PRAGMATIST ASSESSMENT OF THEORY-PRACTICE DICHOTOMY

In the last third of the 19th century, in the context of accelerated industrialization in the United States and the subsequent transformations of American society the philosophy of pragmatism emerged as a reaction to the abstract rationalism and contemplative epistemology of classical philosophy.The central figures of this movement were Ch.Peirce and W. James, and later J. Dewey, who developed his own version of pragmatisminstrumentalism. His program of radical transformation of philosophy and methodology of knowledge was aimed at the reconceptualization of truth, knowledge, and thinking through their role in practical activities and solving specific problems.In the scholarly contribution of J. Dewey, the dichotomy between theory and practice is viewed as historically conditioned and methodologically flawed.This theorypractice divide arose in classical Greek philosophy due to the social division of labor, and the opposition of "higher" contemplation and "lower" utilitarian activity, as well as due to the perception of truth as permanent and timeless.In J. Dewey's pragmatism, theory becomes a tool for organizing experience, and practice serves as an environment for the emergence, verification, and, if necessary, transformation of ideas.Instead of opposing theory to practice, the scientist justifies a dynamic cycle: awareness of the problem, reflection on it, theory about ways to solve the problem, then appropriate action and, finally, gaining new experience.Theory appears not as an autonomous sphere of contemplation, but rather as a tool of reflective practice, which is formed in the process of solving problem situations and tested in action.The instrumentalist version of the philosophy of pragmatism formulated by J. Dewey was intended to become a practical method of accumulating and disseminating social experience, education included.Hence, J. Dewey views education not as the transmission of theory, but as an organized experience of activity, a social practice, a space for experimentation, where philosophical ideas are tested in authentic pedagogical practice.The University of Chicago Laboratory School created by J. Dewey in 1896, became a tool for generating and experimentally testing his philosophical and pedagogical ideas.