THE PUBLIC AND ITS PROBLEMS
THE PUBLIC AND ITS PROBLEMS
An Essay in Political Inquiry
John Dewey
Edited and with an Introduction by Melvin L. Rogers
SWALLOW PRESS
ATHENS, OHIO
Swallow Press An imprint of Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701 ohioswallow.com
Copyright © 1927 by Henry Holt and Company Copyright © 1954 by Mrs. John Dewey This edition copyright © 2016 by Ohio University Press All rights reserved
To obtain permission to quote, reprint, or otherwise reproduce or distribute material from Swallow Press / Ohio University Press publications, please contact our rights and permissions department at (740) 593-1154 or (740) 593-4536 (fax).
Portions of Melvin L. Rogers’s introduction first appeared in “Introduction: Revisiting The Public and Its Problems” and “John Dewey and His Vision of Democracy,” both in “Revisiting The Public and Its Problems,” special issue, Contemporary Pragmatism 7, no. 1 (2011): 1–9, 69–92.
Printed in the United States of America Swallow Press / Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dewey, John, 1859–1952, author. | Rogers, Melvin L., editor.
Title: The public and its problems : an essay in political inquiry / John Dewey; edited and with an introduction by Melvin L. Rogers.
Description: Athens, Ohio : Swallow Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016020374| ISBN 9780804011662 (paperback) | ISBN 9780804040730 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Democracy. | Political science. | State, The. | BISAC: POLITICAL SCIENCE / General.
Classification: LCC JC251 .D47 2016 | DDC 321.8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016020374
printed with season’s grant Figure Foundation oneness of states, full unity
Contents
Introduction: Revisiting The Public and Its Problems
Melvin L. Rogers
John Dewey, The Public and Its Problems: An Essay in Political Inquiry
Divergence of facts and theoretical interpretations concerning the nature of the state. Practical import of theories. Theories in terms of causal origin. Theory in terms of perceived consequences. Distinction of private and public substituted for that of individual and social. The influence of association. Plurality of associations. Criterion of the public. Function of the state. The state as an experimental problem. Summary.
Public and state. Geographical extent. Multiplicity of states. Spread of consequences. Law is not command. Law and reasonableness. The public and long-established habits of action. Fear of the new. Irreparable consequences. Variation of state-functions according to circumstances of time and place. State and government. State and society. The pluralistic theory.
Private and representative rôles of officials. Selection of rulers by irrelevant methods. The problem of control of officials. Meanings of democracy. Fallacy as to origin of democratic government. Influence of non-political factors. The origin of “individualism.” Influence of the new industry; the theory of “natural” economic laws. James Mill’s philosophy of democratic government. Criticism of “individualism.” Criticism of antithesis of natural and artificial. Wants and aims as functions of social life. Persistence of pre-industrial institutions. Final problem.
Local origin of American democratic government. National unification due to technological factors. Submergence of the public. Disparity of inherited ideas and machinery with actual conditions. Illustrations of resulting failures. Problem of discovering the public. Democracy versus the expert. Explanation of eclipse of public. Illustrated by the World War. Application of criteria of the public. Failure of traditional principles. Political apathy accounted for. Need of experts. Rivals of political interest. Ideals and instrumentalities.
5. Search for the Great Community
Democracy as idea and as governmental behavior. Problem of the Great Community. Meaning of the democratic ideal. Democracy and community life. Community and associated activity. Communication and the community. Intellectual conditions of the Great Community. Habit and intelligence. Science and knowledge. Limitations upon social inquiry. Isolation of social inquiry. Pure and applied science. Communication and public opinion. Limitations of distribution of knowledge. Communication as art.
Antithesis between individual and social as obstruction to method. Meaning of individual. Where opposition lies. Meaning of absolutistic logic. Illustration from doctrine of “evolution.” From psychology. Difference of human and physical science. Experimental inquiry as alternative. Method, and government by experts. Democracy and education by discussion. The level of intelligence. The necessity of local community life.
