The doctrine of economic interpretation as usually stated ignores the transformation which meanings may effect; it passes over the new medium which communication may interpose between industry and its eventual consequences.
Dewey critiques the limitations of economic interpretations in understanding the impact of communication on industry.
Share
More from John Dewey
Publication is partial and the public which results is partially informed and formed until the meanings it purveys pass from mouth to mouth.
Ideas which are not communicated, shared, and reborn in expression are but soliloquy, and soliloquy is but broken and imperfect thought.
Vision is a spectator; hearing is a participator.
But the wingèd words of conversation in immediate intercourse have a vital import lacking in the fixed and frozen words of written speech.