A Comparative Study of Culture and Moral Education between Matthew Arnold and John Dewey

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the ideals of culture and moral education in Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) and John Dewey (1859-1952). The concept of culture in Arnold and that of democracy in Dewey resemble each other. Firstly, they emphasize the importance of individual activities in the context of practical, social and cultural lives. Even though they have each different spirit of their own time and society, it would be as the individual as well as social improvement in the course of culture that they try to establish an ideal by education. In that sense, their aspect of education in cultural missions is the same as that of moral development based on organic relations among many individuals and societies of the world. Secondly, they would establish the democratic society of good citizen who can see the nature of things and conduct and develop social lives. In the course of education, democracy makes it possible for all to participate into individual activities within the common good. For both, it is never a notion of abstractive idea, regardless of practical lives. The ideal of democracy is justified as the persistent course of human development only if education let us go toward culture. Finally, there are some implications of moral education from their ideals: self-constitutive principle and movement, the relationship of individuals to others in the network of interconnection of a whole community and humanity, culture as moral activities and experiences, and all students’ participation to social affairs based on democracy.