Philosophical Inquiry in Education - Education as Morals in Dewey’s Philosophy

Oct 15, 2026

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Education as Morals in Dewey’s Philosophy examines Dewey’s understanding of education through three key works produced across a 32-year span. It reads Democracy and Education (1916) through the terms Erziehung and Bildung and connects them to education’s relation to democracy. It then treats Human Nature and Conduct (1922) to show education as morals and a guide for how to live. Finally, it expands education into philosophy via Experience and Education (1938) and its grounding in experience.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

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Pages13

Reading Time20 min

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Education as Morals in Dewey’s Philosophy

Erziehung and Bildung as democratic education

Education expanding into morals through Human Nature and Conduct

Education as philosophy through Experience and Education

Philosophical Inquiry in Education, Volume 31 (2024), No. 2, pp. 155-167 Education as Morals in Dewey’s Philosophy ROBIN FRIEDMAN Independent Scholar This article explores Dewey's understanding of the nature of education through three seminal works written over a 32-year period. In Democracy and Education (1916) Dewey developed a concept ofeducation which can be understood through two German words for education, Erziehung and Bildung. Through considering the approach to these concepts by two Dewey scholars, Gert Biesta and Dietrich Benner, the first section of this article seeks to explore Dewey's understanding of education and its relationship to democracy. The second section of the article carries the study forward to Dewey's Human Nature and Conduct (1922) to show how Dewey conceived of education even more broadly and equated it with morals. The concepts of Erziehung and Bildung also are important in this section, as they are expanded to show that, for Dewey, education was a guide in how to live. The third section of the article expands the concept of education stillfurther to view education as philosophy. This section discusses Dewey's book Experience and Education (1938) which he wrote in light ofhis metaphysical study Experience and Nature (1925). Dewey expanded his understanding of education beyond both Erziehung and Bildung and beyond morals to develop an understanding of education as based upon a philosophical consideration ofexperience. The goal of the article is to show the breadth of Dewey's understanding of education and to show how his view of education forms the basis of a broad philosophical view of life. In this article, I trace John Dewey’s understanding of the relationship between education and morals through three important works: Democracy and Education (DE, 1916/2008), Human Nature and Conduct (HNC) (1922/2008) and Experience and Education (EE) (1938/2008) . The article examines Dewey’s understanding of education in three ways: as Erziehung and Bildung, as morals, and as philosophy. The article aims to show the large role that morals plays in education and, broadly, to show how Dewey’s philosophy of education forms the basis of a broad, interconnected philosophical view of life. I suggest that a focus on wholeness and immanence are central to Dewey’s educational thought and to his philosophy, but the development of this suggestion would require an examination of Dewey’s naturalistic metaphysical theory. The first section of this article examines the German influences on Dewey’s philosophy of education through the terms Erziehung and Bildung. The focus is on how Erziehung and Bildung are critical to education for democratic living. The second section describes how Dewey’s understanding of education expands from Erziehung and Bildung to education as morals. It draws connections between the discussion of morals in HNC and the discussion of education in DE. The third section moves from a discussion of Erziehung and Bedeutung through education as morals to an understanding of education as philosophy. It begins with the concluding chapters of DE and works through EE, which was greatly influenced by Dewey’s philosophical commitments developed in his 1925 book, Experience and Nature. In his book John Dewey and the High Tide ofAmerican Liberalism, Alan Ryan (1997) aptly described Dewey as a “visionary of the everyday.” Ryan writes of Dewey: “It was his ability to infuse the here and now with a kind of transcendent glow that overcame the denseness and awkwardness of his prose and the vagueness of his message and secured such widespread conviction. He will remain for the foreseeable future a rich source of intellectual nourishment for anyone not absolutely locked within the anxieties of 156 Philosophical Inquiry in Education his or her own heart and not absolutely despondent about the prospects ofthe modern world”(p. 269) . I follow and attempt to expand upon Ryan’s understanding of Dewey. Educatio

FAQs

How does the article relate Dewey’s concept of education to democracy?

It links Democracy and Education (1916) to Dewey’s account of education through Erziehung and Bildung, focusing on education’s critical role in democratic living.

What does the article argue about education and morals in Dewey’s work?

Using Human Nature and Conduct (1922), it shows Dewey conceiving education even more broadly and equating it with morals, as a guide for how to live.

How is education ultimately presented as philosophy in the article?

The article expands education further by treating Experience and Education (1938) as developing education from experience toward a philosophical consideration of life.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Miles