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Review Notes:  John Dewey
1859 - 1952
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Outline on  Review Notes:  John Dewey
 
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 Overview of Dewey 
 
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 Behaviorism   
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 Pragmatism 
 
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 Habits   
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 Instincts   
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 Ethology   
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 Impulse  
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 Progressive Education 
 

 
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  An Overview of  John Dewey & Pragmatism 1859-1952
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 -  Biography & Major Works  
  PRAGMATISM IS A PHIL THAT ATTEMPTS TO APPLY THE METHODS OF SCIENCES TO PHIL & THE SOCIAL SCIENCES   
  Dewey was strongly influenced by the then new science of psychology  
  Dewey was influenced by the English biologist Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution  
  Dewey took his cue from Darwin & viewed consciousness as presumably useful to a living organism   
  Dewey conceived of thought & of the mind as instruments developed in the course of evolution to allow human beings to reshape their env  
  Dewey's version of pragmatism, later called instrumentalism, stated that all ideas are instruments  
  Focusing his attn on the biological & social functions of cognitive operations, he asked: 
a.  what are thoughts for?
b.  how do thought work?
c.  what difference do thoughts make?		  
  THE PRAGMATIC VIEW OF TRUTH IS THAT WHAT IS TRUE IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE  
  For Dewey, true ideas are those that work best for attaining human goals  
  Like many early symbolic interactionists, Dewey advocated that pragmatism be used to deal w/ social problems & not used only for the intellectual exercise of social scientists  
  Dewey advocated that pragmatism should be used to reshape education, morals, politics, & society  
  INTELLIGENCE / KNOWLEDGE IS OUR PRIMARY INSTRUMENT / TOOL TO ADDRESS THE ENV, BUT MOST OF US LIVE BY CUSTOM OR HABIT   
  Dewey saw intelligence as a power people use to face a conflict or challenge  
  For Dewey, people live mostly by custom & habit  
  For Dewey, in most situations, it is sufficient to think & act as we have done in the past, but some physical & social situations present problems calling for new responses  
  According to Dewey, we cannot solve unique problems by habitual action & thought, & thus we must use intelligence as an instrument for overcoming any obstacles  
  Because Dewey views intelligence as an instrument through which we overcome unique problems, his philosophy is called instrumentalism  
  For Dewey, knowledge is a means of controlling the env  
  Dewey focused on the same problem of how to close the gap in our understanding of the relationship btwn thought & action  
  Dewey's interpretation of science shows how thought & action are united in that science is a method for inquiring into the behavior of things  
  The results of scientific inquiry are the joint product of thought & activity  
  Dewey regarded activity as conducting experiments under controlled situations & thought as those theories that guide our experiments  
  PRAGMATISM HAS A SUBJECTIVE VIEW OF REALITY; BASES TRUTH ON PRAGMATISM, USEFULNESS, UTILITY; VIEWS PEOPLE AS LIVING BY WHAT IS PRAGMATIC, NOT THEORETICALLY PRAGMATIC; VIEWS REALITY, TRUTH, BEHAVIOR AS DYNAMIC / CHANGING   
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 There are EIGHT principles of pragmatism
 
  1.  Reality is not "out there"  
  2.  People remember/base knowledge on what is useful to them  
  3.  People are likely to alter what no longer works  
  4.  People define social & physical objects by their use  
  5.  People base their understanding of people on what they actually do  
  6.  Pragmatism has a narrow focus on the actor & the world  
  7.  Pragmatism views the interaction btwn the actor & the world as dynamic, not static  
  8.  People interpret the world   
  THE MIND IS A PROCESS, IS SOCIAL, IMAGINES & CONSIDERS ALTERNATIVES, IN SEARCH OF OPTIMIZATION   
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 Dewey viewed the mind as   
  - a thinking process  
  - defining objects in the social world  
  - outlining possible modes of conduct  
  - imagining consequences of alternative actions  
  - eliminating unlikely possibilities  
  - selecting the optimal mode of action  
  TWO BRANCHES OF PRAGMATISM, WHICH EXAMINE SIMILAR PROCESSES, ARE PHILOSOPHICAL REALISM WHICH FOCUSES ON SOCIETY CONSTITUTING & CONTROLLING WHILE NOMINALIST PRAGMATISM FOCUSES ON INDIVIDUALS CONSTITUTING SOCIETY   
  There are two branches of pragmatism  
  1.  Philosophical realism which is similar to Mead's work  
       aka social realists  
       Society constitutes & controls mental processes  
       We are not free agents, rather we are "controlled" by community
 
