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The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, Volume 9: 1916, Democracy and Education by John Dewey
janthonytucson's review against another edition
5.0
Came for the ethics, which I found incredibly rewarding, there are so many incredibly deep and rich insights that almost every page is now full of notes and highlights.
The end is an analysis on the problems of the economic order in which Dewey compares the strict individualist (laissez-faire) interpretation of capitalism in which the state has no role except for courts to enforce contracts between private individuals and firms, and then of socialism. He says either one taken to the extreme is absurd and there should be a middle way. He also does an incredible job illustrating Formal Freedom and Real Freedom within the contexts of these two paradigms.
What is remarkable is this passage I will quote, in which Dewey says that if private enterprises were ever to buy influence in the State (federal government) and state legislatures then the people would be impelled to act upon the moral debasement inherent in this state of affairs as the social conscience will demand state ownership. Here we are roughly 100 years after this was written and 40 years of aggressive Neoliberalism, and not only has private enterprise commanded complete control of the ‘state’ in America, but across the entire globe (read Sassen Territory, Authority, Rights - From Medieval to Global Assemblages for insight into this). Dewey’s greatest fear was not only realized, it was super charged and has overtaken the globe.
“It is for those who do not believe in public control to prove that in the great enterprises for the production of the necessaries of life, for transportation, banking, mining, and the like, private enterprise is not dangerous. The conduct of many-not all-of these enterprises in recent years, not only in their economic aspects, but in their recklessness of human life, health, and morality, is what makes socialism a practical question. If it is adopted, it will not be for any academic or a priori reasons. It will be because private enterprise fails to serve the public, and its injustice becomes intolerable. If business enterprise, as sometimes threatens, seeks to subordinate political and social institutions, including legislatures and courts, to economic interests, the choice must be between public control and public ownership. And if, whether by the inherent nature of legal doctrine and procedure, or by the superior shrewdness of capital in evading regulation, control is made to appear ineffective, the social conscience will demand ownership. To subordinate the State to commercial interests is as immoral as to make the economic interest supreme in the individual.”
The end is an analysis on the problems of the economic order in which Dewey compares the strict individualist (laissez-faire) interpretation of capitalism in which the state has no role except for courts to enforce contracts between private individuals and firms, and then of socialism. He says either one taken to the extreme is absurd and there should be a middle way. He also does an incredible job illustrating Formal Freedom and Real Freedom within the contexts of these two paradigms.
What is remarkable is this passage I will quote, in which Dewey says that if private enterprises were ever to buy influence in the State (federal government) and state legislatures then the people would be impelled to act upon the moral debasement inherent in this state of affairs as the social conscience will demand state ownership. Here we are roughly 100 years after this was written and 40 years of aggressive Neoliberalism, and not only has private enterprise commanded complete control of the ‘state’ in America, but across the entire globe (read Sassen Territory, Authority, Rights - From Medieval to Global Assemblages for insight into this). Dewey’s greatest fear was not only realized, it was super charged and has overtaken the globe.
“It is for those who do not believe in public control to prove that in the great enterprises for the production of the necessaries of life, for transportation, banking, mining, and the like, private enterprise is not dangerous. The conduct of many-not all-of these enterprises in recent years, not only in their economic aspects, but in their recklessness of human life, health, and morality, is what makes socialism a practical question. If it is adopted, it will not be for any academic or a priori reasons. It will be because private enterprise fails to serve the public, and its injustice becomes intolerable. If business enterprise, as sometimes threatens, seeks to subordinate political and social institutions, including legislatures and courts, to economic interests, the choice must be between public control and public ownership. And if, whether by the inherent nature of legal doctrine and procedure, or by the superior shrewdness of capital in evading regulation, control is made to appear ineffective, the social conscience will demand ownership. To subordinate the State to commercial interests is as immoral as to make the economic interest supreme in the individual.”
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