Life itself consists of phases in which the organism falls out of step with the march of surrounding things and then recovers unison with iteither through effort or by some happy chance. And, in a growing life, the recovery is never mere return to a prior state, for it is enriched by the state of disparity and resistance through which it has successfully passed. If the gap between organism and environment is too wide, the creature dies. If its activity is not enhanced by the temporary alienation, it merely subsists. Life grows when a temporary falling out is a transition to a more extensive balance of the energies of the organism with those of the conditions under which it lives.
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About John Dewey
John Dewey was a 19th-century American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. Read more on Wikipedia →