This article analyses the references made by John Dewey to the philosophy and social life of classical Greece in his book Democracy and education, which are related to conceptions of society, philosophical concepts and educational propositions. Its main purpose is to elucidate what Dewey appropriates from the Greeks to compose the arguments that sustain the thesis he wishes to communicate to his readers. Its analytical instruments are based on the study of rhetorical and dialectical practices developed by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca in their Treatise of argumentation: the new rhetoric and on a critical analysis of the syllogistic form elaborated by Toulmin in the book The uses of argument.
John Dewey; Greek philosophy; pedagogical discourse; rhetoric
