Education and the Philosophy of Experimentalism

During the World War, a brilliant group of young Chinese thinkers launched a movement which soon became nation-wide in its influence. This movement was called in Chinese the “Hsin Szu Ch‘au” which literally translated means the “New Thought Tide.” Because many of its features were similar to those of the earlier European awakening, it became popularly known in English as “The Chinese Renaissance.” While the sources of this intellectual and social movement were various, it is undoubtedly true that some of its most able leaders had been influenced profoundly by the ideas of John Dewey [...] They found intellectual tools almost ideally suited to their purposes in Dewey’s philosophy [...] Among these tools [...] his view of the instrumental character of thought, his demand that all traditions, beliefs, and institutions be tested continuously by their capacity to meet contemporary human needs, and his faith that the whole-hearted use of the experimental attitude and method could achieve results in the social field similar to those already secured in the field of the natural sciences. (p. 13)

to abolish thinking, at least for the many; for if thinking were possible, the few could do it for the rest. (p. 17)

[we] reject completely the hypothesis of motive-less choice. It considers the traditional doctrine of “free-will’’ to be both intellectually untenable and practically undesirable (p. 171)