Human Nature and Conduct

by Dewey, John

• ISBN13: 9780486420974
• ISBN10: 0486420973
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-11-24
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

Influential work by the great educator/philosopher maintains that the key to social psychology lies in an understanding of the many varieties of habit; individual mental activity is guided by subordinate factors of impulse and intelligence. His investigation focuses on three main areas of conduct: habit, impulse, and intelligence, with each factor receiving an incisive treatment.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(13)
Contempt for human nature
pathology of goodness
freedom
value of science
PART ONE THE PLACE OF HABIT IN CONDUCT
Habits As Social Functions	14	(10)
Habits as functions and arts
social complicity
subjective factor
Habits And Will	24	(19)
Active means
ideas of ends
means and ends
nature of character
Character and Conduct	43	(15)
Good will and consequences
virtues and natural goods
objective and subjective morals
Custom and Habit	58	(17)
Human psychology is social
habit as conservative
mind and body
Custom and Morality	75	(9)
Customs as standards
authority of standards
class conflicts
Habit and Social Psychology	84	(5)
Isolation of individuality
newer movements
PART TWO THE PLACE OF IMPULSE IN CONDUCT
Impulses and Change of Habit	89	(6)
Present interest in instincts
impulses as re-organizing
Plasticity of Impulse	95	(11)
Impulse and education
uprush of impulse
fixed codes
Changing Human Nature	106	(19)
Habits the inert factor
modification of impulses
war a social function
economic regimes as social products
nature of motives
Impulse and Conflict of Habits	125	(6)
Possibility of social betterment
conservatism
Classification of Instincts	131	(18)
False simplifications
``self-love''
will to power
acquisitive and Creative
No Separate Instincts	149	(20)
Uniqueness of acts
possibilities of operation
necessity of play and art
rebelliousness
Impulse and Thought	169	(3)
PART THREE THE PLACE OF INTELLIGENCE IN CONDUCT
Habit and Intelligence	172	(9)
Habits and intellect
mind, habit and impulse
The Psychology of Thinking	181	(8)
The trinity of intellect
conscience and its alleged separate subject-matter
The Nature of Deliberation	189	(10)
Deliberation as imaginative rehearsal
preference and choice
strife of reason and passion
nature of reason
Deliberation and Calculation	199	(11)
Error in utilitarian theory
place of the pleasant
hedonistic calculus
deliberation and prediction
The Uniqueness of Good	210	(13)
Fallacy of a single good
applied to utilitarianism
profit and personality
means and ends
The Nature of Aims	223	(15)
Theory of final ends
aims as directive means
ends as justifying means
meaning well as an aim
wishes and aims
The Nature of Principles	238	(10)
Desire for certainty
morals and probabilities
importance of
Generalizations
Desire and Intelligence	248	(17)
Object and consequence of desire
desire and quiescence
self-deception in desire
desire needs intelligence; nature of idealism; living in the Ideal
The Present and Future	265	(13)
Subordination of activity to result
control of future
production and consummation
idealism and distant goals
PART FOUR CONCLUSION
The Good of Activity	278	(17)
Better and worse
morality a process
evolution and progress
optimism
Epicureanism
making others happy
Morals Are Human	295	(8)
Humane morals
natural law and morals
place of science
What is Freedom?	303	(11)
Elements in freedom
capacity in action
novel possibilities
force of desire
Morality Is Social	314	(19)
Conscience and responsibility
social pressure and opportunity
exaggeration of blame
importance of social psychology
category of right
the community as religious symbol
Index	333