The new scholarship on Dewey

Since the appearance of Richard Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature in 1979 there has been a flood of new scholarship on the philosophy of John Dewey. Thus far surprisingly little of this scholarship has made its way into the field of education where traditionally the philosophy of Dewey has been widely influential. Many of the authors in this collection are philosophers who have created some of the most original and influential works of new scholarship.

Five of these philosophers have written well-received books. These include Larry Hickman, the director of the Dewey Center, whose book John Dewey's Pragmatic Technology explores a dimension of Dewey's work too long overlooked. Thomas M. Alexander's John Dewey's Theory of Art, Experiences and Nature established an interpretation whose influence appears in a number of papers in this volume.

The idea that aesthetics might be the central, guiding thought in Dewey's philosophy is almost entirely alien to the field of education, yet it is the most prominent theme represented here. Richard Shusterman's Pragmatist Aesthetics has been translated into French and German. J.E. Tiles' Dewey has also been internationally acclaimed. Raymond D. Boisvert's Dewey's Metaphysics is acknowledged as the outstanding work on that topic. He too is an international scholar. Other philosophers in this volume have been heavily influenced by these thinkers. Several of them represent the next generation of Deweyan philosophers. Their contributions are fresh and original.

Among philosophers of education some, like Philip W. Jackson are well known in the field of education, and have kept pace with emerging Deweyan scholarship for many years. Some, like Sabri Buyukduvenci, James D. Marshall, and Siebren Miedema, are internationally known for their work on many different topics in the philosophy of education. Their contributions indicate the high level of Deweyan scholarship that often lies hidden behind many valuable contributions to the discipline.

Others are younger scholars who are well versed in the new scholarship, and promise to take philosophy of education into new and previously unexplored territory. Finally, we are fortunate to have two prominent feminists who have contributed critical reconstructions of Dewey's work that make it more useful for neo-pragmatist feminist projects.

. All the new scholars seek not merely to recover Dewey's original meaning for current educational theory and practice, but to reconstruct it in order to grasp future possibilities. These essays are written in the Deweyan spirit.