In a fascinating portion of Russel Kirk’s magnum-opus The Conservative Mind, he observes that Dewey’s educational philosophy denied the whole realm of spiritual values. For Dewey “nothing exists but physical sensation, and life has no aim, but physical satisfaction (418).” The utilitarianism of Dewey trashed the past, made the future unknowable, and only concerned itself with the present. That viewpoint coupled with Marxist economics has made Dewey the intellectual forefather of American progressivism.
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