杜威教育观百年误读:实用主义还是行动主义

Centennial Misinterpretation of Dewey’s View on Education:Pragmatism or Activism

百年前杜威来华游历讲学,是中西文化在中国文化本土主场上的第一次真正的理念碰撞、交流和牵手。强势的原生态中国道德实利主义文化理念对以杜威为代表的美国文化理念进行了本土化的整体策略主义误读,形成了中国文化色彩浓重的所谓实用主义哲学及其教育理念。实用主义理念的误读和标识在保留和强化中国传统文化理念经世致用的优秀品性的同时,也给中国传统文化的急功近利基因找到了精确复制和顽强延续的现代样态和载体。中国文化理念乃至整个社会在误读了的实用主义的濡染、诱导和镜鉴下,走过了曲折迂回、起伏跌宕和升坠激越的百年现代化进程。在中国社会革命和改革开放的今天,冷静地正视、回归和超越误读为实用主义的中西原生态行动主义文化形态的真实基因和内涵,无疑是跳出和避免历史性封闭周期循环,开启一个新社会形态的必然要求和必由之路。

A hundred years ago, Dewey lectured around China. It is the first time Chinese educational concepts confronting its Western counterpart in China. Due to strong Chinese original moral utilitarianism, an overall strategic misinterpretation of the American ideas represented by Dewey led to the so-called pragmatism and its educational philosophy loaded with a deep sense of Chinese culture. This misinterpretation kept and strengthen the traditional Chinese ideal of "academic study for the good of statecraft";at the same time, it is also a copy and inheritance of one of the traits of the traditional Chinese culture--"seeking quick success and instant benefits". Immersed in and guided by this misinterpretation of pragmatism, Chinese ideology as well as the whole society walked through a winding modernization process, full of ups and downs, twists and turns. Today, in the context of Chinese societal revolution and the policy of reform and opening-up, in order to get out of this closed historical circle and blaze a new path for society, it is high time we face up to and surmount this original behaviorism in Chinese and western culture which is misinterpreted as pragmatism.