The Influence of Evolution on Dewey’s Educational and Philosophical Thoughts

Abstract

 Abstract—Evolution has a great impact on Dewey's philosophical and educational thoughts. Many fundamental conceptions of Dewey's educational philosophy such as continuity, growth, contingency, development, and genetic methodology, could be traced back to Darwinian Evolutionary theory. Dewey reconstructs the ideas and methods of traditional philosophy based on Evolution, and introduces a lot of new scientific methods into educational theory and practices. With changing idea in his mind, Dewey thinks knowledge cannot be a fixed content divorced from experience, but skills and rules to be learnt from experience, which are gradually acquired through students' interaction with environment and nature in the learning process. In conclusion, philosophy for Dewey is a method of knowledge rather than a repository of disembodied, preexisting absolute truths.