Pragmatic Ethics for Democracies: Dewey, Putnam & Cavell

The logical purpose for a Social Cooperative is to create and maintain desired benefits. In terms of individual ethics, it follows that a member of a Social Cooperative – whether it’s a family or a nation – should conduct himself or herself in a manner which, based on experience or applicable science, is likely to help that Social Cooperative create and maintain the desired benefits. That’s because survival of the Social Cooperative depends not only on the benefits it can give its members, but also on what the members contribute to the Social Cooperative. As John Dewey reportedly commented, “democratic institutions are no guarantee for the existence of democratic individuals…[while] individuals who are democratic in thought and action are the sole final warrant for the existence and endurance of democratic institutions.”

This is why philosophers of Pragmatism such as John Dewey, Hilary Putnam, Stanley Cavell and Richard Shusterman argue that, as a matter of ethics, democratic individuals should cultivate “a dynamic self directed at self-improvement and [through this] at the improvement of society”, and should provide for their fellow citizens “new models or experiments of good living.” http://www.artsandletters.fau.edu/humanitieschair/democracy.html

I would add that a list of pragmatic ethics for democratic individuals should include the following:

1. Keep an open and inquiring mind;
2. Celebrate diversity, applying control only when harm can be proven;
3. Question authority;
4. Test existing beliefs and suppositions for veracity;
5. Contribute to the common good to the extent your capacities permit without harm to yourself or others;
   
6. Be honest, respectful, generous, and fair in your social exchanges, to maintain the trust and harmony upon which all social cooperation and exchange depend; and
7. Stand up for democracy in the face of authoritarian threats.
   

Conservatives claim that liberals ignore individual responsibility, but this is false. What conservatives mean is that liberalism gives slight regard to conformity. That is because conservatives seek to conserve past beliefs and practices. But in the liberal worldview, the individual’s responsibility is not to conform without question. That is a dangerous proposition in a constantly changing world. On the contrary, the individual’s responsibility is to challenge past assumptions, explore and test new options, and help the Social Cooperative to improve and adjust to new conditions, so long as that is feasible.