ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the potential benefit of increased understanding of others, which should result from implementing the recommendations in chapter three. The relevant writings of John Dewey, C, Wright Mills, and Alfred Schutz are reviewed to learn more about this benefit and how it might be realized.
Dewey wrote that communication is what enables people to understand one another. Also, Dewey warned that lack of open and honest communication in a community invites intolerance.
Mills reasoned that modern society creates mass society and mass media which creates alienation and makes it easy to avoid communication. He believed that individuals were not able to understand modern society, which affected their ability to reason. Mills’ solution was pubic assemblies where people could gain understanding of society through their understanding of others.
Schutz’s phenomenological analysis lead him to believe that it was possible to achieve a perception of another’s subjective experiences. His insight was that lack of communication results in people not knowing or caring about how their attitudes affect others. Schutz discovered the ethical value of a citizen’s ability to be heard and influence others as a way to judge democracy.
