In an educational research and practice world dominated by reductivist, decontextualized, disembodied assumptions of cognition - this book is a much-needed challenge to educational researcher and practitioners. Garrison's book illuminates the role of the affective in learning, the emotion in motivation and relational aspects of learning. Garrison's discussion of the role of the precognitive and selective attention in the cognitive process is largely ignored in the field overall. A must read.

ddc is a very useful classification scheme.about 98%libraries through out the world uses this scheme.so i recommended this scheme for all kind of libraries.

Written by classification experts, the Practical Guide explains how to apply DDC schedules and assign and build class numbers. Revised DDC 21, the Guide includes exercises and answers designed to reinforce, through practice, the examples and explanations given in the text. Belongs on the reference shelf of every cataloging section. Recommended.

The current renaissance of American pragmatism, and John Dewey's philosophy in particular, began two decades ago with Richard Rorty's refashioning of Dewey as a postmodernist who renounces the "professional philosophy" of metaphysics and epistemology for the fluidity of conversation in the life and growth of a community. This depiction, though praised for rekindling Dewey's star, has been widely challenged by subsequent commentators. Ralph Sleeper's 1986 The Necessity of Pragmatism persuasively argues that Dewey reconfigures, rather than renounces, the logical and metaphysical grounds of knowledge. Despite an archaic Hegelian vocabulary that misleadingly suggests idealism and antirealism, Sleeper finds Dewey advancing a genuine metaphysics of existence, not merely a conversation about experience: a naturalistic realism of independent existences that enter into and are transformed by human interactions with them. This perspective is shared by most Dewey scholars, including Sandra Rosenthal, Raymond Boisvert, and J. E. Tiles. At least until now. In a profound and provocative exploration of his early philosophy, John R. Shook, presents a compelling case that Dewey's reconstruction of metaphysics and epistemology is deeper than even Sleeper imagined. Dewey did not merely abandon idealism under the influence of William James, as most assume; he transformed it in a original way that, while wholly naturalistic, is a fusion of idealism and realism that overcomes both the former's "mind-stuff" and the latter's "in-itself reality." Dewey began his philosophical odyssey with the searing desire to eradicate the dualisms of mind versus world, phenomenal versus noumenal, perceptual versus conceptual. Post-Hegelian idealists agreed that this division is ultimately reconciled in the "absolute," though they disagreed about whether the absolute is psychological or cosmological, social or supernatural; knowable or unknowable. From the very beginning, Shook argues, Dewey accepted the psychological path as sketched by James Ward, and also Edward Caird's claim that the absolute must be knowable in some sense. Intriguingly, the missing link between perception and conceptual awareness is Wilhelm Wundt's notion of volition: percepts are neither mechanically attached to concepts nor are they overlaid by Kantian "faculties of mind." Instead, a disruption of perceptual or noncognitive experience generates a desire for reconciliation that calls forth ideas that diagnose the problem and suggest ways to resolve it. Achieved solutions, in turn, forge a background of habitual dispositions that shape interpretations within the noncognitive realm. While still an idealist, then, Shook finds the essential elements of the "method of inquiry" that later anchored Dewey's instrumentalism and pragmatism. Prior to 1890, however, he still construed this as individual "mental activity," and the problem of its relation to God's Absolute Mind remained. Upon relinquishing the supernatural for the social, however, this final obstacle was eliminated. The dispositional background extends beyond the individual to the customs, traditions, and values of a culture-indeed, even the barest notions of "self" and "reality" are inconceivable without reference to such a background. This is Dewey's broad conception of "experience"-a humanistic naturalism with no trace of mind-stuff or subjectivism. In this sense Dewey is a realist, though his affirmation of things-themselves (including things we have not or may never actually discover) avoids the things-in-themselves that is the bane of metaphysical realism. To claim that things exist without an experiential background of how we may find them to exist is at best empty verbiage, and at worst hypnosis by the dervishes of dualism. Scrupulous in research, penetrating in detail, Shook's presentation is so faithful to Dewey that it will undoubtedly draw many of the same criticisms once hurled at the master. Though careful readers will be able to identify "experience" in its broadly social and functional sense, others will be confused by applications as diverse as "mental activity," "soul," "reality," "the history of the earth," and even "the metaphysical ultimate." Similarly, like Dewey himself Shook occasionally fails to remind us that the background of experience helps set up direct noncognitive "havings," in the absence of which some will mistakenly construe a naive realism of immediate "relations to things." Finally, critics may try to capitalize on the fact that Shook fully scrutinizes only the first half of Dewey's career, leaving ample wiggle room for a shift toward conventional realism after 1920. I believe this supposition is unfounded, and that future investigators who follow Shook's initiative will find Dewey expanding his early fusion of idealism and realism into an authentic tertium quid that as yet remains largely unappreciated. If so, Shook's book is not only a nonpareil study in Dewey's development, but a gateway to his crowning reconstruction of philosophy. As an indispensable step in that direction, this is one of the most important books about Dewey ever written.

