Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Intelligence is the key to freedom in act.”
- Source
- Human Nature and Conduct
- Date
- 1922
Meaning of “Intelligence is the key to freedom in act.”
Effective freedom depends on understanding conditions well enough to form workable plans and act through real constraints, rather than merely asserting an unconstrained will.
Where does it come from?
Human Nature and Conduct (1922), Part Four, Section III, “What is Freedom?”, printed page 304, Project Gutenberg #41386. Dewey states “Intelligence is the key to freedom in act” while arguing that effective action depends on consulting conditions and forming plans that enlist their cooperation; the following page stresses study, foresight and adaptation. This is historical philosophical / social-psychological argument rather than current neuroscientific or experimentally settled behavioral evidence.
