八、杜威先生小傳

杜威先生像

此小傳見于三月廿六日《獨(dú)立》周報(bào)，作者為Edwin E. Slosson（愛德華·斯勞森）。

If some historian should construct an intellectual weather map of the United States he would find that in the eighties the little arrows that show which way the wind blows were pointing in toward Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the nineties toward Chicago, Illinois, and in the nineteen hundreds toward New York City, indicating that at these points there was a rising current of thought. And if he went so far as to investigate the cause of these local upheavals of the academic atmosphere he would discover that John Dewey had moved from one place to the other. It might be a long time before the psychometeorologist would trace these thought currents spreading over the continent back to their origin, a secluded classroom where the most modest man imaginable was seated and talking in a low voice for an hour or two a day. Knowing that every biographer is expected to show that the got his peculiar talents by honest subject of his sketch inheritance I wrote to Professor Dewey to inquire what there was in his genealogy to account for his becoming a philosopher. His ancestry is discouraging to those who would find an explanation for all things in heredity.

My ancestry, particularly on my father's side, is free from all blemish. All my forefathers earned an honest living as farmers, wheelwrights, coopers. I was absolutely the first one in seven generations to fall from grace. In the last few years atavism has set in and I have raised enough vegetables and fruit really to pay for my own keep.

John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, october 20, 1859, the son of Archibald S. and Lucina A. (Rich) Dewey. His elder brother, Davis Rich Dewey, is professor of economics and statistics in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of the Special Report on Employees and Wages in the 12th Census as well as of many other works on finance and industry.

John Dewey went to the State University in his native town and received his A.B. degree at twenty. Being then uncertain whether hisliking for philosophical studies was sufficient to be taken as a call to that calling he applied to the one man in America most competent and willing to decide such a question, W. T. Harris, afterward United States Commissioner for Education, but then superintendent of schools in St. Louis. Think of the courage and enterprise of a man who while filling this busy position and when the war was barely over started a Journal of speculative philosophy and founded a Philosophical Society and produced a series of translations of Hegel, Fichte and other German metaphysicians. It would be hard to estimate the influence of Dr. Harris in raising the standards of American schools and in arousing an interest in intellectual problems. When young Dewey sent him a brief article with a request for personal advice he returned so encouraging a reply that Dewey decided to devote himself to philosophy. so, after a year spent at home reading under the direction of Professor Torrey of the University of Vermont, one of the old type of scholarly gentleman, Dewey went to Johns Hopkins University, the first American university to make graduate and research work its main object. Here he studied under George S. Morris and followed him to the University of Michigan as Instructor in Philosophy after receiving his Ph. D. at Johns Hopkins in 1884. Two years later he married Alice Chipman of Fenton, Michigan, who has been ever since an effective collaborator in his educational and social work. In 1888 he went to the University of Minnesota as Professor of Philosophy but was called back to Michigan at the end of one year.

When President Harper went thru the country picking up brilliant and promising young men for the new University of Chicago, Dewey was his choice for the chair of philosophy. During the ten years Dewey spent on the Midway Plaisance he had the opportunity to try out the radical ideas of education of which I have spoke. In 1904 Dewey was called to Columbia University where he has since remained.

〔中譯〕

如果歷史學(xué)家要建立一幅美國知識(shí)分子氣象圖，他將發(fā)現(xiàn)八十年代的風(fēng)向標(biāo)將指向密執(zhí)安的安阿伯；九十年代指向伊利諾斯州的芝加哥；二十世紀(jì)初指向紐約。風(fēng)向標(biāo)位置的移動(dòng)表明在每個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)上思想都有一個(gè)上升潮。如果他進(jìn)一步探究學(xué)術(shù)氣氛在當(dāng)?shù)禺a(chǎn)生劇變的原因，他就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)那是因?yàn)榧s翰·杜威從一個(gè)地方走到了另一個(gè)地方。心理氣象學(xué)家追蹤這些思想潮流流遍整個(gè)大陸，歷經(jīng)多時(shí)才回到它的起源地，那是一間僻靜的教室，有一個(gè)你所能想象的最為謙虛的人坐在那里，用低沉的嗓音每天授課一兩個(gè)小時(shí)。