In this excellent read, John Dewey further exploits his concept of "experience" as foundational to human knowledge. Dewey's concept of "experience" represents a breakthrough in empiricism, as "experience" for Dewey is not merely "sense impressions" as it was for earlier empiricists. Dewey's "experience" is an iterative process and thoroughlly embodied; the qualities of each individual experience become functioning parts of one's experience in a larger sense, serving to transform the qualities one will experience under certain conditions in the future. Fot the sake of illustration, consider a child's first experience of fire: it is beautiful, exciting, and enticing, until the child gets burned: then each subsequent experience of fire contains an element of fear and danger, as the previous experience transforms the experiences to come.

Dewey uses this concept of experience to provide a theory he calls "naturalistic empiricism"; a pragmatic theory of knowledge that provides a basis for his later inquiries into knowledge and human experience. His treatment of the ontogeny of knowledge provides a compelling, thoroughly materialistic, and Darwinian account of the development of thinking in the human animal without lapsing into an isolating solipsism or into a fanciful dualism. The prevalence of Hegelian philosophy in Dewey's earlier philosophic work and his training as a psychologist provide him with an eye for solid methodology, a powerful sense of the role of social structure in human thinking, and a talent for synthesis.

Experience and Nature is therefore a profoundly social text as well, where Dewey explores the role that social experience plays in the development of knowledge and communication as human attributes, or more to the point, as human activities. I have found this book to be a profound antidote to the despair and irony in writers such as Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, and Rorty; the meaning and scope of existence is redeemed on an extremely individual level through community and relationships. This book is highly recommended for those with an eye for postmodern philosophy and theories of embodiment (Dewey is frequently compared to Maurice Merleau-Ponty), as it shares much with the hermeneutic tradition, while remaining grounded in a very scientific perspective.

John Dewey's HUMAN NATURE AND CONDUCT is a book that has the potential to change the world for better. This book establishes the guidelines for social psychology and helps people solve their problems and get rid of their hangups. It is a must read for anyone and everyone who needs to find meaning in life.

You wouldn't think it, but this little baby packs a huge radical punch. Written in 1929 after the Depression set in it's Dewey's testament on what he thought society would have to do to solve that kind of systemic problem and survive. What comes out from Dewey's experiential philosophy is a radical critique of individualism that fit's into the category today of "Council Communism" or "Autonomous Marxism", meaning socialism which is concieved according to Marxist type theory but is realized according to radically democratic and workerist means. A forgotten gem, read this and then absorb the liberatory potential of the rest of Dewey's many philosophical works.

There are many Dewey biographies, and so finding the right one can be difficult. I particularly like the Westbrook biography, because it places Dewey's thought squarely within the context of his life and times - an approach Dewey himself would have commended. For those of you who are not familiar with Dewey, philosopher of Democracy and Education, have no fear. Although he was a very prolific writer, Westbrook provides the reader with a good introduction to all of Dewey's major works - in itself a great boon for those of us trying to pick and choose select works from the 44-volume beast. Lastly, Westbrook also illuminates much of the history surrounding Dewey's life: including the Sociology Movement of late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Progressive Era, the Great Depression, and both World Wars. A wonderful book about America's most famous philosopher.

This book is tremendous--it provides an engaging entrance into the authors' dilemna (one all teachers have): How to teach usefully? Next is an excellent overview of Dewey's educational theories, and then a step-by-step description of the authors' successful application into a college classroom. I am so motivated now to try it myself. "They" said it could not be done, but "they" were wrong! My response: Aaaahaahhhh!

Prof. Jackson takes up the evolution of John Dewey's philosophy by focusing on the shifts in perspective and the shift in terminology in successive rewrites Dewey produced for his work "Experience and Nature."

The voice Prof. Jackson uses is that of a friend. Someone who has taken up philosophy as a profession, and who reflects on the fruitfulness of the endeavor.

Dewey scholars will find much new and interesting to contemplate. And I came away with a fresh sense of compassion for John Dewey, the human person struggling to understand.

More than this, however, is Prof. Jackson's personal and personable thoughts about his own experience with this work. What happens here is, in effect, a glimpse into the mind of a philosopher who struggles to get a glimpse into the mind of a philosopher. With both efforts directed towards an understanding of the profession of philosophy.

And where we end up is with a good insight into the very human and very well-intended process of DOING philosophy humanely.

Thank-you, Prof. Jackson.