The Middle Works of John Dewey, Volume 14, 1899 - 1924: Human Nature and Conduct, 1922

by John Dewey, Jo Ann Boydston, Murray G. Murphey

Overview

Volume 14 of The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, series provides an authoritative edition of Dewey’s Human Nature and Conduct. A Modern Language Association Committee on Scholarly Editions textual edition.

Human Nature and Conduct evolved from the West Memorial Foundation lectures at Stanford University. The lectures were ex­tensively rewritten and expanded into one of Dewey’s best-known works. As Murray G. Murphey says in his Introduction, “It was a work in which Dewey sought to make ex­plicit the social character of his psychology and philosophy—something which had long been evident but never so clearly spelled out.”

Subtitled “An Introduction to Social Psy­chology,” Human Nature and Conduct sets forth Dewey’s view that habits are social functions, and that social phenomena, such as habit and custom and scientific methods of inquiry are moral and natural. Dewey con­cludes, “Within the flickering inconsequen­tial acts of separate selves dwells a sense of the whole which claims and dignifies them. In its presence we put off mortality and live in the universal.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809328093
Publisher:	Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	04/28/2008
Series:	Collected Works of John Dewey , #14
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	294
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Murray G. Murphey is Professor of Amer­ican Civilization at the University of Penn­sylvania.

Jo Ann Boydston is Director of the Cen­ter for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Patricia Baysinger, textual editor of this volume, is a member of the Dewey Center staff.

Table of Contents

Introduction   Murray G. Murphey     ix
Human Nature and Conduct     1
Preface     3
Introduction     4
The Place of Habit in Conduct     13
Habits as Social Functions     15
Habits and Will     21
Character and Conduct     33
Custom and Habit     43
Custom and Morality     54
Habit and Social Psychology     60
The Place of Impulse in Conduct     63
Impulses and Change of Habits     65
Plasticity of Impulse     69
Changing Human Nature     76
Impulse and Conflict of Habits     88
Classification of Instincts     92
No Separate Instincts     104
Impulse and Thought     117
The Place of Intelligence in Conduct     119
Habit and Intelligence     121
The Psychology of Thinking     127
The Nature of Deliberation     132
Deliberation and Calculation     139
The Uniqueness of Good     146
The Nature of Aims     154
The Nature of Principles     164
Desire and Intelligence     171
The Present and Future     182
Conclusion     191
The Good of Activity     193
Morals Are Human     204
What Is Freedom?     209
Morality Is Social     216
Foreword to the 1930 Modern Library Edition     228
First Edition Pagination Key     231
Textual Apparatus     235
Textual Commentary     237
Emendations List     244
Line-end Hyphenation     247
Checklist of Dewey's References     249
Index     251