Il pluralismo di Dewey: l'educazione al metodo sperimentale e la democrazia morale per lo sviluppo di una società interculturale

Abstract

This article aims to show that the philosophical, pedagogical, and political proposal of John Dewey still represents a source of original ideas which are very useful to address some of the most relevant contemporary issues. In particular, here I focus on the relationship between the education on the experimental method and the democratic society and I suggest that it as an indispensable perspective to shape a pluralistic approach to the current multicultural and multiethnic societies. First, I analyze the most salient psychosocial theories of prejudice that have been recently formulated. All these theories stress the multidimensional nature of prejudice formation and transmission, based on cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. In the outlined framework, I argue that the Deweyan perspective, centered on the overcoming of the traditional dualism between subject and object, mind and emotion, and facts and value, constitutes a model of education that is essential to improve the dynamic of prejudice reduction.From this point of view, I emphasize two aspects: - the goal of designing school as a community in miniature, an embryonic society able to provide learning through direct experience, contact, and cooperation among individuals; - the goal of centering the educational process on the internalization of the experimental method in order to test prejudices, facts, and evaluative judgments. These goals are strictly interconnected and represent two indispensable means to reduce prejudice and improve social cooperation.