Human Nature and Conduct · Chapter
III: Changing Human Nature explained
Dewey examines the debate between radical reformers, who believe human nature is infinitely malleable through education and habit, and conservatives, who argue that innate instincts make human nature unchangeable.
What happens
Dewey examines the debate between radical reformers, who believe human nature is infinitely malleable through education and habit, and conservatives, who argue that innate instincts make human nature unchangeable. He argues that both sides are mistaken: customs and habits are actually more resistant to change than instincts, which are highly modifiable. Dewey uses historical examples, such as Aristotle's defense of slavery, to show that what is often attributed to fixed human nature is actually the product of social custom. He concludes that social institutions shape and crystallize impulses into dominant habits, and that motives are not pre-existing forces but judgments made in light of consequences.
Themes in this chapter
Habit and Custom as the Foundation of Conduct
Dewey argues that custom has the greatest inertia and is least susceptible to alteration, while instincts are readily modifiable. He emphasizes that habits of thought persist even after external political changes.
Social Environment Shapes Morality
The chapter shows how social institutions and expectations shape and crystallize impulses into dominant habits, using the example of war and the wage-system as social patterns woven from instinctive activities.
Impulse and Intelligence as Agents of Change
Dewey discusses how native tendencies like pugnacity and fear interact, and how motives are not pre-existing but are judgments made in light of consequences, guiding intelligent action.
Characters to notice
- Aristotle
Cited as an example of those who mistakenly attributed slavery to aboriginal human nature, arguing that native distinctions of quality made slavery natural and inevitable.
Key passages
“Early reformers, following John Locke, were inclined to minimize the significance of native activities, and to emphasize the possibilities inherent in practice and habit-acquisition.”
Early reformers, influenced by John Locke, downplayed innate traits and focused on the potential of learning and habit formation.
Dewey sets up the historical debate between those who believe human nature is malleable and those who see it as fixed.
“As matter of fact, it is precisely custom which has greatest inertia, which is least susceptible of alteration; while instincts are most readily modifiable through use, most subject to educative direction.”
In reality, customs are the most resistant to change, whereas instincts are easily modified through practice and education.
Dewey reverses the common assumptions of both radicals and conservatives about what is changeable in human nature.
“To Aristotle slavery was rooted in aboriginal human nature. Native distinctions of quality exist such that some persons are by nature gifted with power to plan, command and supervise, and others possess merely capacity to obey and execute.”
Aristotle believed slavery was natural because some people are born with the ability to lead and others to follow.
Dewey uses Aristotle to illustrate how social customs are mistaken for fixed human nature.
“A motive does not exist prior to an act and produce it. It is an act plus a judgment upon some element of it, the judgment being made in the light of the consequences of the act.”
A motive is not a pre-existing cause of action; rather, it is the act itself combined with a judgment about its consequences.
Dewey redefines motive as a retrospective or prospective judgment, not an internal driver.