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The Popularization of Knowledge: John Dewey on Experts and American Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Laura M. Westhoff
Laura M. Westhoff*
Affiliation:
Washington University
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Extract

In 1900 John Dewey delivered the presidential address to the American Psychological Association (APA) urging his colleagues to adopt scientific methods as the foundation for their work. Psychology, he offered, would “afford [them] insight into the conditions which control the formation and execution of aims, and thus enable human effort to expend itself sanely, rationally, and with assurance.” His address proved an apt greeting to the new century, for it portended the acceptance of social scientific knowledge as the foundation for social reform. But Dewey also alluded to the limitations of the social science professions and the role of experts in the years ahead, warning that “psychology will never tell us just what to do ethically, nor just how to do it.” The question, then, of who would determine the ethical uses of social scientific knowledge and its formulation into public policy in a democratic and bureaucratic society plagued Dewey as the century unfolded. This essay explores Dewey's concerns about the potential threat to democratic community posed by dependence upon experts as policymakers.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , Spring 1995 , pp. 27 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by the History of Education Society 

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References

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2 My use of the term knowledge is derived from Dewey, John, Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (New York, 1916), 184–91. He distinguished between knowledge as a process—the outcome of an inquiry and a resource for further inquiry—and as information. While Dewey recognized that individuals cannot possess all knowledge themselves, he emphasized the importance of having at hand the information to deal effectively with a problem. Dewey saw that the possession of such “knowledge” is the foundation for democratic decision making. For elaboration of Dewey's other uses of the term knowledge, see Cremin, Lawrence A., American Education: The Metropolitan Experience, 1876–1980 (New York, 1988), 406ff.Google Scholar

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34 Ibid., 147, 149. Characteristically, Dewey turned first to education to meet these needs. The School and Society and Democracy and Education provide the best description of Dewey's plans for educating children in a manner that taps their full potential and thus helps create democratic community.Google Scholar

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