FROM "CREATIVE DEMOCRACY" TO "REASONABLE CAPITALISM". A CROSS-LECTURE OF J. DEWEY'S PHILOSOPHY AND J.R. COMMONS' ECONOMICS

J. Dewey and J.R. Commons have shared a common intellectual and practical engagement for democracy. This paper contends that the proximity of their analysis is larger than the explicit tribute Commons' conception of social sciences pays to Dewey's social philosophy. On the basis of a cross-lecture of these authors, we show their convergences on democracy as an ethical ideal and on democratic state as an ongoing process, as well as the complementary answers they give to the problems faced by democracy. We underline that Commons has made a notable contribution to pragmatism by expanding Dewey's "creative democracy" to a "reasonable capitalism".