Challenging conventional understanding of humans as selfish and competitive at their core, At Home in the World asserts that we have evolved as a profoundly social species, biologically related to the rest of the natural world, and at home on the only planet for which we are adapted to live. Eilon Schwartz traces the history of Darwinism, examining attempts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to apply Darwin's theories to educational philosophy and analyzing trends since the reemergence of Darwinism toward the end of the twentieth century. Identifying with the Darwinian interpretations of Peter Kropotkin, John Dewey, and Mary Midgley, Schwartz argues for a compelling educational philosophy rooted in our best scientific understandings of human nature. Acknowledgments
1. The Making of Darwinism
Darwin and the Good in Human Nature
2. Nature's Lessons: Applying Evolutionary Theory to Educational Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century
3. Dewey's Darwinism: Human Nature and the Interdependence of Life
Change and Growth Are the Essential Features of Darwinism Human Beings Can Only Be Understood as Part of the Natural World The Natural and the Social: Dewey’s Notion of Habit Human Beings Are by Nature Social Animals, and Can Only Be Understood
4. Mary Midgley and the Ecological Telos
Innate Needs The Teleological Implications of Having Needs Feminism and Human Nature: A Case Study in Teleological Thinking On Building a Whole Life Moral Objectivity and the Reality of Evil Breaking Down the Is/Ought Dichotomy A Transcendent Life
5. A Darwinian Education
The Aims and Purposes of Education: A Darwinian Perspective Emotions and Reason Particularism and Universalism From Nature to Culture: A Darwinian Curriculum Cultivating Wonder: Educational Didactics Final Thoughts
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Their gentleness, generosity, and empathy for others taught everyone around them about the depth and breadth of human goodness.
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Acknowledgments
Contents
C H A P T E R O N E The Making of Darwinism Darwin and the Good in Human Nature
C H A P T E R T W O Nature’s Lessons: Applying Evolutionary Theory to Educational Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century From Philosophy of Nature to Educational Philosophy Spencer’s Educational Philosophy Huxley’s Educational Philosophy Kropotkin’s Educational Philosophy Conclusion
C H A P T E R T H R E E Dewey’s Darwinism: Human Nature and the Interdependence of Life Change and Growth Are the Essential Features of Darwinism Human Beings Can Only Be Understood as Part of the Natural World The Natural and the Social: Dewey’s Notion of Habit Human Beings Are by Nature Social Animals, and Can Only Be Understood Through Their Sociability Living in the World: Democracy as a Natural Value Dewey’s Darwinian Educational Philosophy
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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Schwartz, Elion, 1958– At home in the world : human nature, ecological thought, and education after Darwin / Elion Schwartz. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-2625-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Nature and nurture. 2. Evolution (Biology) 3. Social Darwinism. 4. Dewey, John, 1859–1952. I. Title. BF341.S38 2009 370.1'2—dc22 2008042784
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C H A P T E R F O U R Mary Midgley and the EcologicalTelosInnate Needs The Teleological Implications of Having Needs Feminism and Human Nature: A Case Study in Teleological Thinking On Building a Whole Life Moral Objectivity and the Reality of Evil Breaking Down the Is/Ought Dichotomy A Transcendent Life
C H A P T E R F I V E A Darwinian Education The Aims and Purposes of Education: A Darwinian Perspective Emotions and Reason Particularism and Universalism From Nature to Culture: A Darwinian Curriculum Cultivating Wonder: Educational Didactics Final Thoughts