 
 2.  Nominalist pragmatism is dominated by the work of Dewey & James
 
 
 For the nominalist pragmatists, the macro level does exist but does not have effects upon consciousness & behavior
 
 
 For the nominalist pragmatists, we are free agents who accept, reject, modify, & define norms, roles, & beliefs
 
  In every area of life, Dewey called for experimenting & trying out new methods  
  As an educator, Dewey opposed the traditional method of learning by memory under the authority of teachers  
  Dewey believed that ed should not be concerned only with the mind, they should develop manual skills  
  Learning must be related to the interests of students and connected w/ current problems  
  Dewey declared that ed must include a student's physical & moral well being as well as intellectual development  
  In Art as Experience (1934), Dewey connected works of art w/ the experiences of everyday life  
  Dewey wrote that daily experience can be glorious, joyous, sad, tedious, terrifying, & tragic  
  Daily experiences are the qualities that architects, composers, painters, & writers seek to capture and express in their works  
  Dewey regarded ed as incomplete if it ignores the experiences of the producers & production of great works  

 
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John Dewey
1859-1952

Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont.  He had a distinguished teaching career at several universities, especially at Columbia University from 1904 until his retirement in 1930. 

Dewey, John (1859-1952), was an American philosopher and educator.  He helped lead a philosophical movement called pragmatism.  He wrote widely on art, democracy, education, philosophy, and science. 

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Major Works of Dewey

Democracy and Education. (1916)
Reconstruction in Philosophy. (1920)
Experience and Nature. (1925). 
In Art as Experience. (1934)

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Additional Resources for Dewey

Campbell, James.   Understanding John Dewey.  Open Court, 1995. 
Tiles, Jim E.  Dewey.  1988.  Reprint.  Routledge, 1990. 
Westbrook, Robert B.  John Dewey and American Democracy. Cornell Univ. Pr., 1991.


 
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 Outline on the Behaviorism
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  Behaviorism is the psychological school holding that objectively observable organismic behavior constitutes the essential or exclusive scientific basis of psycholigcal data & investigation & stressing the role of the environment as a determinent of human & animal behavior   
  Behaviorism explains human behavior entirely as a physiological response to environmental stimuli 
 
  One of the earliest theorists in behaviorism was Pavlov who trained his dog to salivate at the sound of a bell 
 
 
 Pavlov & Bekhterev developed the behavioristic concepts of the conditioned reflex 
 
  Pavlov's experiments with animals proved that certain reflex actions can become conditioned responses to entirely new stimuli   
  EARLY BEHAVIORISM:  PAVLOV & WATSON  
  Pavlov noticed that a dog's mouth begins to water as a reflex when the animal smells meat   
  Pavlov rang a bell each time he was about to give meat to a dog   
  Eventually, the dog's mouth began to water when Pavlov merely rang the bell   
  The flow of saliva had become a conditioned response to the ringing of the bell   
 
 As a major branch of psychology, behaviorism developed from research on learning 
 
 
 Today behavioral theories continue to emphasize the effects of learning on behavior 
 
 
 Behaviorism was introduced in 1913 by the American psychologist John B. Watson, who felt psychologists should study only observable behavior rather than states of consciousness or thought processes 
 
  Watson's approach to behaviorism was strongly influenced by the research of the Russian physiologist Ivan P. Pavlov during the early 1900's   
 
 Watson developed behaviorism based on the mechanistic concepts of Democritus, Epicurus, & Hobbes 
 
 
 Watson believed changes in behavior result from conditioning, a learning process in which a new response becomes associated with a certain stimulus 
 
 
 Watson denied the value of introspection & consciousness as unscientific concepts 
 
 
 Watson saw all mental processes as bodily movements, even when those movements could not be observed 
 
