Lectures on Ethics, 1900 - 1901: John Dewey

Section IV. The Relation of the Individual to Society: Its Ethical Significance

SECTION IV The Relation of the Individual to Society: Its Ethical Significance 1. Wide and Narrow Senses of the Ethical Lecture VIII. April 15, 1901 THE ORGANIC CONCEPT, in the dynamic sense as distinct from the static, can never be treated as simply accomplished, given fact. It is rather a process which is continually going on and continually to be maintained and restated, and the problem, therefore, is that just because it is dynamic and not static it is in danger ofbecoming inorganic and mechanical. The social ethical problem arises precisely out of the fact that the organic character of society is objectively given but that it is a fact which, being dynamic, is maintained only through action. The moral consciousness ofthe individual is found in his awareness ofthis organic character of society and his conscious effort to maintain that through his own activity. Consequently, he will continually be becoming aware of things within the scope of society which are not yet organized. And that is the ethical criterion from the social point of view: the existence within the society of these various factors and relations which are not yet organized and therefore not yet thoroughly socialized. So far as that is true we have not merely something we can dispose of by saying the organic category does not apply to that, but by saying: Here is an instance of the organic principle and therefore society, to be what it claims to be, must reconstruct its forces until this relationship is an 311 312 John Dewey organic one. If society were merely and only organic, without any affectivel factor within it, there would not be any ethics to it at all. * * * Question: Would there not be a distinction between the organic concept and the concept of the organism as the consciousness of the activity? An organism may be merely mechanical and operate on merely blind mechanical adjustments, but these activities, in order to fall within the range ofthe organic concept, must be performed consciously, with some consciousness of the ends for which performed. That is the case. * * * Historically, it seems to me there has been in social philosophy a hypnotic influence exercised by the political factor, these forms ofdirect control. On the whole I think you will find there is an easy way to get at that exaggeration ofthe significance ofthat factor, and that is simply to think of it as one mode of social operation just like the others. Some persons rear families, some sow and harvest grain, some rule the state. And one ofthem is a social callingjust like the others. The whole social philosophy must be a philosophy of these various modes of occupation and their interaction with each other. But there is no particular sacredness or exclusive importance attaching to the political occupation, something which in this way does not attach to any other occupation as well. What we term "government" is simply a supervision of instrumentalities for one social end and aim,just as the family or corporation for another. The term 'ethical' has a wider and a narrower meaning. Its wider meaning is emphasized by the Germans in their term Sittlichkeit, meaning that which as matter of fact performs the function of adding to the worth of life more fundamental values, quite apart from any distinct intention on the part of any individual at the moment to have it so contribute. The family function and relation evidently means a great deal to life, more that anybody could adequately state. At any given time there is no body ofpersons who couldjustly formulate all that this function is doing for life, yet it is doing it and the results of it are in consciousness. We get the outcome though we could not state the process by which we get it. In horticulture one could not give a complete statement of the process by which fruits are grown and mature, although 1. In Dewey's view the affective factor in consciousness is one phase of the overall reconstructive process. Social Ethics 313 there is enough ofconsciousness to supply a very important part in the process and in bringing about the result. We might discuss, then, the ethical value ofthe family, systematize all the various values or worths, goods, satisfactions that are brought into our lives through the existence ofthat relation. That would pertain to 'ethical' in the wider sense. Some ofthese values, however, come to...