“ If a man has just eaten, or if he is well fed generally and the opportunity to hear music is a rarity, he will probably prefer the music to eating. ”
John Dewey, Democracy and Education (1916). copy citation
Author | John Dewey |
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Source | Democracy and Education |
Topic | rarity music |
Date | 1916 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/852/852-h/852-h.htm |
Context
“Raising these questions means that a particular good is no longer an end in itself, an intrinsic good. For if it were, its claims would be incomparable, imperative. The question is now as to its status as a means of realizing something else, which is then the invaluable of that situation. If a man has just eaten, or if he is well fed generally and the opportunity to hear music is a rarity, he will probably prefer the music to eating. In the given situation that will render the greater contribution. If he is starving, or if he is satiated with music for the time being, he will naturally judge food to have the greater worth. In the abstract or at large, apart from the needs of a particular situation in which choice has to be made, there is no such thing as degrees or order of value.”
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