It is the vogue of this doctrine (exclusive national sovereignty) or dogma that presents the strongest barrier to the effective formation of an international mind which alone agrees with the moving forces of present-day labor, commerce, science, art, and religion.
John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, p. 203-205
In Dewey's mind the boundless potential inherent in the human mind meant that it was not only possible to transform the human cultural condition into something far more conducive to the advancement of the species but that it was morally imperative that we undertake to do so.
If generalizations are allowed, and they are always problematic, Dewey's overall agenda rested on a few basic presuppositions.
First - he believed that man is both the molder of his cultural environment and also the product of it. He understood the surrounding ethos in which a child is immersed, immediately upon birth, as of immense importance in the progressive development of that child's character. For him the idea of an individual "nature" which is not so much formed as it is inherent, was vastly over-rated. We are not so much creatures of "instinct" as we are of patterned habits, and these habits are acquired through interaction with our surroundings. Yet, at the same time, our culture is what we make of it. As we interact with our surroundings we also participate in them and hence shape it in return.
Second - he believed in "change" and "progress" not "perfection." All of life is process, moving from one state to another. The highest good for mankind, corporately and individually, was to keep getting better in an "ever enduring process of perfecting, maturing, refining" which was the "aim in living." (Reconstruction, p. 177) What must be guarded against was stagnation which is actually decline. Dewey knew that this required some idea of direction, that change for change's sake was not the answer and hence there must be some guidelines for distinguishing true "progress" from its opposite. This then lead to his next axiom.
Third - it is in the democracy of ideas bounded by an experimental attitude which subjects specific inquiries to detailed analysis, that the collective cultural progress is best assured. It is not to theological and metaphysical systems, based on logical conclusions drawn from unprovable assumptions, that man is to resort. Rather, it is to the community of educated and inquiring minds, who cling to no absolute dogmas but rather accept any proposition as only "provisionally" true, and that only so long as its immediate, practical and physical benefits can be observed, that man's hope should cling.
The democracy of ideas is best served when it is universal. Hence, the fellowship of thinkers, commerce, science, politics and art must be transnational and of ultimate authority. It is a collective subordination based upon mutual respect and common doubt. Here is man's future, his confidence and his destiny.
It's taken a hundred years or so, but apparently Dewey's thought is triumphing in virtually every sphere. That it is a pleasing building built on the shoddiest of foundations is so apparent as to appear to be self-evident. At no stage of human endeavor has any of these three assumptions proved of more than transitory worth. What Dewey hopes to achieve in the trans-national arena has never worked in the least hamlet or province. Whenever it has been attempted, invariably there has arisen the need to keep the cats herded together in their explorations. Some things, as Karl Polyani pointed out, are not acceptable for consideration in the halls where objective science is supposedly the rule. Governments have a habit of dictating the agenda of allowable options. Regardless of the attempt and the prettiness of the picture, man is after all, not so much a product of his culture as he is, in last resort, a being who will promote his own good over the welfare of his fellows and whose highest aspirations are not noble, but selfish. His culture will reflect these values, whether in the town square or in the halls of the United Nations. The best good will attain to an individual community when it has maximum freedom to pursue its own agendas as long as it is not artificially protected from the consequences of its own decisions.
Given that premise, the idea of ever larger communities is actually the means by which control by a few is most promoted. If we have "too much government" now... how much more is Dewey's "international Mind" to be feared.
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