Pragmatism, Education, Democracy

Where Knowing is conceived as a private reception by Consciousness, Education is conceived as the filling of a receptacle, usually with set Truths, which are often pre-specialized in accordance with an established division of labor.  In contrast, according to Pragmatism, Knowing is a mode of social Doing, an active ongoing incorporation of new skills--including 'pure intellectual' ones, like Logic and Math--into previously acquired ones, in coordination with those of others.  Now, the standard criticism of the latter is that it breeds 'Relativism'.  But, aside from its question-begging premise that there is something inherently wrong with Relativism, that criticism usually mistakes permission for passive self-indulgence, for diversifying Empowerment for the benefit of the Whole.  Accordingly, despite its greater conduciveness to Democracy, the Pragmatist concept of Education remains under attack at all levels of the American system.