Abstract
In this chapter, d’Agnese analyzes the significance of the debunking of Western metaphysics by both Dewey and Heidegger. For Dewey, as well as for Heidegger, we are always-already vulnerable and exposed, thrown into an uncertain, unstable and perilous world. Such vulnerability and uncertainty affect even what are supposed to be our primary sources of control of the environment, namely thinking and knowledge. Specifically, through a close analysis of Dewey’s oeuvre, d’Agnese argues that thinking is also something that is unpredictable, something that is not completely at our disposal. For Heidegger, similarly, knowledge is grounded in one’s being always-already with others. In other words, knowledge is affected by the very unpredictability of our encounters and relationships. Both Dewey and Heidegger, throughout their oeuvres, unraveled the fundamental pre-cognitive structure that relates human beings to others, the world and things.
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d’Agnese, V. (2019). Challenging Plato’s Theoretical Gaze: Undergoing and Ineffable. In: Dewey, Heidegger, and the Future of Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19482-6_3
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