 
 For Watson, verbal thinking is subvocal speech 
 
  Watson demonstrated that responses of human beings could be conditioned in a similar manner to the methodology of Pavlov's Dog   
  In one study, Watson struck a metal bar loudly each time an infant touched a furry animal   
  The sound of a metal bar which was struck as an infant touched an animal scared the child, who in time became frightened by just the sight of the animal   
  Watson felt he could produce almost any response in a child if he could control the child's environment   
  Watson is an advocate of what today is called Radical Behaviorism that is only concerned w/ observable behavior   
  RADICAL BEHAVIORISM:  BF SKINNER & OTHERS   
  Radical behaviorism focuses only on stimuli & responses & the resulting behavior   
  For radical behaviorism, mental processes were an unexamined black box   
  During the mid 1900's, the American behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner became known for his studies of how rewards and punishments can influence behavior   
  B.F. Skinner was an important behaviorist of the 1950s until the present who may also be considered a radical behaviorist   
  Skinner believed that rewards, or positive reinforcements, cause behavior to be repeated   
  Positive reinforcements might include praise, food, or simply a person's satisfaction with his or her own skill   
  Punishments discourage the behavior they follow but punishment also encourages people to avoid situations in which they might be punished   
  Skinner concluded that positive reinforcement is more effective in teaching new and better behaviors   
  Skinner's work led to the development of teaching machines, which are based on positive reinforcement   
 
 Behaviorists considered all emotions except fear, love, & rage as learned by conditioning, & thus they can be unlearned 
 
 
 Behaviorism was very influential in the US btwn the world wars 
 
 
 Behaviorists hold that ALL behavior is conditioned by the environment 
 
 
 The environment, which includes other people, gives people rewards & punishments, which are the stimulus 
 
 
 An operant conditioning schedule of rewards & punishment determines behavior 
 
 
 The behavior, that is elicited by a stimulus, is a response 
 
 
 In an operant conditioning schedule, 
 
 
 - rewards are the supplying of something valuable, or the removing of something unpleasant 
 
 
 - punishments are the supplying of something unpleasant, or the removing of something valuable 
 
 
 For behaviorism, consciousness is an artifact, meaning that it is not necessary to study it in order to understand behavior 
 
 
 In many ways, behaviorism is a 100% socialization theory in that genetics, & will power / consciousness have a minimal role 
 
 
 Behaviorists use a learning process called conditioning to change abnormal behavior 
 
 
 In this process, behaviorists treat disturbed people by teaching them acceptable behavior patterns and reinforcing desired behavior by rewards and punishments 
 
  SOCIAL BEHAVIORISM:  MEAD & COOLEY   
 
 Social behaviorism, as developed by Mead, the exchange theorists, network theorists, & rational choice theorist  diverges from strict or radical behaviorism in that mental process are seen as important 
 
 
 For the social behaviorists, radical behaviorism was too simplistic because it ignored the social context in which a given behavior occurred 
 
 
 For the social behaviorists, social theorists need to understand mental process to interpret behavior 
 
 
 Actors are not stimulus & response puppets, but dynamic, reactive actors 
 
 
 Social behaviorism (as for Mead) is concerned w/ operant conditioning 
 
 
 Social behaviorism has a strong influence on 
 
 
    Mead   
 
    Exchange Theory   
 
    Network Theory   
 
    Exchange Theory   
 
 Social behaviorism sees stimuli as reward & punishment schedules from the environment, from other actors, and from the actor themself 
 
 
 Social behaviorism examines the relationship btwn behavior and its effect on the environment and the actor's later behavior 
 
 
 Social behaviorism examines the learning process by which behavior is modified by its consequences 
 
 
 The social & physical environments are affected by an actor's behavior and act back:  i.e. give feedback 
 
 
 Feedback affects the actor's later behavior 
 
 
 Social behaviorism is concerned w/ the history of env feedback or consequences and the nature of present behavior 
 
 
 Past consequences of a behavior govern its present state 
 
 
 Social rewards have ability to strengthen or reinforce behavior 
 
 
 Social costs reduce the likelihood of behavior 
 
  Most psychologists agree with the behaviorists that environment influences behavior and that they should study chiefly observable actions   
  However, many psychologists object to pure behaviorism because they believe that it pays too little attention to such processes as reasoning and personality development   

 
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 Outline on  Pragmatism
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  -  Supplement:  Peirce, Popular Science Monthly 
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  INTRO & DEFINITIONS:  PRAGMATISM HOLDS THAT MEANING / TRUTH IS DETERMINED BY OUTCOMES MANIFESTED IN PRACTICE  
  Pragmatism is a philosophy that attempts to apply the methods of science to philosophy & the social sciences 
 
  Pragmatism's central idea is that the meaning & truth of an idea are determined by the idea's effects in practice & on conduct 
 
  Three American philosophers, 
Charles Sanders Peirce 
William James 
John Dewey 
developed pragmatism
 
  Peirce originated the phil of prag, James made it popular, & Dewey extended it to key areas of life 
 
