Evolution's First Philosopher: John Dewey and the Continuity of Nature

7. Evolution and Liberalism

A culture which permits science to destroy traditional values but which distrusts its power to create new ones is a culture which is destroying itself. —John Dewey (L13:172) 찞 Dewey’s construction of a post-Darwinian method of philosophic analysis led him to investigate the nature of democracy as the sociopolitical context that best supports intellectual growth. He argues that democracy should be seen as much more than simply a form of government; for him, it is a way of coming at life—a morality. Within this notion of democracy, Dewey addressed the more narrow political perspective , in an attempt to reconstruct how we think about liberalism. His efforts are of value to us today. INTRODUCTION This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in. —Theodore Roosevelt (Chicago, June 17, 1913) TO APPRECIATE HOW the theory of evolution leads Dewey to reconstruct the idea of liberalism requires that we review the nature of liberalism as it was 119 SEVEN Evolution and Liberalism envisioned in the pre-Darwinian period, which is now referred to as “classical liberalism.” As we will see, this pre-Darwinian liberalism grounded itself in natural rights and natural law. If we ask for the philosophic justification for claims about the existence of natural rights, we find that while they have morally superior consequences to those of the rights of monarchs, they are pre-Darwinian, both in time and in the fixed character of their categories. They are, furthermore, inferior to Dewey’s post-Darwinian approach to democracy as a moral perspective on life and, in a narrower sense, government. Classical liberalism was an attempt, both philosophic and political, to free people from the domination of monarchy, but its pre-Darwinian thinking limited its justification to little more than mere assertion. Dewey’s new liberalism sought to give an evolutionary backing to the basic notion of liberalism. Thomas West, in Vindicating the Founders (1997), criticizes Dewey’s reconstructed account of liberalism because he thinks that it undermines the classical liberalism of the Founders, whom he seeks to “vindicate.” He claims that Dewey’s distinction between new and old liberalism is at the heart of the problem. While labels often do as much harm as good, in this case it is clear what is at issue. But before we examine Dewey’s critique, as well as West’s objections to it, we should take the time to briefly review the ideas that form the structure of several different views of the proper relationship between individuals and their society. It turns out that the best known Founder, the most quoted president except for Lincoln, ironically, sides with Dewey over West. This chapter then considers Diggins’ (in The Promise of Pragmatism) criticism of Dewey that his evolution-based philosophy has not led the nation to a more harmonious adaptive state. Diggins is answered by means of the distinction between natural selection and intellectual selection. The latter has become the focus of meme-generating think tanks that seek to manipulate intellectual selection. THREE VIEWS OF THE INDIVIDUAL-SOCIETY RELATIONSHIP If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, then it cannot save the few who are rich. —J. F. K. (Inaugural Address) To a great extent, the way one views the individual-society relationship gives rise to different conceptions of democracy. There are three basic philosophic views of that relationship. Society as a Threat to Individualism.The individual, including all natural rights, logically speaking, exists more or less complete, prior to society. The role of MORALITY NATURALIZED 120 society is to provide a medium of interaction or transaction for individuals to carry on their desired activities. The desirable society is one that places the fewest restrictions on both an individual’s natural rights and the forms of association or interaction. By giving full play to the individual’s natural talents and personal motivations, a type of natural selection produces both individual achievement and the leaders of society. Freedom is a matter of being free from social imposition. This view is known as “classical liberalism.” The Individual as Defined by Society. This view of the individual-society relationship holds that while there are individual differences attributable to genetic differences and environmental factors, it is society that determines the individual. It is society that selects its leaders, and...