March 14, 2003, Bloomfield, NJ -- Dr. Larry A. Hickman, an internationally known expert on American philosopher John Dewey, will speak about “Educational Values and Global Citizenship: Why the 21st Century Needs John Dewey” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2 in the Robert V. Van Fossan Theatre on the Bloomfield College campus. The talk is free and open to the public.
The event is being sponsored by The Cyrus H. Holley Professorship in Applied Ethics and the Humanities Division at Bloomfield College.
Dr. Hickman’s discussion will be prompted by a short essay by John Dewey, titled “Creative Democracy – The Task Before Us.” If you wish to attend the lecture and would like a copy of the reading, please contact Cynthia Romero, Humanities Division Secretary, at 973-748-9000 ext. 276.
Dr. Hickman has served as Professor of Philosophy and Director of The Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale for the past 10 years. As director of the Center for Dewey Studies, he heads the world’s top resource on John Dewey. Prior to that, he was a Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University and an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The University of Texas in Austin. He was a visiting lecturer at Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1991.
In 1990, Dr. Hickman received an “Outstanding Academic Book Award” from Choice for his book, John Dewey’s Pragmatic Technology. His other books include: Philosophical Tools for Technological Culture: Putting Pragmatism to Work and Modern Theories of Higher Level Predicates: Second Intentions in the Neuzeit. He has edited many scholarly works including: The Correspondence of John Dewey Vol. 1 & 2, Reading Dewey: Interpretations for a Postmodern Generation, and The Essential Dewey Vol. 1 & 2.
As a preeminent authority on John Dewey, Dr. Hickman has lectured in various places around the world, including Italy, China, Japan, Poland, Mexico, Germany, and The Netherlands.
He serves as President of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, and is a past President of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, and the Southwestern Philosophical Society. He has served on the National Endowment for the Humanities advisory panel, and has been a referee for the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Hickman earned his bachelor’s degree from Hardin-Simmons University, and completed his Ph.D. from The University of Texas in Austin.
Dr. Hickman was attracted to John Dewey’s work because Dewey’s interest in social progress and reform tied together technology, democracy and education. “Democracy and education are the way that we retool our culture and society,” Hickman says.
Like John Dewey, Dr. Hickman believes that philosophy and technology are tools for the common good. He subscribes to a proactive school of philosophy called pragmatism. Pragmatists want to make a difference in the world rather than debating whether the world exists.
“For pragmatists, the phrase ‘applied philosophy’ is redundant,” Hickman says. “If philosophy is worth anything, then it’s applied in some way. Pragmatism is a forward-looking philosophy that says that where an idea comes from is less important than what it can do for you.”
The Robert V. Van Fossan Theatre is part of the Westminster Arts Center
at Bloomfield College, and is located on the corner of Franklin and Fremont
Streets. Bloomfield College is easily accessible from the Garden State
Parkway, Exit 148 from the South or Exit 149 from the North.
