John Dewey and When G. Flint Taylor Met Jon Burge

Outcomes are the beginning and end of what John Dewey calls inquiry. Inquiry is what John Dewey replaced truth with, in not only his philosophy of education being played out so dramatically in the Chicago Teachers Strike, but also his very evolving nature of a Dewey civil society. Truth had always been more evident in mathematics, one philosopher, Descartes,  held that the closest one might come to a perfect concept of Truth was the multiplication table.

John Dewey was influenced by Darwin and the Radical Socialists who followed in the wake of Malthus and Jeremy Bentham, but I am getting deep in the weeds here.

Suffice it say, John Dewey replaced the multiplication table with the new study of biology.  Things morph, evolve and bend to the will.  Social Justice issues and control of the minds of the young are plastic.  Math is static.  

Outcomes/Inquiry/Instrumentalism are themselves outcomes of the Hegelian Will!  John Dewey dismisses Belief, because God has too many manifestations -One God, Three Persons in One God, No God.  Belief is a crap shoot.  Too much math.  With Dewey, Truth became anything.

Inquiry depends upon future outcomes that satisfy the inquiry itself.

Western thought holds that truth can be known by causes. What caused the accident?  Who, or what caused Man?  Dewey understood that children needed to "child-centered" and constantly at play - The teacher is not in the school to impose ( Like old time Catholic nuns) certain ideas or to form certain ( like Catholic Schools) habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences - John Dewey ( parentheticals my own)

As both a child and a teacher allow me this playful inquiry.  G. Flint Taylor has made millions of dollars by bringing suit against the police, especially his vilification of the now notorious and convicted perjure Jon Burge.  Through Burge, G. Flint selectively influenced generations of young Americans into the truth that he and most police officers tortured black men twenty-four hours a day and all without a shred of proof or a court sanctioned conviction of torture. G. Flint Taylor has done John Dewey proud. Everyone, but me and a couple of cops, believes that Jon Burge is race-torture's eponym.


e.g. - Inquiry and Proof Positive -G. Flint and Aaron Patterson


Now, let's suppose that G. Flint Taylor was caused to inquire because of this -

A lawyer ran a stop sign in 1972 and subsequently was  pulled over by a young red-haired, beefy Chicago cop.G. Flint Taylor went to Brown University and had a degree from Northwestern Law thinks that he is smarter than the Vietnam Vet because he is a lawyer  and is certain that he has a better education than any cop from Chicago. G. Flint decides to prove this to himself and have some fun at the deputy's expense.

Officer Jon Burge says, "License and registration, please."

G. Flint Taylor challenges the simple cop, "If you can show me the legal difference between               slow down and stop, I'll give you my license and registration; and you give me the ticket. If not, you let me go and don't give me the ticket."

 Burge shrugs, "Sounds fair. Exit your vehicle, sir."

Taylor says, "What for?"

Burge says, " You didn't come to a complete stop at the stop sign."

G. Flint argues, "I slowed down, and no one was coming."

Officer Burge undeterred  stands fast, "You still didn't come to a complete stop. License and registration, please."

G. Flint goes Sophist, "What's the difference?"

The empirical Burge  answers, "The difference is, you have to come to complete stop, that's the law. License and registration, please!"

At this point, Officer Burge takes out his nightstick and starts beating the ever-loving crap out of the lawyer and says, "Do you want me to stop or just slow down?

 As Jack Dewey said, "Till the Great Society is converted in to a Great Community, the Public will remain in eclipse. Communication can alone create a great community" 

Control communication and you eclipse everything.

Wonder how the CPS strike will outcome? It will outcome fine. We will all win, because inquiry made it so. Do not believe and certainly do not do the math. It's a Dewey thing.