  Pragmatism became the most important philosophical mvmt in the US during the early 1900's, & it has had an enormous influence on Am life 
 
  Pragmatism has been called a typically Am phil because of its basic optimism, its emphasis on action, & its belief in a future that can be changed by human ideas & efforts 
 
  Many people claim that pragmatism expresses the essential Am character 
 
  Pragmatism was the most important philosophic mvmt in the US in the late 19th & early 20th centuries   
  There were 2 centers of pragmatism, one in Chicago lead by Dewey & one at Harvard, led by Peirce & James   
  THE TENETS OF PRAGMATISM ARE:  1  NO OBJ REALITY  2. KNOWLEDGE IS DETERMINED BY ITS USEFULNESS  3.  SOC & PHYS OBJS DEFINED BY USEFULNESS  4.  UNDERSTANDING OF ACTORS IS BASED ON WHAT THEY DO   
  A tenet of pragmatism is that:   
  1.  True reality does not exist 'out there' since it is actively created as we act in & toward the world   
  2.  People remember & base their knowledge of the world on what has proven useful to them   
  People are likely to alter what no longer works   
  3.  People define the social & physical "objects" that they encounter in the world according to their use for them   
  4.  If we want to understand actors, we must base that understanding on what they actually do in the world   
  Some of the basic tenets of pragmatism were originally published by Peirce in "How to Make Our Ideas Clear," in Popular Science Monthly, 1875   
  PRAGMATISM'S INFLUENCE ON SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM WAS TO MAKE IT MORE GROUNDED IN THAT IT BASED CONCLUSIONS ON OUTCOMES, NOT THEORY   
  Pragmatists & symbolic interactionists focus on the interaction btwn the actor & the world   
  Pragmatists & symbolic interactionists see both the actor & the world as dynamic processes & not static structures  
  Pragmatists & symbolic interactionists see the importance of the actor's ability to interpret the social world   
  DEWEY & PRAGMATISTS CONCEIVE OF THE MIND AS A PROCESS  
  Dewey & the pragmatists do not conceive of the mind as a thing or structure but rather as a thinking process that involves a series of stage   
  The stages of  the mind in pragmatic process include   
  a.  defining objects in the social world   
  b.  outlining possible modes of conduct   
  c.  imagining the consequences of alternative course of action   
  d.  eliminating unlikely possibilities   
  e.  Selecting the optimal mode of action (Stryker, 1980)   
  NOMINALIST PRAGMATISM HOLDS THAT MACRO LEVEL FORCES HAVE NO DETERMINATIVE EFFECT ON INDIVIDUALS & THUS OUTCOMES; IE EMBRACING ONLY A MICRO LEVEL ANALYSIS  
  Nominalist pragmatists hold that while macro level phenomena exist, they do not have independent & determinative effects upon the consciousness of, & behavior of individuals   
  Nominalist pragmatists conceive of the individual themself as existentially free agents who accept, reject, modify, or otherwise 'define' the community's norms, roles, beliefs, etc. according to their own personal interests & plans of the moment   
  Blumer is more of a nominalist pragmatist in that he moved completely toward psychical interactionism   
  The psychical interactionist holds that meanings of symbols are not universal & objective   
  Meanings are individual & subjective in that they are "attached" to the symbols by the receiver according to how he or she chooses to "interpret" them   
  REALIST PRAGMATISTS HOLD THAT MACRO LEVEL FORCES HAVE DETERMINATIVE EFFECTS ON INDIVIDUALS & THUS OUTCOMES; IE EMBRACING BOTH MICRO & MACRO LEVEL ANALYSES  
  To social realists, the emphasis is on society & how it constitutes & controls individual mental processes   
  Rather than being free agents, actors & their conniptions & behaviors are controlled by the larger community   
  Mead was more of a realist pragmatist & was a social behaviorist   
  PRAGMATISM DEMONSTRATED THAT RELIGIOUS BELIEFS WERE FUNCTIONAL FOR INDIVIDUALS & SOCIETY (though they would not use the concept:  functional)   
  Pragmatism arose to attempt to reconcile science & religion in the wake of the widespread scholarly acceptance of Darwinian biology   
  The truth of an idea lay primarily in its ability to satisfactorily orient individuals to the world, & in its consistency w/ other ideas & its aesthetic appeal   
  Ideas are plans of action & would be deemed true if action in accordance w/ them "worked" in the long run   
  Pragmatists accepted the findings & methods of the natural sciences & urged that these methods be applied in all areas of inquiry   
  Pragmatists thought that religious ideas, for example, belief in the existence of God & in a benign universe, might be justified since, emotionally, they were a source of satisfaction & since such ideas also worked   
  What works is defined as action in accordance w/ ideas which met w/ success   
  For James, the chief virtue of the pragmatic account of truth was that it made philosophic speculation concrete & gave its adherents a creed to live by   
  Peirce dissociated himself form James' non techl theorizing but even James limited the applications of pragmatist doctrine to the affairs of individuals, perhaps because of his early interest in physiology, & psychology   
  PRAGMATISM CAME TO BE AN IDEOLOGY OF LIBERAL POLITICIANS  
  Dewey called his version of pragmatism instrumentalism   
  Dewey had a belief that it was our duty to address social problems  & thus he addressed educational, social & other social problems   
  Pragmatism became known as the rationale behind reformist politics   
  The political pragmatist was the liberal who restricted progressive goal to what was obtainable practically, to programs that could succeed   
  Pragmatism became associated w/ a rigorous empiricism that had little significance for larger human issues   

