The aesthetic dimensions of Dewey's ethics: A moral imagination model for service -learning in higher education

Zhuran You, Purdue University

Abstract

Moral education in college through service-learning is an under-researched field which demands more attention. This dissertation is a theoretical analysis and discussion of John Dewey’s philosophy of moral and aesthetic experience, moral imagination in particular, to explore how his theory can be related to and contribute to moral education in the current service-learning practice. I undertake my study with a series of moral and aesthetic concepts in Dewey’s philosophy. Firstly, I examine Dewey’s metaphor of organism-in-environment to delineate the whole picture of the world, in which Dewey’s moral experience and aesthetic experience are grounded. Based on this perspective, I start investigating the key moral concepts such as school and community, three principles of service-learning, the uncertain nature of moral situations, and impulse and habit, as well as the aesthetic dimensions of Dewey’s ethics such as inquiry and reflection, emotion and imagination, and sensitiveness and sympathy. Each of the concepts is connected to service-learning reality and the implications thereof are analyzed in detail. In light of the previous discussions, I tentatively collapse Dewey’s two models of reflection and his theory of dramatic rehearsal in an attempt to reframe a six-phase moral imagination model in service-learning, which can be used as a thinking tool to student participants or research reference for educators in service-learning. Implications of the model for citizenship education in higher learning have also been discussed in the concluding chapter.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Rud, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Higher education|Education philosophy|Aesthetics

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