Course Description In this course, we will explore the question of the actual and potential connections between democracy and education. Our focus of attention will be placed on a critical examination of democratic theory and its implications for the civic education roles and contributions of teachers, adult educators, community development practitioners, and community organizers. We will survey and deal critically with a range of competing conceptions of democracy, variously described as classical, republican, liberal, radical, marxist, neomarxist, pragmatist, feminist, populist, pluralist, postmodern, and/or participatory. Using narrative inquiry as a means for illuminating and interpreting contemporary practice, we will analyze the implications of different conceptions of democracy for the practical work of civic education.

Democracy and education.

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Truth and method

Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

One of the most powerful but elusive motifs in pragmatist philosophy is the idea that a liberal democracy should be understood as a community of inquirers. This paper offers a critical appraisal of a recent attempt to make sense of this intuition in the context of contemporary political theory, in what may be called pragmatist political liberalism (PPL). Drawing together ideas from Rawlsian political liberalism, epistemic democracy and pragmatism, proponents of PPL argue that the pragmatist conception of inquiry can provide a satisfying interpretation of the idea of justificatory neutrality as it appears in political liberalism. This is contrasted with Dewey's understanding of the epistemic character of democracy, which is viewed as unacceptably sectarian. This paper identifies and criticizes the two principal lines of argument made in support of PPL: the clarification argument and the fixation argument. Neither of these lines of argument, it is argued, passes the test each sets itself. I argue that the latter closes down the epistemic openness in the justification of democracy that is central to pragmatism.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fcpt.2009.6.pdf

Pragmatism, inquiry and political liberalism

The core, and arguably constitutive, problem confronted by an international political theory is that of the status of borders. This paper argues that pragmatism possesses useful resources for thinking about this issue, if understood in the right way. I begin by positing pragmatism as defined by four core commitments: holism, fallibilism, anti-scepticism, and the primacy of practice. The paper then examines four ways of endowing these basic commitments with more determinate political content: antirevisionism, social holism, Richard Rorty's `ethnocentric' conception of political philosophy, and Deweyan democratic inquiry. The article rounds off by outlining a well hedged defence of this last perspective, as both normatively attractive and capable of addressing some of the problems posed by boundaries.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2750343_code1655876.pdf?abstractid=2750343&mirid=5

Pragmatism's Boundaries

One of the most powerful but elusive motifs in pragmatist philosophy is the idea that a liberal democracy should be understood as a community of inquirers. This article offers a critical appraisal of a recent attempt to make sense of this intuition in the context of contemporary political theory, in what may be called pragmatist political liberalism (PPL). Drawing together ideas from Rawlsian political liberalism, epistemic democracy, and pragmatism, proponents of PPL argue that the pragmatist conception of inquiry can provide a satisfying interpretation of idea of justificatory neutrality as it appears in political liberalism. This is contrasted with Dewey’s understanding of the epistemic character of democracy, which is viewed as unacceptably sectarian. This paper identifies and criticises the two principal lines of argument made in support of PPL, the clarification argument and the fixation argument. Neither of these lines of argument, it is argued, passes the test each sets itself. In conclusion, then, I suggest how a comprehensive interpretation of the Deweyan pragmatism can avoid the problems that PPL raises, offer a diagnosis of the worry that motivates this position and provide an account of how to address this worry.

Pragmatism, Inquiry and Political Liberalism

This chapter examines the role of Dewey’s conception of inquiry in his ethics and politics. Drawing principally on his late Logic, in order to introduce some key terms and develop a clearer view of the primacy of practical engagement in his understanding of knowledge, it analyses his account of valuation, as cognitively on all fours with other forms of inquiry. The chapter goes on to address the suspicion that his instrumentalism has nothing determinate to say about the ends to which inquiry is put. One interpretation, put forward by recent sympathetic interpreters of Dewey such as Hilary and Ruth Anna Putnam, is that we should see that certain moral standards as presupposed by the practice of inquiry. It is argued that this is compatible with what Dewey says and can gather some textual support, but is not the whole story. Setting out some key themes from his ethical thought and drawing on the ideas in the theory of valuation the chapter argues that we can put some ethical flesh on his account of growth as the goal of pragmatic intelligence: the latter is a constitutive part of personal and social growth for Dewey, and this has meaningful ethical and political implications.

John Dewey: Inquiry, Ethics, and Democracy

The core, and arguably constitutive, problem confronted by an international political theory is that of the status of borders. This paper argues that pragmatism possesses useful resources for thinking about this issue, if understood in the right way. I begin by positing pragmatism as defined by four core commitments: holism, fallibilism, anti-scepticism, and the primacy of practice. The paper then examines four ways of endowing these basic commitments with more determinate political content: anti-revisionism, social holism, Richard Rorty's `ethnocentric' conception of political philosophy, and Deweyan democratic inquiry. The article rounds off by outlining a well hedged defence of this last perspective, as both normatively attractive and capable of addressing some of the problems posed by boundaries.

Matthew Festenstein

Papers

Pragmatism, inquiry and political liberalism

Pragmatism's Boundaries

Pragmatism, Inquiry and Political Liberalism

John Dewey: Inquiry, Ethics, and Democracy

Pragmatism's Boundaries