Human Nature and Conduct 1922: The Middle Works of John Dewey 1899-1924, Volume 14

Volume 14of The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899–1924,series provides an authoritative edition of Dewey’s Human Nature and Conduct. A Modern Language Association Committee on Scholarly Editions textual edition.

Human Nature and Conduct evolved from the West Memorial Foundation lectures at Stanford University. The lectures were ex­tensively rewritten and expanded into one of Dewey’s best-known works. As Murray G. Murphey says in his Introduction, “It was a work in which Dewey sought to make ex­plicit the social character of his psychology and philosophy—something which had long been evident but never so clearly spelled out.”

Subtitled “An Introduction to Social Psy­chology,” Human Nature and Conduct sets forth Dewey’s view that habits are social functions, and that social phenomena, such as habit and custom and scientific methods of inquiry are moral and natural. Dewey con­cludes, “Within the flickering inconsequen­tial acts of separate selves dwells a sense of the whole which claims and dignifies them. In its presence we put off mortality and live in the universal.”

Murray G. Murphey is Professor of Amer­ican Civilization at the University of Penn­sylvania.

Jo Ann Boydston is Director of the Cen­ter for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Patricia Baysinger, textual editor of this volume, is a member of the Dewey Center staff.