Balance Chinese Education With Western Education: Jiang Menglin's Fusion of Confucian Learning and John Dewey's Pragmatism

• In Event: Eastern Philosophy and Curriculum Studies: Tao, I-Ching, and Confucian Learning

Abstract

this paper illuminates the cross-cultural philosophical dynamics that took place during the May Fourth time by exploring the ways in which Dr. Jiang Menglin’s educational ideas fuse his Confucian learnings with Deweyan pragmatism. My purpose herein is to answer a crucial question: how did Jiang Menglin’s synthesis of his Confucian education with Deweyan philosophy to contribute to Chinese education, as well as his own understanding of the May Fourth Movement? The answer to this question relies on the examination of Jiang’s interpretation and implementation of the educational ideas of Confucianism and Dewey’s pragmatism from his view of cultural syncretism.

Author

• James Yang, BNU-HKBU United International College