The Neo-pragmatism and the Squirrel. Considerations to the Democratic Theory of John Dewey

According to Dewey, normative criteria are a part of the social process and insofar a process themselves. These criteria have to be reflected and reformulated in new situations in which new social problems occur. The democratic public is in this conception the realm in which a common elucidation of problematic social consequences of the existing institutions takes place and in which proposals for the overcoming of these consequences are formulated. Thereby it reconstructs the central norms embedded within the social institutions and shows how collective actions guided by these norms leads to problematic social consequences. This is then the background for a critical reflection on and a reformulation of the guiding norms of these institutions. To realize such a form of collective self-determination the democratic public has to be extended to all forms of social cooperation.