There is a current legend to the effect that the movement originated in a single clear-cut idea, and has proceeded by a single unbroken impetus to unfold itself to a predestined end, whether triumphantly glorious or fatally catastrophic.
Dewey critiques the oversimplification of the origins of democratic movements.
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But in this respect he does not differ from those explicitly designated public officials who have also been known to betray the interest committed to them instead of faithfully representing it.
The ties which hold men together in action are numerous, tough and subtle.
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.
Nothing better exhibits the scope of the movement than the fact that philosophic theories of knowledge made the same appeal to the self, or ego, in the form of personal consciousness identified with mind itself, that political theory made…