Human Nature and Conduct · Chapter
I: Impulses and Change of Habit explained
Dewey argues that while impulses are temporally first in individual life, they are secondary in significance to acquired habits, which are shaped by social conditions.
What happens
Dewey argues that while impulses are temporally first in individual life, they are secondary in significance to acquired habits, which are shaped by social conditions. Impulses gain meaning only through interaction with a matured social medium, and the diversity of customs and institutions cannot be explained by a universal stock of instincts alone. Instead, impulses serve as pivots for reorganizing habits and are crucial for understanding social change and reform.
Themes in this chapter
Habit and Custom as the Foundation of Conduct
Dewey emphasizes that acquired habits, not native impulses, are primary in shaping conduct, and that customs arise from social interaction.
Social Environment Shapes Morality
The chapter argues that the meaning of impulses and the diversity of moral codes depend on social conditions and the responses of others.
Impulse and Intelligence as Agents of Change
Impulses are described as 'pivots' for reorganizing habits and as agencies of deviation, essential for understanding social transition and reform.
Education as Social Reproduction or Transformation
Dewey discusses how infants' impulses are educated by adults with formed habits, and how this process can either reproduce or transform existing customs.
Characters to notice
- William James
Referenced implicitly through the discussion of modern psychology's focus on instincts, though not named directly.
- Herbert Spencer
Referenced implicitly through the critique of explaining social phenomena by direct reference to native powers, akin to Spencer's evolutionary psychology.
Key passages
“In conduct the acquired is the primitive. Impulses although first in time are never primary in fact; they are secondary and dependent.”
In human behavior, what we learn (habits) is more fundamental than what we are born with (impulses). Even though impulses come first chronologically, they are not the main drivers of action; they depend on learned habits.
Dewey reverses the common-sense priority of instincts over habits, arguing that social learning is primary.
“Impulses are the pivots upon which the reorganization of activities turn, they are agencies of deviation, for giving new directions to old habits and changing their quality.”
Impulses serve as the crucial points around which habits can be restructured; they introduce novelty and allow old patterns to be redirected and transformed.
This highlights the role of impulses in change and reform, countering the view that they are merely raw material.
“The same original fears, angers, loves and hates are hopelessly entangled in the most opposite institutions.”
The same basic emotions and drives can be found in very different social customs and institutions, showing that instincts alone cannot explain cultural diversity.
Dewey uses this to argue against simplistic instinct-based explanations of social phenomena.