Papers by James Scott Johnston
Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A …, Jan 1, 2010
In this paper, I will press Dewey's talk of the self, consciousness, and self-consciousness as it... more In this paper, I will press Dewey's talk of the self, consciousness, and self-consciousness as it is developed in Experience and Nature together with some attention to Dewey's other great experiential text, Art as Experience. I will suggest that Hegel's developmental and dialectical understanding of self-consciousness occurs in Dewey's work, albeit in naturalized form. My claim is not that Dewey reproduces Hegel's dialectic, or that Dewey's notion of self-consciousness emerges as isomorphic with Hegel's own. In fact, developing this understanding of consciousness and self-consciousness leads me to conclude that for Dewey, these are roughly equivalent to experimental inquiry and science. To inquire, I claim, is to be 'conscious of.' To inquire experimentally, deliberately, and methodically is to conduct science. Consciousness and selfconsciousness emerge as activities, rather than as all-pervading states of the organism. In a claim similar to one Hegel makes in the Phenomenology of Spirit, Dewey maintains that intellectual activity-thought and refl ection-is the proper occasion for self and other-awareness. The moments of pause, doubt, and unsettlement that Dewey claims are the beginnings of experimental inquiry are also the proper beginnings of consciousness. Dewey's particular take on consciousness is at one with his emergent, as opposed to absolutist, understanding of the self.
Educational Studies, Jan 1, 2006
In this article, we examine the invocation of Socrates as the exemplar for Earl Shorris&#... more In this article, we examine the invocation of Socrates as the exemplar for Earl Shorris' Clemente Course in the Humanities program. Our aim is to temper Shorris' claim that the Socratic method and the humanities are tools for political liberation. Though they may ...
Educational Studies, Jan 1, 2004
In this article I seek to investigate and to rebut charges that Dewey had either too authoritativ... more In this article I seek to investigate and to rebut charges that Dewey had either too authoritative a conception or use of philosophical and educational inquiry, or not enough of an authoritative use. I look specifically at two critics, one in the discipline of education and ...
Journal of Aesthetic Education, Jan 1, 2001
... and Nature: The Horizons of Feeling (1987). Ten years later, Jim Garrison's fine... more ... and Nature: The Horizons of Feeling (1987). Ten years later, Jim Garrison's fine Page 2. 110 Essay Reviews book, Dewey and Eros: Wisdom and Desire in the Art of Teaching (1997) was released. And now we have two more ...
Journal of Philosophy of Education, Jan 1, 2007
The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Jan 1, 2004
Educational Philosophy and Theory, Jan 1, 2008
My task in this paper is to demonstrate, contra Nel Noddings, that Kantian ethics does not have a... more My task in this paper is to demonstrate, contra Nel Noddings, that Kantian ethics does not have an expectation of treating those closest to one the same as one would a stranger. In fact, Kantian ethics has what I would consider a robust statement of how it is that those around us come to figure prominently in the development of one's ethics. To push the point even further, I argue that Kantian ethics has an even stronger claim to treating those closest to oneself as imperative than Noddings and sentiment-based ethical theory in general, proposes.
Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce …, Jan 1, 2007
Acknowledgments There are several individuals I would like to thank for helping me in the prepara... more Acknowledgments There are several individuals I would like to thank for helping me in the preparation of this book. Thanks to Brian McAndrews, Skip Hills, Joan McDuff, and Azza Sharkawy, all at Queen's University Faculty of Education, for reading early drafts of chapters. Thanks to ...
The International journal of applied …, Jan 1, 1999
In this paper, we attempt to view a long-held assumption in nursing as mistaken. That is, that pa... more In this paper, we attempt to view a long-held assumption in nursing as mistaken. That is, that patient suffering is something to be overcome. Utilizing Nietzsche's statements on Amor Fati, we carefully examine the cultural assumptions behind our denigration of suffering, look at specific nursing examples of this situation, and attempt the beginnings of a discourse on what it would take for nurses to overcome their own predetermined views of suffering in order to better help their patients "own" their own suffering.
Educational Theory, Jan 1, 2005
Studies in Philosophy and Education, Jan 1, 2002
In this paper I examine a controversy ongoing within current Deweyan philosophy of education scho... more In this paper I examine a controversy ongoing within current Deweyan philosophy of education scholarship regarding the proper role and scope of science in Dewey's concept of inquiry. The side I take is nuanced. It is one that is sensitive to the importance that Dewey attaches to science as the best method of solving problems, while also sensitive to those statements in Dewey that counter a wholesale reductivism of inquiry to scientific method. I utilize Dewey's statements regarding the place accorded to inquiry in aesthetic experiences as characteristic of his method, as best conceived.
Educational Theory, Jan 1, 1998
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Papers by James Scott Johnston