Human Nature & Conduct

CONTENTS


PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
Contempt for human nature; pathology of goodness; freedom;
value of science.

_PART ONE_
THE PLACE OF HABIT IN CONDUCT

SECTION I: HABITS AS SOCIAL FUNCTIONS 14
Habits as functions and arts; social complicity; subjective
factor.
SECTION II: HABITS AND WILL 24
Active means; ideas of ends; means and ends; nature of
character.
SECTION III: CHARACTER AND CONDUCT 43
Good will and consequences; virtues and natural goods;
objective and subjective morals.
SECTION IV: CUSTOM AND HABIT 58
Human psychology is social; habit as conservative; mind and
body.
SECTION V: CUSTOM AND MORALITY 75
Customs as standards; authority of standards; class
conflicts.
SECTION VI: HABIT AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 84
Isolation of individuality; newer movements.

_PART TWO_
THE PLACE OF IMPULSE IN CONDUCT

SECTION I: IMPULSES AND CHANGE OF HABITS 89
Present interest in instincts; impulses as re-organizing.
SECTION II: PLASTICITY OF IMPULSE 95
Impulse and education; uprush of impulse; fixed codes.
SECTION III: CHANGING HUMAN NATURE 106
Habits the inert factor; modification of impulses; war a
social function; economic regimes as social products; nature
of motives.
SECTION IV: IMPULSE AND CONFLICT OF HABITS 125
Possibility of social betterment; conservatism.
SECTION V: CLASSIFICATION OF INSTINCTS 131
False simplifications; "self-love"; will to power;
acquisitive and creative.
SECTION VI: NO SEPARATE INSTINCTS 149
Uniqueness of acts; possibilities of operation; necessity of
play and art; rebelliousness.
SECTION VII: IMPULSE AND THOUGHT 169

_PART THREE_
THE PLACE OF INTELLIGENCE IN CONDUCT

SECTION I: HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE 172
Habits and intellect; mind, habit and impulse.
SECTION II: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THINKING 181
The trinity of intellect; conscience and its alleged separate
subject-matter.
SECTION III: THE NATURE OF DELIBERATION 189
Deliberation as imaginative rehearsal; preference and choice;
strife of reason and passion; nature of reason.
SECTION IV: DELIBERATION AND CALCULATION 199
Error in utilitarian theory; place of the pleasant;
hedonistic calculus; deliberation and prediction.
SECTION V: THE UNIQUENESS OF GOOD 210
Fallacy of a single good; applied to utilitarianism; profit
and personality; means and ends.
SECTION VI: THE NATURE OF AIMS 223
Theory of final ends; aims as directive means; ends as
justifying means; meaning well as an aim; wishes and aims.
SECTION VII: THE NATURE OF PRINCIPLES 238
Desire for certainty; morals and probabilities; importance of
generalizations.
SECTION VIII: DESIRE AND INTELLIGENCE 248
Object and consequence of desire; desire and quiescence;
self-deception in desire; desire needs intelligence; nature
of idealism; living in the ideal.
SECTION IX: THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 265
Subordination of activity to result; control of future;
production and consummation; idealism and distant goals.

_PART FOUR_
CONCLUSION

SECTION I: THE GOOD OF ACTIVITY 278
Better and worse; morality a process; evolution and progress;
optimism; Epicureanism; making others happy.
SECTION II: MORALS ARE HUMAN 295
Humane morals; natural law and morals; place of science.
SECTION III: WHAT IS FREEDOM? 303
Elements in freedom; capacity in action; novel possibilities;
force of desire.
SOCIAL 314