人們都希望每一個(gè)傳記作家能描述其傳主如何從他的祖先那里承繼特殊的才能，于是我便寫信給杜威先生，向他了解他的家系中的那些使他成為哲學(xué)家的原因。這項(xiàng)工作的結(jié)果卻表明，他的先祖?zhèn)兌〞?huì)使那些想從遺傳中找到答案的人大失所望。

我的先祖，特別是父系方面，簡直無懈可擊。所有我父系方面的先祖都身為農(nóng)夬、修車匠、制桶匠等，過著誠實(shí)無欺的生活。七代人中我是第一個(gè)失去這種天恩的人。后來幾年，返祖現(xiàn)象出現(xiàn)了，我靠種植大量的蔬菜和水果來維持自己的生計(jì)。

約翰·杜威，阿奇博爾德·S·杜威和盧西娜·A·里奇的兒子，1859年10月20日生于佛蒙特州伯靈頓。他的長兄，大衛(wèi)·里奇·杜威是麻省理工學(xué)院的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)和統(tǒng)計(jì)學(xué)教授，《第十二次人口調(diào)査中雇工和工資狀況的特別報(bào)導(dǎo)》的作者。他還寫過多種有關(guān)金融和工業(yè)的著作。

杜威在他的家鄉(xiāng)上了州立大學(xué)，并在二十歲那年獲得了文學(xué)士學(xué)位。由于他對這一點(diǎn)拿不定主張：即他對哲學(xué)研究的喜愛是否已到使他將其作為一項(xiàng)事業(yè)來獻(xiàn)身的程度，他便向當(dāng)時(shí)美國最有能力并愿意為他解答問題的人求教。這個(gè)人便是當(dāng)時(shí)的圣路易學(xué)校的學(xué)監(jiān)、后來的美國政府教育專員W·T·哈里斯。哈里斯在完成繁忙職務(wù)的同時(shí)，還創(chuàng)辦了一家《思辨哲學(xué)》刊物，建立了一個(gè)哲學(xué)學(xué)會(huì)，并翻譯了一系列黑格爾、費(fèi)希特以及其他德國形而上學(xué)家的著作，而當(dāng)時(shí)大戰(zhàn)尚未結(jié)束，從中我們可以想見他是一個(gè)富有強(qiáng)烈事業(yè)心、積極進(jìn)取的人。哈里斯博士在提高美國中學(xué)的水平及引起公眾對知識(shí)的興趣方面所產(chǎn)生的巨大影響是無法估量的。年輕的杜威給他寄去一篇簡短的論文，征求他的建議，他的答復(fù)是如此的令人鼓舞以致杜威下定決心從此獻(xiàn)身哲學(xué)。此后，杜威在佛蒙特州立大學(xué)托里教授（一位老學(xué)究）的指導(dǎo)下在家中讀了一年書，然后便去了霍普金斯大學(xué)。這是當(dāng)時(shí)美國第一所既授予學(xué)位又進(jìn)行主要課程研究的大學(xué)。在這里他師從喬治·S·莫里斯，并在1884年獲得哲學(xué)博士學(xué)位后跟隨莫里斯去了密執(zhí)安大學(xué)擔(dān)任哲學(xué)講師。兩年后，他與密執(zhí)安州芬頓的愛麗絲·奇普曼成婚，她一直是杜威的教學(xué)和社會(huì)工作的很好的合作者。1888年他去明尼蘇達(dá)大學(xué)擔(dān)任哲學(xué)教授，但不到一年便被重新召回密執(zhí)安。

當(dāng)芝加哥大學(xué)校長哈潑為新成立的芝加哥大學(xué)遍訪出色有為的青年時(shí)，杜威被選中擔(dān)任哲學(xué)教學(xué)方面的工作。在Midway Plaisance度過的十年時(shí)間中，他有機(jī)會(huì)研究出了他的關(guān)于教育的基本學(xué)說，這個(gè)學(xué)說我在前面已經(jīng)提及。1904年，杜威被邀請至哥倫比亞大學(xué)，并一直在那里工作到現(xiàn)在。