 
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 Outline on Habits
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 Supplement:  Getting to no.  The science of building willpower.  Jeffrey Kluger.  Time Magazine.  March 5, 2012.  Vol 179, No. 9.  pp. 42-47. 
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 A HABIT IS SOMETHING A PERSON LEARNS TO DO OVER & OVER AGAIN W/O THINKING ABOUT HOW TO DO IT 
 
  Many everyday actions are habits   
  It would even be difficult to walk down the street if you had to think of every action needed to take every step   
  A habit is different from an instinct in that an instinct is behavior that is inborn, instead of learned   
 
 HABITS ARE LEARNED BY CONSCIOUSLY RESPONDING TO A STIMULUS; AT SOME PT A HABIT IS ESTBED WHEN THE HABIT BECOMES AUTOMATIC, IE UNCONSCIOUS
 
  Most habits begin as actions that a person is aware of   
  The more the person performs an action, the easier it becomes   
  Strong habits become automatic, & require little or no thought  
  A stimulus (something that starts an action) must be present each time the habit is carried out   
  A stimulus may be an internal event, such as a feeling of loneliness, or an external event, such as a red traffic light   
  In some people, for example, a feeling of loneliness triggers the habit of eating sweets   
  A red traffic light is a stimulus to an experienced automobile driver which triggers the habit of pressing the brake pedal   
  To learn this habit, each new driver must practice under actual traffic conditions, learning to press the brake pedal when the light is red   
  ALL HABITS ARE EXPERIENCED BY THE INDIVIDUAL AS GOOD / FUNCTIONAL THOUGH ULTIMATELY THEY MAY BE DYSFUNCTIONAL  
  Many social scientists believe that people will learn a habit only if it benefits them   
  The satisfaction of a habit is a reward or a reinforcement   
  If the habit satisfies people, they tend to keep it   
  When a habit offers no reward or becomes unpleasant, they may break (discard) it   
  For example, some people get pleasure from smoking & because of this pleasure (reward), smoking becomes a habit   
  If the habit becomes unpleasant (no longer brings a reward), a person may stop smoking   
  For many habits, the pleasure is immediately perceived, while the negative consequences may be experienced only in the long run or not at all   
  Smoking is a habit where the pleasure is immediately perceived, while the negative consequences may be experienced only in the long run or not at all   
  Some habits are "good" & others are "bad," depending on how they affect the individual & other people   
  From society's pt of view, we learn "good" habits in order to act as others expect us to act   
  Neat appearance & pleasant manners are considered good habits   
  A person may learn "bad" habits, thinking something can be gained from them, but such habits may be annoying to others   
  HABITS ARE INGRAINED / LEARNED BY ENGAGING MANY ASPECTS OF THE BRAIN / MIND & CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM (CNS)   
  Social scientists who support the reward idea of habit formation disagree w/ an older idea which said that "paths" were made in the nervous system when an act was repeated   
  Social scientists have taught rats habits & then cut their nervous systems at many points & despite the cuts, the rats continued to perform the habits   
  Learning of habits does not depend on specific nerve connections & does not occur only in particular parts of the brain   
  THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF HABITS:  SIMPLE & HABITS OF ADJUSTMENT  
  Some habits are simple & require only movements of the muscles   
  When approaching a door, a person grasps the doorknob engaging this action via a simple motor act   
  Some habits are more than simple motor acts; they are thoughts & attitudes we have about things & people   
  Social scientists call habits that are more than simple motor acts, acts of adjustment.   
  DEWEY NOTED THAT A BASE OF HABITUAL BEHAVIOR IS THE FOUNDATION ON WHICH VIRTUOSITY / EXPERTISE IF DEVELOPED   
 
