Talk:John Dewey

Does anyone know the source of ""Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living." which appears at Education? There is also "Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not a preparation for life but is life itself." [1] --70.183.164.206 03:01, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

The first quote is from Dewey's My Pedagogic Creed (1897), Article Two: What the School Is. Both quotes are similar to one already on the Wikiquote page: "Since education is not a means to living, but is identical with the operation of living a life which is fruitful and inherently significant, the only ultimate value which can be set up is just the process of living itself." (Democracy and Education, 1916, p. 239) - InvisibleSun 03:36, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

"The breakdown of his philosophy is made apparent in the fact that he could not trust to gradual improvements in education to bring about a better society which should then improve education, and so on indefinitely. Correct education could not come into existence until an ideal state existed, and after that education would be devoted simply to its conservation. For the existence of this state he was obliged to trust to some happy accident by which philosophic wisdom should happen to coincide with possession of ruling power in the state" (John Dewey)

That is a quote by John Dewey in reference to Plato and describes what went wrong with Plato's philosophy, and why it is not used today. See Democracy and Education: [2]

Unsourced

Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable and precise source for any quote on this list please move it to John Dewey. --Antiquary 19:21, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

• Science is "warranted assertability."

• We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts.

• We only think when we are confronted with a problem.

Democracy and Education (1916)

The article contains a very large amount of material from this work. I encourage editors to consider the difference between a collection of quotations and a condensed book. With too much of a good thing, an article may cease to effectively highlight brilliant words and ideas, becoming a different kind of thing, a sort of literary digest—not a bad thing, but perhaps not a Wikiquote thing. ~ Ningauble 18:40, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, I see I'm not the only one who had this reaction. While I am rather more familiar with Wikipedia, I have to say I've never come across anything like this on Wikiquote. It really is quite excessive. I came to this page hoping to find a collection of quotes similar to those that have been compiled for other individuals. Instead I've found a page completely dominated by lengthy excerpts from one book. I don't have any desire to take it upon myself to remove large chunks of material. But I do want to solicit input from a wider circle of editors to ascertain what the Wiki community thinks. CGingold 09:02, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

It is always best if one of the contributors who originally demonstrated an interest (or shall I say enthusiasm?) undertakes the trimming. It appears a year later that this is not to be, so it needs another volunteer even if they are less familiar with the material. ~ Ningauble 15:04, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

I was hoping to find a guideline for this sort of thing, but (unless I missed something) it doesn't seem to be addressed at Wikiquote:Limits_on_quotations. But I'm sure this issue must have come up before, so it must have been discussed somewhere already. What's the best way to bring it to the attention of other editors, beyond the few who may keep an eye on this page? CGingold 05:48, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

It has been discussed in the context of individual articles but, short of copyright concerns, there is no general guideline for how much is too much. It would be very difficult to codify this aspect of article quality. It is an editorial judgment on which consensus is reached (or not) on a case-by-case basis.

Comments in the edit history indicate that the group of editors who built up this section in Jan–Feb 2009 were primarily concerned about covering the thesis in depth. In doing so, I think they have overestimated the independent quotability of individual passages. I would encourage anyone who is familiar with the work to be bold and improve the article with some constructive subtractions. ~ Ningauble 15:46, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

War & peace?

I completely forgot about what I came here for in the first place. I was hoping to verify the following quote, which is attributed to Dewey all over the internet:

"The only way to abolish war is to make peace heroic."

CGingold 09:02, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Not Dewey: He attributes this to Hinton in John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology (New York: 1922), p. 115. The quote may be found in James Hinton, Philosophy and Religion: Selections from the Manuscripts of the Late James Hinton, ed. Caroline Haddon, (2nd ed., London: 1884), p. 267. Sometimes he is cited as John Hinton (e.g.: Samuel M. Ilsley, "Heroic Peace", The Nation, Vol. 70, No. 1818, (3 May 1900), p. 337), but I have no explanation for the John/James polynymity. ~ Ningauble 15:07, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Fantastic! Thank you so much for digging up that info! I will make good use of it, both here (as a misattributed quote) and elswhere. Good job! CGingold 05:52, 27 February 2010 (UTC)