Abstract

This dissertation examines the concepts of individual and community and the relation between them in the philosophical thinking of John Dewey and Martin Heidegger. The investigation concludes that both Heidegger and Dewey agree that individuals develop as a result of immersion and participation in community, with the genuine individual's participation becoming over time more and more self-conscious and self-directed. Community is thus prerequisite to the formation of individuality. The type of individual favored by each philosopher varies, however. Genuine individuality for Dewey is seen in the expression of an individualized responsibility for social transformation, but for Heidegger it is seen as the expression of an individualized responsibility for a limited but real self-determination. This difference also appears in their varying conceptions of community. Dewey approaches community from a synoptic perspective that emphasizes the functionings and potentialities of community itself, while Heidegger's approach is one that emphasizes how authentic individuals may indeed situate themselves in community but in a community that is itself historically conditioned and limited. ;The dissertation proceeds by examining in turn Dewey's concept of the individual from the perspectives of history, social-psychology, metaphysics, and social philosophy ; Dewey's concept of community as it emerges from his thought on "the social," democracy, communication and shared experience, and immediate community ; Heidegger's concept of the individual in its inauthentic and authentic forms ; and Heidegger's concept of community as this can be developed from the themes of Being-with, Dasein-with, solicitude, destiny and leadership