论杜威对传统政治哲学的两大改造

Two Changes Made by Dewey to Traditional Political Philosophy

杜威政治哲学的根本意图在于探索一条从传统哲学所忽视的生活层面上来建构哲学之可能性途径。杜威认为传统政治哲学的核心问题,即个人当以何种方式去形成社会这一问题是伪问题。真正有意义的问题是何种社会或何种联合方式能够体现出其属人的特性,能够使个人的各方面得到最大限度的发挥。杜威不仅强调民主社会应该创造各种条件使个人的潜力得到尽可能全面的发挥,而且强调要相信个人具有参与社会生活所必须的经验和理智水平的能力。

The basic intention of John Dewey＇s political philosophy lies in exploring a possible way to construct the philosophy from the level of neglected life in the traditional philoso-phy. Dewey thinks that the core issue of the traditional political philosophy, namely that bywhich ways should the individuals form a society, is false. The real meaningful question iswhat kind of society or what kind of relatedform can embody the characteristics of the hu-man beings and make various aspects of personal abilities get maximum play. Dewey not only emphasizes that the democratic society should create a diversity of conditions to fully makethe personal potentiality exert an influence as much as possible, but believes that the individual has the ability of necessary experience and intelligence to participate in social life.