Democracy And Educatıon — John Dewey

Renewal of Life by Transmission The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal A stone when struck resists If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck it remains outwardly unchanged Otherwise it is shattered into smaller bits Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence If it cannot do so it does not just split into smaller pieces at least in the higher forms of life but loses its identity as a living thing As long as it endures it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf It uses light air moisture and the material of soil To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation As long as it is growing the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets it grows Understanding the word control in this sense it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up Life is a self renewing process through action upon the environment