Educating the Democratic Heart
Educating the Democratic Heart
Pluralism, Traditions, and the Humanities
This chapter explores the question of what education must seek in providing the basis of a genuinely democratic culture and challenges Alasdair MacIntyre’s attack on liberalism while highlighting the need to educate the moral imagination through the humanities. It begins with an analysis of John Dewey’s notion of democracy before turning to his ideal of democratic culture and its relevance to the humanities and the value of cultural traditions. It then examines the character of the cultural imagination that lies at the heart of democratic civilization and suggests that the importance of traditions in the name of pluralism cannot be dismissed. In other words, the humanities are central to the Deweyan ideal of democratic education.
Keywords: democracy, democratic culture, Alasdair MacIntyre, liberalism, moral imagination, humanities, John Dewey, cultural imagination, democratic civilization, pluralism
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