Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
A morality "based on the study of human nature instead of upon disregard for it" is the focus of this influential work by one of America's greatest educators and philosophers. John Dewey maintains that the key to social psychology lies in an understanding of the many varieties of habit; individual mental activity, on the other hand, is guided by the subordinate factors of impulse and intelligence.
"The mind," Dewey asserts, "can be understood in the concrete only as a system of beliefs, desires, and purposes which are formed in the interaction of biological aptitudes with a social environment." His investigation focuses on three main areas: the place of habit in conduct; the place of impulse in conduct; and the place of intelligence in conduct. Each factor receives an incisive treatment, brimming with ideas, insights, and considered reflections.
This classic of its genre presents a rich banquet of food for thought, certain to be appreciated by educators, psychologists, philosophers, and anyone interested in the role of the individual in society.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Contempt for human nature; pathology of goodness; freedom; value of science.
PART ONE THE PLACE OF HABIT IN CONDUCT
SECTION I: HABITS AS SOCIAL FUNCTIONS
Habits as functions and arts; social complicity; subjective factor.
SECTION II: HABITS AND WILL
Active means; ideas of ends; means and ends; nature of character
SECTION III: CHARACTER AND CONDUCT
Good will and consequences; virtues and natural goods; objective and subjective morals.
SECTION IV: CUSTOM AND HABIT
Human psychology is social; habit as conservative; mind and body.
SECTION V: CUSTOM AND MORALITY
Customs as standards; authority of standards; class conflicts
SECTION VI: HABIT AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Isoloation of individuality; newer movements.
PART TWO THE PLACE OF IMPULSE IN CONDUCT
SECTION I: IMPULSES AND CHANGE OF HABITS
Present interest in instincts; impulses as re-organizing
SECTION II: PLASTICITY OF IMPULSE
Impulse and education; uprush of impulse; fixed codes.
SECTION III: CHANGING HUMAN NATURE
Habits the inert factor; modification of impulses; war a social function; economic regimes as social products; nature of motives.
SECTION IV: IMPULSE AND CONFLICT OF HABITS
Possibility of social betterment; conservatism.
SECTION V: CLASSIFICATION OF INSTINCTS
"False simplifications; "self-love"; will to power; acquisitive and creative."
SECTION VI: NO SEPARATE INSTINCTS
Uniqueness of acts; possibilities of operation necessity of play and art; rebelliousness.
SECTION VII: IMPULSE AND THOUGHT
PART THREE THE PLACE OF INTELLIGENCE IN CONDUCT
SECTION I: HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE
"Habits and intellect; mind, habit and impulse."
SECTION II: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THINKING
The trinity of intellect; conscience and its alleged separate subject-matter.
SECTION III: THE NATURE OF DELIBERATION
Deliberation as imaginative rehearsal; preference and choice; strife of reason and passion; nature of reason.
SECTION IV: DELIBERATION AND CALCULATION
Error in utilitarian theory; place of the pleasant; hedonistic calculus; deliberation and prediction.
SECTION V: THE UNIQUENESS OF GOOD
Fallacy of a single good; applied to utilitarianism; profit and personality; means and ends.
SECTION VI: THE NATURE OF AIMS
Theory of final ends; aims as directive means; ends as justifying means; meaning well as an aim; wishes and aims.
SECTION VII: THE NATURE OF PRINCIPLES
Desire for certainty; morals and probabilities; importance of generalizations.
SECTION VIII: DESIRE AND INTELLIGENCE
Object and consequence of desire; desire and quiescence; self-deception in desire; desire needs intelligence; nature of idealism; living in the ideal.
SECTION IX: THE PRESENT AND FUTURE
Subordination of activity to result; control of future; production and consummation; idealism and distant goals.
PART FOUR CONCLUSION
SECTION I: THE GOOD OF ACTIVITY
Better and worse; morality a process; evolotuion and progress; optimism; Epicureanism; making others happy.
SECTION II: MORALS ARE HUMAN
Humane morals; natural law and morals; place of science.
SECTION III: WHAT IS FREEDOM?
Elements in freedom; capacity in action; novel possibilities; force of desire.
SECTION IV: MORALITY IS SOCIAL
Conscience and responsibility; social pressure and opportunity; exaggeration of blame; importance of social psychology; category of right; the community as religious symbol.
INDEX