Abstract

ARGUMENTATION AND ADVOCACY 39 (Winter 2003): 214-221 IJ REVIEW ESSAY ARGUMENTATION, CONFLICT, AND TEACIDNG CITIZENS: REMARKS ON A THEME IN RECENT DEWEY SCHOLARSIHP Lenore Langsdorf* writes, "Dewey appears as a major contrib­ Two new monographs by political scien­ tists on aspects of John Dewey's social and utor to the emerging theory of participatory political theory, along with a new collection democracy[ ... ] Far from having left Dewey behind, we may just now be catching up with of essays, primarily by philosophers, which him" (pp. 1-2). He goes on to focus on Dew­ develops interpretations of the whole of ey's recognition of conflict as intrinsic to the Dewey's work from a particular theoretical human condition, and thus, as inescapable in perspective, send me back to a fourth book, democratic political life. This characteriza­ which I read a decade ago and to which I tion suggests that, rather than wishing it have returned often. In this essay, I would away, we can value conflict as an impetus for like to commend these books to argumenta­ deliberation toward meliorative ends-in­ tion theorists by focusing on their relevance view that emerge in discourse. for those of us interested in alternative con­ The