内容简介

The problem with morality, according to Pragmatist John Dewey, is that it assumes an inherent lacking in human nature and then seeks, through constraining rules, punishment, and threat, to make humans act differently-act against their nature. This, he claims, is a battle doomed to fail. In Human Nature and Conduct, first published in 1922, Dewey brings the rigor of natural sciences to the quest for a better moral system. By studying habit, impulse, and intelligence, he arrives at a morality that is firmly rooted the context of the world, accounting for thinking humans with individual circumstances that do, indeed, make a difference when determining right and wrong. Students of sociology, philosophy, and psychology will be interested to see moral judgment investigated as a scientific question by one of America's most influential philosophers. American educator and philosopher JOHN DEWEY (1859-1952) helped found the American Association of University Professors. He served as professor of philosophy at Columbia University from 1904 to 1930 and authored numerous books, including The School and Society (1899), Experience and Nature (1925), Experience and Education (1938), and Freedom and Culture (1939).

精彩摘录

预见将来的客观抉择并经过深思熟虑始能够选取其中之一，进而在为将来的生存的斗争中斟酌机会，衡量我们的自由。有时人们认为，如果深思熟虑决定选择和深思熟虑由性格与环境所决定这一点能够被显示出来，那么就没有什么自由可言。这不啻chì说，因为一花朵来自根和茎，故而它不能结出果实。问题并不在于什么是深思熟虑的抉择的前提而在于其后果。它们有什么与众不同之处？答案是，它们给予我们对于未来可能性的全部控制权。而这一控制则是我们的自由的关键所在。如果没有它，我们只好听任摆布。 杜威：《人性与行为》4

——引自第4页

在道德中幸福所以是根本的，只是因为幸福不是待寻求的东西，而是现在已经获得的东西。即使在痛苦与困难中，每当对我们同自然界以及同旁人的联系的认识，使我们的行动得到释放并有了意义情理时，就已经获得了幸福。 杜威：《人性与行为》III，9

——引自第1页