Education of Emotion and Pervasive Quality for Thinking

Education is the continual organization of experience, and philosophy has, among its tasks, the capacity to provide the criterion for such organization. The educational consequences of a philosophical reflection enable the distinction between philosophical proposals that are mere dilettante abstractions from those that amplify the meaning of experience. As Dewey explains, “[t]he educational point of view enables one to envisage the philosophical problems where they arise and thrive, where they are at home, and where acceptance or rejection makes a difference in practice” (MW 9:338). This means that it is when we trace the impact of philosophical conceptions in education that we best realize the gravity of philosophical misconceptions.