 Like Peirce & James, Dewey saw habits as human activity that is learned through experience & becomes an important ability or art 
 
 
 Habits involve a degree of mechanization or routinization 
 
 
 Habit would be impossible w/o creating a pattern of action, physiologically engrained, which operates spontaneously & automatically whenever the cue is given 
 
 
 Dewey believed individuals often operate through habit type automatic patterns which enable the individual to perform tasks most effectively 
 
 
 Habits, in some cases, allow one to acquire virtuosity or expertise 
 
 
 While habits allow a violin player to master the music, the difference btwn the artist & the mere technician is unmistakable 
 
 
 The artist is a masterful technician while the mechanical performer permits the mechanism to dictate the performance 
 
 
 Habits are functional since if, for example, a violinist had to consciously & deliberately think about where & how to place the fingers on the string, he or she would forever remain an unskilled & boring performer 
 
 
 Without habits, no one would ever master complex tasks like playing music 
 
 
 A good technique at any complex skill requires a high degree of mechanization so that virtually no conscious deliberation is required when engaging in that complex activity 
 
 
 Useful habits are good precisely because they require little or no deliberate reflection 
 
 
 Clearly many of our daily tasks such as brushing our teeth require little thought 
 
 
 Some daily activities associated w/ our occupations & professions require not only thought but imagination & creativity 
 
 
 More than technique of habit is required if one aims for excellence a crafts person, artist, professional, expert, etc. 
 
  HABITUAL BEHAVIOR ALLOWS THE BRAIN TO 'IGNORE' SIMPLE ACTS & FOCUS MORE INTELLECTUAL POWER ON COMPLEX ACTS VIA INNOVATION / BRICOLAGE  
 
 One can even apply Dewey's distinction btwn a creative performance & a merely mechanical one to all human relations, including love relations 
 
 
 Schopenhauer remarked, "In art as in love an emphasis on technique leads to impotence" 
 
 
 Wildland fire fighting, policing, soldiering, medical practice are all examples of professions where the practitioners learn many rules & techniques, ie habits 
 
 
 Most professionals recognize that when training fails to address the crises in a situation, then innovative behavior, what Karl Weick calls bricolage, is required 
 
 
 Bricolage is the bringing together of all the skill, knowledge, habits, training, etc. in a profession to forge a new practice or solution to a crises 
 
  Bricolage is only possible for the expert in a field, where the practitioner has mastered the habits & training & can move beyond even expertise to bricolage  

 
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 Outline on Instincts
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 INSTINCT IS BEHAVIOR THAT APPEARS TO DEVELOP LARGELY INDEPENDENT OF EXPERIENCE; DUE TO 'NATURAL,' BIOLOGICAL DRIVE 
 
 
 Instinctive behaviors are determined by the genetic makeup of the organism 
 
 
 Instincts differ from learned behaviors, which gradually develop as a result of experiences by the organism in its environment 
 
 
 Although behaviors may be categorized as instinctive or learned for ease of discussion, few behaviors, if any, are all one type or the other 
 
 
 Behaviors develop as a result of the interaction of genetic & environmental influences, but some may be affected more by genetic factors, & others more by experience 
 
 
 SOC & NAT SCIENTISTS OFFER MANY EXAMPLES OF INSTINCTUAL BEHAVIOR RELATED TO SEXUALITY, FEEDING, HUNTING, GROUP/PACK RELATIONSHIPS, ETC 
 
 
 The mating behavior of a fish called the three spined stickleback includes many examples of instinctive behavior 
 
