Reflections on En-Teaching: Heidegger, Dewey, and Lao Tzu

• In Event: Roundtable Session 101
  In Roundtable Session: Issues in John Dewey’s Philosophical Thought

Abstract

My interconnected readings of Heidegger on (un)truth, being, language and modern technology, Dewey on growth, immaturity, and experience, and Lao Tzu on emptiness, inaction and Tao/way, “awakens” my exploration of “en-teaching” to express the idea of how teachers can teach through paradoxically non-teaching, without implying a binary opposition between teaching and non-teaching. Heidegger is often regarded as “the only Western philosopher who has intuitively grasped Taoist thought.” Dewey is included to explore the implications of en-teaching in classrooms, to form a pedagogical bridging between Eastern and Western thoughts through a bridge “which is not a bridge.” Dewey’s two year experience of lecturing in China, his long-term relationships with Chinese scholars in both countries, qualifies him function in this capacity.

Author

• Jie Yu, Rollins College