The idea remains barren and empty save as it is incarnated in human relationships.
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
But he does so only at the cost of repression of those of his potentialities which can be realized only through membership in other groups.
The clear consciousness of a communal life, in all its implications, constitutes the idea of democracy.
Fraternity, liberty and equality isolated from communal life are hopeless abstractions.
Force” is not eliminated but is transformed in use and direction by ideas and sentiments made possible by means of symbols.
But there is a marked lag in any corresponding change of ideas and desires.
That within limits those successful in affairs have knowledge and skill is not to be doubted.
Application in life would signify that science was absorbed and distributed; that it was the instrumentality of that common understanding and thorough communication which is the precondition of the existence of a genuine and effective…
Public opinion, even if it happens to be correct, is intermittent when it is not the product of methods of investigation and reporting constantly at work.
The smoothest road to control of political conduct is by control of opinion.
Any human being is in one respect an association, consisting of a multitude of cells each living its own life.
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.