Tracking the Humanizing Effect of John Dewey’s Pragmatism on the Cold War Era of Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: Philosophy, Pedagogy, and Perspective

Abstract

Echoes of pragmatism have long been noted in the Cold War era and, specifically, Norbert Wiener’s cybernetics, which comes from the Greek kybernētēs, or “steersman,” and offers a science of feedback, human behavior, and information. Increasingly, Wiener’s work is revisited in the pursuit of “big data” in education. Yet, scholars ignore the influence of pragmatism — and John Dewey, in particular — on cybernetics and its reach into education. This paper reveals how Dewey played a role in Wiener’s philosophical underpinning and views on education. With the research methods of textual analysis and archival material, it enables a demonstration that pragmatism made for a humanizing effect on Wiener’s efforts and, ultimately, his ongoing and increasing impact in technology and education.

Author

• Laura Moorhead, Stanford University