Living Oceans
April 2010
Banner photo: Orange Anthias and Coral, Egypt [© David Doubilet]
Ikeda Center's Dialogue Forum on John Dewey
Forum participants pair up to discuss ideas raised by the speakers [© ICPLD]
The Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue in Boston, Mass., USA held its Sixth Annual Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue on November 14, titled "John Dewey, Daisaku Ikeda, and the Quest for a New Humanism." The forum marked the 150th anniversary of Dewey's birth.
An introductory lecture from Steven Rockefeller, professor emeritus of religion at Middlebury College, remarked on the shared aspirations of Dewey and Ikeda: "As religious humanists . . . they are concerned to break down the dualism of the sacred and the secular, the religious life and everyday life."
Professor Larry Hickman, director of the Center for Dewey Studies and professor of philosophy, Southern Illinois University, explained that both philosophers point to paths of transformation that might be described as "guidelines, not blueprints," since this process of adjusting or finding a balance between ideological extremes is, for both Dewey and Ikeda, ultimately a very individual one.
Building on this theme, Gonzalo Obelleiro, doctoral student of the Program of Philosophy and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, said that personal and social growth need to be worked out in the actual conditions of every moment. Charlene Haddock Seigfried, professor of philosophy, Purdue University, commented that both Ikeda and Dewey speak of transcendence that is situated here in "the phenomenal world" and achieved through social engagement.
