Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic AttitudeDewey, John
Philosophy
Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude
Dewey, John
Philosophy; Pragmatism
Physical life, which has often been depreciated from the moral point of
view, is not indeed by itself supreme, but it is certain that much evil
charged to a bad will is due to morbid or defective conditions of the
physical organism. One would be ashamed to write such a truism were it
not that our juvenile courts and our prison investigations show how far
we are from having sensed it in the past. And our present labor
conditions show how far our organization of industry is from any decent
provision for a healthy, sound, vigorous life of all the people. This
war is shocking in its destruction, but it is doubtful if it can do the
harm to Great Britain that her factory system has done. And if life is
in one respect less than ideals, in another respect it is greater; for
it provides the possibility not only of carrying out existing ideals but
of the birth of new and higher ideals.
Social interaction likewise has been much discussed but is still very
inadequately realized. The great possibilities of cooeperation have long
been utilized in war. With the factory and commercial organization of
the past century we have hints of their economic power. Our schools,
books, newspapers, are removing some of the barriers. But how far
different social classes are from any knowledge, not to say
appreciation, of each other! How far different races are apart! How easy
to inculcate national hatred and distrust! The fourth great problem
which baffles Wells's hero in the _Research Magnificent_ is yet far
from solution. The great danger to morality in America lies not in any
theory as to the subjectivity of the moral judgment, but in the conflict
of classes and races.
Intelligence and reason are in certain respects advancing. The social
sciences are finding tools and methods. We are learning to think of much
of our moral inertia, our waste of life, our narrowness, our muddling
and blundering in social arrangements, as stupid--we do not like to be
called stupid even if we scorn the imputation of claiming to be "good."
But we do not organize peace as effectively as war. We shrink before the
thought of expending for scientific investigation sums comparable with
those used for military purposes. And is scholarship entitled to shift
the blame entirely upon other interests? Perhaps if it conceived its
tasks in greater terms and addressed itself to them more energetically
it would find greater support.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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