262
PARTISAN REVIEW
when force may sometimes he part of the method of intelligence in
any
concrete situation.*
In the past I did use the term "class truths" for those value-judgments
affirmed by scientific socialism which were denied or ignored by
thoee
whom it affected adversely. But after observing the use to which
the
phrase was put by the Stalinists (and "racial truths" by the Nazis) all
along the line of knowledge from mathematics to philology, I abandoned
it. (Cf. my
Reason, Social Myths and Democracy,
passim.)
A
more
important reason is that the socialist and labor movement cannot suc–
ceed if it gives the impression that its program, its values, its truths,
are valid only for
one
class in the community. In the deadly opposi·
tion it meets, it should not make the task of winning allies from
the
farmers, intellectuals and middle classes more difficult by suggesting
that
its triumph means every other group's defeat. Instead of giving
the
impression that it is making a plea for special privileges, it should
present its program as an
objective
solution of concrete problems and
conflicts.
6. Space allows only one word. Whether the expression "the new
failure of nerve" was appropriate for
all
the political tendencies discussed
is an open question. I believe I did less than justice to some elements
in the "progressive bloc". But as for Merian's position on the war,
the
future of socialism, and a program for the labor movement-! submit
that it exhibits sickly failure of nerve, social irresponsibility, and
ab·
sence of concrete political intelligence. His sobriety I take for granted;
hut with such a set of beliefs, it is a strictly minor virtue.
SIDNEY
Home
*"As far as experience and reflection indicate that pacific measures are most
likely to be effective, the (experimental) philosophy is pacifist; where the re,.erse
is
indicated by the best available knowledge of actual conditions,
it
is revolutionary
.. . The objective precondition of the complete and free use of the method of in·
telligence is a society in which class interests that recoil from social experimentation
are abolished."
Educational Frontier,
N. Y. 1933, ed. by Kilpatrick, pp. 314-17.
Dewey's clearest statement of his position is his article "Force and Coercion" in
/Ill.
Jour. Ethics
1916. Merian is probably misled by the fact that Dewey sometimes
use~
the word "violence" for unnecessary or unintelligent use of force.
