Transcendence: On Self-Determination and Cosmopolitanism
Transcendence: On Self-Determination and Cosmopolitanism
Synopsis
Excerpt
As a matter of fact, the pragmatic theory of intelligence means that
the function of mind is to project new and more complex ends—to
free experience from routine and from caprice…. [T]he doctrine
that intelligence develops within the sphere of action for the sake of
possibilities not yet given is the opposite of a doctrine of mechanical
efficiency…. [A]ction directed to ends to which the agent has not
previously been attached inevitably carries with it a quickened and
enlarged spirit. A pragmatic intelligence is a creative intelligence, not
a routine mechanic.
—John Dewey, “The Need for a Recovery of Philosophy”
In the modern world there has been an increasing expectation that individuals, in virtue of being persons, have a right to determine the course of their own lives. Indeed, one of the remarkable achievements of modernity is the widespread ideal that not only individuals but peoples, nations, and states have a “right” to self-determination. A pivotal figure here is Johann Gottfried von Herder, who managed to transfer Pietist beliefs regarding the sanctity of individuals to cultures.
In all the civil establishments from China to Rome, in all the varieties of their
political constitutions, in every one of their inventions, whether of peace or
war, and even in all the faults and barbarities that nations have committed,
we discern the grand law of nature: let man be man; let him mould his condi
tion according as to himself shall seem best…. Thus we every where find
mankind possessing and exercising the right of forming themselves to a kind
of humanity, as soon as they have discerned it.