Dewey & Heidegger

Dewey

The pragmatists emphasized the idea that we, as humans, are problem solvers, not information gatherers. We see this trend with the growth of the internet and technology as there is less emphasis on people to memorize things because of the ease of accessibility to information. People now have more of a burden to actually think critically and apply the information that is out there. This is referred to as the instrumentalism of knowledge. Pragmatism finds itself somewhere between the ideas presented by empiricism and rationalism; empiricism emphasis the way that the world around us makes us think about things and rationalism emphasizes the way that comes from inside of us.

Heidegger

Heidegger taught the importance of caring about things in order to make an appropriate assessment. This is clear in schoolwork: the more we care about it, the better we do; the less we care about it, the harder it is to do. The importance of caring about things relates to his idea of authenticity, which he used interchangeably with appropriateness.