Human Traits and their Social Significance | Page 2

behavior--The mechanism of habit--The acquisition of new modes of response--Trial and error and deliberate learning--Some conditions of habit-formation--Drill versus attentive repetition in learning--Learning affected by age, fatigue, and health--Habit as a time-saver--Habit as a stabilizer of action--Disserviceable habits in the individual--Social inertia--The importance of the learning habit--The specificity of habits--The conscious transference of habits--Emotion.
CHAPTER III
REFLECTION
Instinct and habit versus reflection--The origin and nature of reflection--Illustration of the reflective process--Reflection as the modifier of instinct--Reflective behavior modifies habit--The limits of reflection as a modifier of instinct and habit--How instincts and habits impair the processes of reflection--The value of reflection for life--The social importance of reflective behavior--Reflection removed from immediate application: science--The practical aspect of science--The creation of beautiful objects and the expression of ideas and feelings in beautiful form.
CHAPTER IV
THE BASIC HUMAN ACTIVITIES
Food, shelter, and sex--Physical activity--Mental activity--Quiescence: fatigue--Nervous and mental fatigue.
CHAPTER V
THE SOCIAL NATURE OF MAN
Man as a social being--Gregariousness--Gregariousness important for social solidarity--Gregariousness may hinder the solidarity of large groups--Gregariousness in belief--Gregariousness in habits of action--The effect of gregariousness on innovation--Sympathy (a specialization of gregariousness)--Praise and blame--Praise and blame modify habit--Desire for praise may lead to the profession rather than the practice of virtue--The social effectiveness of praise and blame--Social estimates and standards of conduct--Importance of relating praise and blame to socially important conduct--Education as the agency of social control--Social activity and the social motive.
CHAPTER VI
CRUCIAL TRAITS IN SOCIAL LIFE
The interpenetration of human traits--The fighting instinct--Pugnacity a menace when uncontrolled--Pugnacity as a beneficent social force--The "submissive instinct"--Men display qualities of leadership--Man pities and protects weak and suffering things--Fear--Love and hate--Love--Hate.
CHAPTER VII
THE DEMAND FOR PRIVACY AND INDIVIDUALITY
Privacy and solitude--Satisfaction in personal possession: the acquisitive instinct--Individuality in opinion and belief--The social importance of individuality in opinion.
CHAPTER VIII
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE "SELF"
Origin and development of a sense of personal selfhood--The social self--Character and will--The enhancement of the self--Egoism versus altruism--Self-satisfaction and dissatisfaction--The contrast between the self and others--Types of self--Self-display or boldness--Self-sufficient modesty--The positive and flexible self--Dogmatism and self-assertion--Enthusiasm--The negative self--Eccentrics--The active and the contemplative--Emotions aroused in the maintenance of the self--The individuality of groups.
CHAPTER IX
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
The meaning of individual differences--Causes of individual differences--The influence of sex--The influence of race--The influence of immediate ancestry or family--The influence of the environment--Individual differences--Democracy and education.
CHAPTER X
LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
Language as a social habit--Language and mental life--The instability of language--Changes in meaning--Uniformities in language--Standardization of language--Counter-tendencies toward differentiation--Language as emotional and logical--Language and logic.
CHAPTER XI
RACIAL AND CULTURAL CONTINUITY
Restriction of population--Cultural continuity--Uncritical veneration of the past--Romantic idealization of the past--Change synonymous with evil--"Order" versus change--Personal or class opposition to change--Uncritical disparagement--Critical examination of the past--Limitations of the past--Education as the transmitter of the past.
PART II--THE CAREER OF REASON
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER XII
RELIGION AND THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
The religious experience--"The reality of the unseen"--Experiences which frequently find religious expression--Need and impotence--Fear and awe--Regret, remorse: repentance and penance--Joy and enthusiasm: festivals and thanksgivings--Theology--The description of the divine--The divine as the human ideal--The religious experience, theology and science--Mechanistic science and theology--Religion and science--The church as a social institution--The social consequences of institutionalized religion--Intolerance and inquisition--Quietism and consolation: other-worldliness.
CHAPTER XIII
ART AND THE ?STHETIC EXPERIENCE
Art versus nature--The emergence of the fine arts--The ?sthetic experience--Appreciation versus action--Sense satisfaction--Form--Expression--Art as vicarious experience--Art and ?sthetic experience in the social order--Art as an industry--Art and morals.
CHAPTER XIV
SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC METHOD
What science is--Science as explanation--Science and a world view--The ?sthetic value of science--The danger of "pure science"--Practical or applied science--Analysis of scientific procedure--Science and common sense--Curiosity and scientific inquiry--Thinking begins with a problem--The quality of thinking: suggestion--Classification--Experimental variation of conditions--Generalizations, their elaboration and testing--The quantitative basis of scientific procedure--Statistics and probability--Science as an instrument of human progress.
CHAPTER XV
MORALS AND MORAL VALUATION
The pre-conditions of morality: instinct, impulse, and desire--The conflict of interests between men and groups--The levels of moral action: custom; the establishment of "folkways"--Morality as conformity to the established--The values of customary morality--The defects of customary morality--Custom and progress--Origin and nature of reflective morality--Reflective reconstruction of moral standards--The values of reflective morality--Reflection transforms customs into principles--Reflective action genuinely moral--Reflection sets up ideal standards--The defects of reflective morality--The inadequacy of theory in moral life--The danger of intellectualism in morals--Types of moral theory--Absolutism--Relativistic or teleological morality--Utilitarianism--Moral knowledge--Intuitionalism--Empiricism--Ethics and life--Morality and human nature--Morals, law, and education.
INDEX

INTRODUCTION
HUMAN TRAITS AND CIVILIZATION. Throughout the long enterprise of civilization in which mankind have more or less consciously changed the world they found into one more in conformity with their desires, two factors have remained constant: (1) the physical order of the universe, which we commonly call Nature, and (2) the native biological equipment of man, commonly known as human nature. Both of these, we are almost unanimously assured by modern science, have remained essentially the same from the dawn of history to the present. They are the raw material out of which is built up the vast complex of government, industry, science, art--all that we call civilization. In a