듀이의 경험개념에 비추어 본 사고의 성격: 이성적 사고와 질성적 사고의 통합적 작용

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to make clear and reconstruct the nature of human thinking alternative to the traditional and conventional view of rational thinking. According to the dualistic Western philosophy, man exists independently of and irrelevantly to nature, who is supposed to have his own traits wholly different from nature. Man is characteristic of reason and rational thinking; nature of reality and essence. Therefore the virtue of human being is to inquire into nature by using the ability of reason unique to himself and commanding rational thinking in the best and adequate way, so as to find out the eternal truth which is taken to be the form and property of nature. Contrarily, experience is regarded to issue out the unnecessary and undesirable change to the originally existing nature and world. Quality is produced by experience, which is temporary, floating, transient, full of change. As for the trait of human thought, the conclusion of the Western philosophy from the ancient Athens to Descartes can be epitomized as the praise of reason and reality and the disparagement of experience and quality which is considered to be added to the world improperly. Dewey takes the position exactly opposite to the traditional philosophy. For Dewey, the primary and sole way by means of which man meets, contacts, and confronts the world is experience. However, Dewey's view of experience is very much different from that of modern empiricists who believed that human being experiences separate, disjointed, individual objects. Dewey's concept of experience, above all, is based upon his metaphysical insight of the basic trait of existence. The object in nature does not exist independently, but as an transacting event. Also nature is an enormous event of events including and integrating innumerable number of events. Therefore, human being in experience contacts and confronts a whole of transacting events. Experience is redefined by Dewey as 'situation', which has the small size of nature but the same structure of nature. From the standpoint of Dewey, the basic metaphysical unit becomes 'a transacting situation'. It is not a separate object but a situation that man confronts in experience first and foremost. Situation has a complicate and integrated totality and its own unique quality. The direct and primary experience confronts situation, and apprehends the total quality as a 'total seizure'. The thinking ability to apprehend it is coined into 'qualitative thought(QT)' by Dewey. QT functions as the prime moment to operate reason. Reason does not and cannot move and operate on its own. It begins to activate when apprehended QT stimulates reason to think. Furthermore, reason cannot know when to stop its inquiry. The inquiry of reason begins and ends as soon as QT commands it to do so. More importantly, QT operates in the very process of rational thinking in an integrated way simultaneously. In summary, rational thinking is controlled by QT throughout inquiry. Human thought can be characterized as the operational integration of rational and qualitative thinking. More exactly, it is 'qualitative thought' including and integrating rational thinking.