, and the life is presented as an organic integration. Section 4 attempts to get to a comprehensive understanding of the growth of life based on a practical logic illuminated from holistic perspective. The concepts of scientific method and imagination, which the discussion of religious experience stresses, highlight that the furtherance of conjoint reflection and the formation of total attitude are the main tasks of the educational application of democracy. The continuous expansion of the totality of life through the educational application of democracy is presented as the comprehensive growth of life.