Teaching Democracy by Teaching Supernaturalism
This paper analyzes critiques of the supernatural by John Dewey, a celebrated American philosopher. Dewey rejected the supernatural on scientific and cosmological grounds, but his most significant critique was made on political grounds. In A Common Faith and other writings, Dewey suggests that super...
Auteur principal: | |
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Type de support: | Électronique Article |
Langue: | Anglais |
Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Publié: |
MDPI
[2019]
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Dans: |
Religions
Année: 2019, Volume: 10, Numéro: 8, Pages: 1-10 |
Sujets non-standardisés: | B
John Dewey
B Supernaturalism B Education B Pragmatism B Magic B Democracy B Teaching |
Accès en ligne: |
Accès probablement gratuit Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
Résumé: | This paper analyzes critiques of the supernatural by John Dewey, a celebrated American philosopher. Dewey rejected the supernatural on scientific and cosmological grounds, but his most significant critique was made on political grounds. In A Common Faith and other writings, Dewey suggests that supernaturalism erodes democracy by promoting a dualism between religion and science which depreciates the social values that religion originally promoted. Dewey's claims are contextualized and then tested with reference to teaching supernaturalism in a university classroom. The author explains how the study of magic and supernatural mythologies can address real-world issues, turning attention squarely towards (not away from) history. This paper thus presents a counter-possibility: Can appreciation of the supernatural operate as a catalyst for intercultural learning and social empathy? Examples are given. A discussion of the civic function of wonder follows. |
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ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
Contient: | Enthalten in: Religions
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel10080482 |