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).