On the record
To explain the origin of the state by saying that man is a political animal is to travel in a verbal circle.
Said by
John Dewey
Source
gutenberg.orgJohn Dewey: “To explain the origin of the state by saying that man is a political animal is to travel in a verbal circle.”
Editor's note · Context
Dewey critiques the circular reasoning involved in defining the state based on the idea of man as a political animal.
Share
More from John Dewey
Wealth and security are the natural rewards of economic virtues.
Is the public much more than what a cynical diplomat once called Italy: a geographical expression?
The easiest way out was to go back to the naked individual, to sweep away all associations as foreign to his nature and rights save as they proceeded from his own voluntary choice, and guaranteed his own private ends.
In this distinction we find the germ of the distinction between the private and the public.