Dewey’s Democratic Individualism

1929 : l’Amérique célèbre l’individualisme ; la crise met en évidence à quel point l’économie est devenue le mode dominant de médiation du lien social. C’est le moment que Dewey choisit pour tenter de dépasser le dualisme individu et société dont les conceptions, issues de la pensée libérale, sont devenues caduques après avoir rendu les plus grands services. Dewey tente de recomposer ce lien dans un cadre démocratique et esquisse un nouvel individualisme qui intègre l’avènement de la société organique. In 1929, as the United States was celebrating the virtues of “rugged individualism,” the Great Depression revealed to what extent the economy had become the prevailing mode of expression of the social link. In this context, Dewey decided to transcend the “individual versus society” dualism which had become obsolete after a career of distinguished service. Dewey tried to reconstruct the association between the individual and society within a democratic framework and he outlined a new individualism that took into account the advent of the corporate society.