The current itself is as much beyond them as was ever the river by the side of which some ingenious mechanic, employing a knowledge which was transmitted to him, erected his saw-mill to make boards of trees which he had not grown.
Dewey compares the understanding of current technology to historical practices of mechanics, highlighting a gap in comprehension.
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Publication is partial and the public which results is partially informed and formed until the meanings it purveys pass from mouth to mouth.
We lie, as Emerson said, in the lap of an immense intelligence.
Signs and symbols, language, are the means of communication by which a fraternally shared experience is ushered in and sustained.
The problem of securing diffused and seminal intelligence can be solved only in the degree in which local communal life becomes a reality.