Dewey Meets the Buddha

From the Greeks we have inherited the notion that a profound awareness of suffering is essential for ethical maturity. In Buddhism, a fundamental aspect of ethical awareness is that all life is suffering. In a more contemporary context, a fundamental aspect of John Dewey's philosophy is that a meaningful education must bring all of life into the classroom learning experience. By combining these ideas, we confront the possibility that deep ethical transformations can occur by incorporating our students' suffering as a fundamental component of the classroom learning experience. But what are the strategies through which we and our students can utilize suffering in order to bring about ethical transformation? This paper will explore an integrative method of philosophy teaching that blends the East with the West.