Chapter I: Front Matter

THE PUBLIC
AND ITS PROBLEMS

BY
JOHN DEWEY

ALAN SWALLOW
DENVER

COPYRIGHT, 1927,
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

Copyright renewed, 1954, by Mrs. John Dewey

PRINTED IN THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFATORY NOTE

This volume is the result of lectures delivered during the month of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-six, upon the Larwill Foundation of Kenyon College, Ohio. In acknowledging the many courtesies received, I wish to express also my appreciation of the toleration shown by the authorities of the College to delay in publication. The intervening period has permitted a full revision and expansion of the lectures as originally delivered. This fact will account for an occasional reference to books published in the interval.

J. D.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. SEARCH FOR THE PUBLIC 3

Divergence of facts and theoretical interpretations
concerning the nature of the state, 3. Practical import
of theories, 5. Theories in terms of causal origin,
9. Theory in terms of perceived consequences, 12.
Distinction of private and public substituted for that of
individual and social, 13. The influence of association,
22. Plurality of associations, 26. Criterion of the
public, 27. Function of the state, 28. The state as an
experimental problem, 32. Summary, 34.

II. DISCOVERY OF THE STATE 37

Public and state, 38. Geographical extent, 39.
Multiplicity of states, 43. Spread of consequences, 47.
Law is not command, 53. Law and reasonableness, 55. The
public and long-established habits of action, 57. Fear of
the new, 59. Irreparable consequences, 62. Variation of
state-functions according to circumstances of time and
place, 65. State and government, 66. State and society,
69. The pluralistic theory, 73.

III. THE DEMOCRATIC STATE 75

Private and representative rôles of officials, 76.
Selection of rulers by irrelevant methods, 78. The
problem of control of officials, 82. Meanings of
democracy, 83. Fallacy as to origin of democratic
government, 84. Influence of non-political factors, 85.
The origin of “individualism,” 86. Influence of the
new industry; the theory of “natural” economic laws,
90. James Mill’s philosophy of democratic government,
93. Criticism of “individualism,” 95. Criticism of
antithesis of natural and artificial, 102. Wants and
aims as functions of social life, 104. Persistence of
pre-industrial institutions, 108. Final problem, 109.

IV. ECLIPSE OF THE PUBLIC 110

Local origin of American democratic government, 111.
National unification due to technological factors, 114.
Submergence of the public, 116. Disparity of inherited
ideas and machinery with actual conditions, 117.
Illustrations of resulting failures, 119. Problem of
discovering the public, 122. Democracy versus the expert,
123. Explanation of eclipse of public, 126. Illustrated
by the World War, 127. Application of criteria of the
public, 129. Failure of traditional principles, 131.
Political apathy accounted for, 134. Need of experts,
135. Rivals of political interest, 138. Ideals and
instrumentalities, 141.

V. SEARCH FOR THE GREAT COMMUNITY 143

Democracy as idea and as governmental behavior, 143.
Problem of the Great Community, 147. Meaning of the
democratic ideal, 148. Democracy and community life, 149.
Community and associated activity, 151. Communication
and the community, 152. Intellectual conditions of the
Great Community, 155. Habit and intelligence, 158.
Science and knowledge, 163. Limitations upon social
inquiry, 166. Isolation of social inquiry, 171. Pure and
applied science, 172. Communication and public opinion,
173. Limitations of distribution of knowledge, 176.
Communication as art, 183.

VI. THE PROBLEM OF METHOD 185

Antithesis between individual and social as obstruction
to method, 186. Meaning of individual, 185. Where
opposition lies, 191. Meaning of absolutistic logic,
194. Illustration from doctrine of “evolution,” 196.
From psychology, 197. Difference of human and physical
science, 199. Experimental inquiry as alternative, 202.
Method, and government by experts, 203. Democracy and
education by discussion, 206. The level of intelligence,
210. The necessity of local community life, 211.
Problem of restoration, 213. Tendencies making for
reëstablishment, 215. Connection of this problem with the
problem of political intelligence, 217.

INDEX 221

THE PUBLIC
AND ITS PROBLEMS