# Discovery of the State explained — The Public and Its Problems

> Chapter companion for The Public and Its Problems by John Dewey.

## What happens

This chapter argues that the state is not a mystical entity or a product of inherent forces, but rather an organized public formed through the perception of indirect consequences of associated activity. Dewey contends that the public emerges from serious, extensive, and lasting consequences that affect those beyond the immediate participants, and that the state is this public articulated through representative officials. He critiques metaphysical theories of the state, emphasizes the localization and plurality of states, and explores the dynamic boundary between public and private spheres, using examples such as the historical shift of religion from public to private and the regulation of professions and land transactions.

## Themes in this chapter

### The Eclipse of the Public

Dewey's discussion of how the public is unorganized and formless until articulated through officials, and the risk that officials may turn powers to private account, relates to the theme of the public's potential eclipse by corrupt or self-interested government.

### The Great Society vs. The Great Community

The chapter's focus on the need for the public to organize into a state through representative officials, and the critique of metaphysical state theories, sets the stage for the later distinction between a mere 'Great Society' and a genuine 'Great Community'.

### Critique of Atomistic Individualism

Dewey rejects the notion of a purely private sphere of consciousness and argues that the idea of private rights is a product of social and institutional change, critiquing atomistic individualism.

## Character check-ins

### Hegel

Mentioned as a proponent of a mythical philosophy of history that attempts to justify a metaphysical doctrine of statehood.

## Key lines

> If we look in the wrong place for the public we shall never locate the state.

If we search for the public in the wrong way, we will never understand what the state is.

_Opening statement setting the chapter's central argument._

> The state is not created as a direct result of organic contacts as offspring are conceived in the womb, nor by direct conscious intent as a machine is invented, nor by some brooding indwelling spirit, whether a personal deity or a metaphysical absolute will.

The state does not arise naturally like a biological birth, nor is it deliberately designed like a machine, nor is it the product of a mystical spirit or divine will.

_Dewey rejects three common but mistaken theories of state origin._

> The perception of consequences which are projected in important ways beyond the persons and associations directly concerned in them is the source of a public; and that its organization into a state is effected by establishing special agencies to care for and regulate these consequences.

A public arises when people recognize that certain actions have significant effects on those not directly involved; the state is formed when that public creates special institutions to manage those effects.

_Core definition of the public and the state in Dewey's theory._

> A public articulated and operating through representative officers is the state; there is no state without a government, but also there is none without the public.

The state is the public organized and acting through its chosen officials; government and public are both essential to the state.

_Dewey's synthesis of the state as the union of public and government._

> The problem of the relation of individuals to associations—sometimes posed as the relation of the individual to society—is a meaningless one. We might as well make a problem out of the relation of the letters of an alphabet to the alphabet.

The supposed conflict between individuals and society is a false problem, like asking how letters relate to the alphabet—they are the same thing.

_Dewey's critique of the individual-society dichotomy._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_public_and_its_problems_se/chapters/ii-discovery-of-the-state
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_public_and_its_problems_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_public_and_its_problems_se/chapters