For Commentary

Dewey argued that democracy is not merely a form of government but a way of life organized around shared inquiry, mutual education, and the experimental resolution of social problems. His vision of politics as collective problem-solving through intelligent experimentation is the most fully developed philosophical expression of Growth as a political value.

Amartya Sen's and Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach argues that the purpose of political and economic systems is to expand the range of things people can do and be. This framework shifts the measure of political success from GDP or utility to the actual development of human capacities, making Growth central to the evaluation of political institutions.

The German tradition of Bildung holds that the highest purpose of social institutions is the full development of each individual's capacities. Humboldt's argument that the state's role is to create conditions for self-cultivation, and Hegel's understanding of history as the progressive development of freedom, both express Growth's philosophical ambitions at their most systematic.