William James and Education

by Garrison, Jim; Podeschi, Ronald; Bredo, Eric

• ISBN13: 9780807741962
• ISBN10: 0807741965
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

William James and Education is a dynamic collection of original essays spotlighting William James as a role model for bringing philosophy to bear on the persistent issues of life and education. Using James's philosophical ideas, the contributors evade the polarization and superficiality that permeate the debate around such educational issues as standards versus diversity, cultural consensus versus multiculturalism, religion versus science, and individual freedom versus social determinism. The result is a synthetic collection of essays offering original, unique, and useful insights.

One of the most influential of American philosophers, William James is relevant today because he provides a way of understanding human behavior that is both rigorous and humane. James shows how we may soften and sometimes harmonize rigid ideological divisions, such as those plaguing contemporary education, with a pragmatic approach to issues of theory and practice. By reconsidering some of the roots of American thought in James's work, this volume points the way to valuing both uni

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
The Darwinian Center to the Vision of William James	1	(26)
Eric Bredo
James's Metaphysical Pluralism, Spirituality, and Overcoming Blindness to Diversity in Education	27	(15)
Jim Garrison
William James's Prophetic Grasp of the Failures of Academic Professionalism	42	(16)
Bruce Wilshire
Pluralism and Professional Practice: William James and Our Era	58	(16)
Ron Podeschi
James's Metaphysics of Experience and Religious Education	74	(15)
Siebren Miedema
James's Story of the Squirrel and the Pragmatic Method	89	(8)
Cleo Cherryholmes
A Feminist Relexamination of William James as a Qualified Relativist	97	(18)
Barbara Thayer-Bacon
From Radical Empiricism to Radical Constructivism, or William James Meets Ernst von Glasersfeld	115	(15)
D. C. Phillips
Pragmatism's Unfinished Project: William James and Teacher Knowledge Researchers	130	(21)
Jerry Rosiek
James's Concept of Mystical Consciousness: Implications for Curriculum Theory and Practice	151	(22)
Aostre Johnson
References	173	(12)
About the Editors and the Contributors	185	(2)
Index	187