Endless Growth?

: In this chapter, Saito examines what the contemporary significance of Deweyan growth can be, if indeed it continues to have significance. In Human Nature and Conduct (1922), John Dewey elaborates his apparently paradoxical idea that growth means growing, “continued growth.” Today, the word “growth” has become something of a fad, in a somewhat perverse way. In the boom of what in Japan is known as Jiko-Keihatsu (whose literal translation is self-enlightenment, self-development, or self-improvement) people aspire to more growth and are encouraged to think that growth is to be achieved by brushing up their knowledge and skills. This chapter explores the significance of Dewey’s perfectionist idea of growth in the age of self-enlightenment and attempts to reclaim this idea of growth in terms of philosophy as a way of life. By doing so, the chapter elucidates the practical nature of pragmatism, exploring a third way, beyond neoliberal conceptions of utility and the potentially reactionary turn into self-cultivation in traditional liberal arts education. The chapter concludes by considering the contemporary significance of Deweyan growth lies in the fact that it opens up a way beyond the self, toward an idea of growth based not upon fear and anxiety but upon trust.