Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic AttitudeDewey, John
Philosophy
Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude
Dewey, John
Philosophy; Pragmatism
(_c_) Intelligence implies considering in two senses all persons
involved, that is, it means taking into account not only how an act will
affect others but also how others look at it. It is scarcely necessary
to say that this activity of intelligence cannot be cut off from its
roots in social intercourse. It is by the processes of give and take, of
stimulus and response, in a social medium that this possibility of
looking at things from a different angle is secured. And once more this
different angle is not gained by what in the strict sense could be
called a purely intellectual operation, although it has come to be so
well recognized as the necessary equipment for dealing successfully with
conditions that we commonly characterize the person as stupid who does
not take account of what others think and feel and how they will react
to a projected line of conduct. This social element in intelligence is
to a considerable degree implied in the term "reasonable," which
signifies not merely that a man is logical in his processes but also
that he is ready to listen to what others say and to look at things from
their point of view whether he finally accepts it or not.
The broad grounds on which it is better to use the word intelligence
than the word reason in the analysis with which we are concerned are
two. (1) It is not a question-begging term which tends to commit us at
the outset to a specific doctrine as to the source of our judgments. (2)
The activity of intelligence which is now most significant for ethical
progress is not suggested by the term reason, for unless we arbitrarily
smuggle in under the term practical reason the whole activity of the
moral consciousness without inquiry as to the propriety of the name we
shall be likely to omit the constructive and creative efforts to promote
morality by positive supplying of enlarged education, new sources of
interest, and more open fields for development, by replacing haunting
fears of misery with positive hopes, and by suggesting new imagery, new
ambitions in the place of sodden indifference or sensuality. The term
reason as used by the Stoics and by Kant meant control of the passions
by some "law"--some authority cosmic or logical. It prepared for the
inevitable; it forbade the private point of view. But as thus presenting
a negative aspect the law was long ago characterized by a profound moral
genius as "weak." It has its value as a schoolmaster, but it is not in
itself capable of supplying the new life which dissolves the old
sentiment, breaks up the settled evil habit, and supplies both larger
ends and effective motives.
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