Human Nature and Conduct · Chapter
Habits as Social Functions explained
Dewey argues that habits are not merely individual possessions but social functions that incorporate and depend upon the environment.
What happens
Dewey argues that habits are not merely individual possessions but social functions that incorporate and depend upon the environment. He compares habits to physiological functions and arts, emphasizing that they require cooperation between organism and surroundings. Moral judgments, blame, and praise are themselves social conditions that shape character. True moral change requires modifying objective conditions, not just inner sentiments. Dewey critiques the isolation of the self from its environment and insists that conduct is always shared, with responsibility extending to the social factors that produce habits.
Themes in this chapter
Social Environment Shapes Morality
Dewey argues that personal traits and moral dispositions are functions of social situations, and that changing character requires changing objective conditions, not just inner intentions.
Habit and Custom as the Foundation of Conduct
Habits are presented as acquired dispositions that incorporate environmental forces, functioning like physiological processes or arts, and are the basis of all conduct.
Moral Judgment as Prospective and Consequential
Dewey emphasizes that moral judgment should focus on future consequences and the modification of conditions, not on retrospective blame or punishment.
Key passages
“We cannot change habit directly: that notion is magic. But we can change it indirectly by modifying conditions, by an intelligent selecting and weighting of the objects which engage attention and which influence the fulfilment of desires.”
Habits cannot be altered by sheer willpower; they can only be changed by reshaping the environment and the objects that capture our attention and shape our desires.
Dewey rejects direct moral reform of character in favor of environmental modification.
“Conduct is always shared; this is the difference between it and a physiological process. It is not an ethical 'ought' that conduct should be social. It is social, whether bad or good.”
All human action is inherently social because it involves interaction with others and the environment; sociality is a fact, not a moral ideal.
Dewey asserts the inescapable social dimension of conduct, countering individualistic moral theories.
“The moral problem is that of modifying the factors which now influence future results. To change the working character or will of another we have to alter objective conditions which enter into his habits.”
The real moral task is to change the conditions that shape future behavior, not to judge past actions. Changing someone's character requires changing their environment.
Dewey emphasizes prospective, consequentialist morality over retrospective blame.