Human Nature and Conduct: An introduction to social psychologyDewey, John
Philosophy
Human Nature and Conduct: An introduction to social psychology
Dewey, John
Habit; Social psychology
Moreover this tendency is a chief reason why the social forces effective
in shaping actual morality work blindly and unsatisfactorily. Judgment
in which the emphasis falls upon blame and approbation has more heat
than light. It is more emotional than intellectual. It is guided by
custom, personal convenience and resentment rather than by insight into
causes and consequences. It makes toward reducing moral instruction, the
educative influence of social opinion, to an immediate personal matter,
that is to say, to an adjustment of personal likes and dislikes.
Fault-finding creates resentment in the one blamed, and approval,
complacency, rather than a habit of scrutinizing conduct objectively. It
puts those who are sensitive to the judgments of others in a standing
defensive attitude, creating an apologetic, self-accusing and
self-exculpating habit of mind when what is needed is an impersonal
impartial habit of observation. "Moral" persons get so occupied with
defending their conduct from real and imagined criticism that they have
little time left to see what their acts really amount to, and the habit
of self-blame inevitably extends to include others since it is a habit.
Now it is a wholesome thing for any one to be made aware that
thoughtless, self-centered action on his part exposes him to the
indignation and dislike of others. There is no one who can be safely
trusted to be exempt from immediate reactions of criticism, and there
are few who do not need to be braced by occasional expressions of
approval. But these influences are immensely overdone in comparison with
the assistance that might be given by the influence of social judgments
which operate without accompaniments of praise and blame; which enable
an individual to see for himself what he is doing, and which put him in
command of a method of analyzing the obscure and usually unavowed forces
which move him to act. We need a permeation of judgments on conduct by
the method and materials of a science of human nature. Without such
enlightenment even the best-intentioned attempts at the moral guidance
and improvement of others often eventuate in tragedies of
misunderstanding and division, as is so often seen in the relations of
parents and children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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