I luoghi dove realizzare il “nuovo individualismo” di John Dewey: il ruolo del metodo scientifico e della pratica educativa del riconoscimento

Abstract

This contribution aims to reflect on the concept of individualism as presented by John Dewey who used this word to indicate the unique and unrepeatable part of man, differentiating the “old individualism” from the “new individualism”. Taking into consideration the Deweyan theories of the first half of the twentieth century, with particular reference to the 1930 writing The Individualism Old and New, it is noted that Dewey criticized the existence of an “old individualism” intended as an emblem of egocentrism and of asociality, the causes of which were traceable to the advent of industrialization, social stratification and capitalism. According to him, these were people without a solid identity, whose behavior was marked by belonging to a social class and influenced by ephemeral, material, and monetary interests. To avoid the advancement of this type of individualism, Dewey promoted a “new individualism”, to represent a person who, thanks to the help of educational processes and scientific methods, managed to free himself from the condition of enslavement of which he/she was a victim, creating an autonomous identity, thought and future, distancing him/herself from any social belonging and any purely economic interest. At the end of this contribution, the extreme relevance of the Deweyan thesis in late modern society is highlighted as well as the importance of educational places in which to intervene to achieve the “new individualism” of Dewey. This intent that can be concretized through education with the scientific method and the use of the educational practice of recognition presented recently by fundamental pedagogy.