In this distinction we find the germ of the distinction between the private and the public.
John Dewey
The Public Record
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century.
gutenberg.org
In short, private acts may be socially valuable both by indirect consequences and by direct intention.
There is therefore no necessary connection between the private character of an act and its non-social or anti-social character.
There are even those who hold that the presumption is always that social loss will result from agents of the public doing anything which could be done by persons in their private capacity.
What he believes, hopes for and aims at is the outcome of association and intercourse.
That the state should be to some a deity and to others a devil is another evidence of the defects of the premises from which discussion sets out.
Mistakes pile up and consolidate themselves into laws and methods of administration which are more harmful than the consequences which they were originally intended to control.
In no two ages or places is there the same public.
It rules but it does not regulate; for its rule is confined to receipt of tribute and ceremonial deference.
Personal loyalties to elders take the place of political obedience.
If one wishes to realize the distance which may lie between “facts” and the meaning of facts, let one go to the field of social discussion.