  The male stickleback chooses a mating area & drives other fish from it & then collects plants & forms them into a small mound   
  The male stickleback wriggles through the completed mound, creating a tunnel, which is slightly shorter than the fish, which becomes his nest   
  Meanwhile, his normally dull colored body has changed color w/ his belly becoming bright red & his back bluish white   
  The male stickleback then starts to court females   
  Whenever a female, her abdomen swollen w/ eggs, enters his mating area, he swims toward & performs a zigzagging "dance"   
  He continues this dance until a female follows him to his nest, where she lays her eggs   
  The female then swims away, & the male fertilizes the eggs, after which he stays near the nest to protect the eggs &, later, the young   
  The stickleback does not learn the basics of his complicated mating ceremony   
  Each male is born w/ the basic pattern built into his nervous system, & all male sticklebacks perform essentially the same actions   
  MOST BEHAVIOR THAT IS CALLED INSTINCTIVE IS RIGID & DOES NOT VARY GREATLY AMONG MEMBERS OF A SPECIES   
  Early experience may lead individuals of the same species to differ somewhat in the details of a primarily instinctive behavior   
 
 For example, individual goldfinches show very similar basic behavior in building their nest 
 
  But the individuals may use different proportions of various materials to build their nests & may carry the materials in different ways   
  INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR IS RELEASED (BROUGHT ABOUT) BY A STIMULUS, SOMETHING THAT CUES AN ANIMAL TO ACT AS IT DOES   
  While a male stickleback begins to court a female when he sees her swollen abdomen, in laboratory experiments, male sticklebacks also court cardboard models, but only if the models have swollen abdomens   
  The female stickleback is attracted by the male's bright red belly & will  follow crude models w/ red bellies more often than they follow exact copies of males w/o  red bellies   
  The swollen abdomen of the female & the bright red belly of the male are both examples of releasing stimuli   
  A reflex, such as blinking at a bright light, is also a type of unlearned behavior released by a stimulus   
  Reflex actions are less complicated than instinctive behavior   
  In many cases, a releasing stimulus acts on one or more glands in an animal's body   
  Seasonal changes in the amount of daylight affect the glands of some kinds of birds   
  The glands secrete fluids called hormones, & a change in the amount of hormones secreted stimulates the birds to migrate   
  If a gland does not secrete a certain hormone properly, an animal may not carry out the instinctive behavior associated w/ that hormone   
  Some glands produce hormones only at a certain stage in an animal's life; the sex glands, for instance, do not function completely in young animals   
 
 IMPRINTING IS TO FIX THE AFFECTIONS & INTERESTS UPON ANOTHER ANIMAL, OR OBJECT IDENTIFIED AS, OR IN PLACE OF, THE PARENT 
 
  Imprinting may occur when an animal or object becomes the object of the affections & interests of an animal as, for example, when goats & sheep apparently imprint on their own young in the first few moments after birth 
 
 
 Imprinting occurs when an animal learns to recognize a stimulus that will later release instinctive behavior 
 
 
 A gosling follows the first moving object it sees shortly after hatching & after it imprints, the young goose "recognizes" the moving object as its parent 
 
 
 It later "recognizes" similar objects as members of its own species 
 
  The gosling's behavior works out well if the first moving object is an adult female goose, but young geese hatched in an incubator may see humans first, & become imprinted toward them   
 
 Thus in an incubator situation w/ humans present, the goslings act toward humans as they should act toward other geese, & after they mature, they even court humans 
 
  In many cases, animals that become imprinted toward animals of another species never learn to recognize members of their own species 
 
  MUCH INSTINCTUAL BEHAVIOR IN HIGHER ANIMALS REQUIRES LEARNED BEHAVIOR TO MANIFEST   
  Most animals perform both instinctive actions &  learned actions   
  Behaviors of insects, spiders, & crustaceans are largely instinctive   
  These animals do modify their behavior by experience, but they depend on built in behavior patterns more than do higher animals, such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, & mammals   
  Higher animals seem to use learning more as their behavior develops   
  Young chickens, for example, crouch motionless when any moving object appears above them, even if it is only a falling leaf   
  Older birds learn that leaves will not harm them, & so they do not react as they once did, but older birds do crouch motionless at the approach of a hawk   
  HUMANS MODIFY MUCH OF THEIR BEHAVIOR BY LEARNING   
  Infants show much instinctive behavior, including smiling & sucking   
  Infants may use instinctive behavior when they have had limited time to learn behavior important for their survival   
  MUCH SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN MANY ANIMALS HAS A STRONG INSTINCTUAL COMPONENT   
  Survival & successful reproduction for most animals depend on a combination of instinct, learning, & body changes   
  For an animal to develop normal behavior, it must come in contact w/ the normal releasing stimuli for members of its species   
  Scientists have raised monkeys separately from all other monkeys, & Such monkeys do not display normal social or sexual behavior if, after reaching adulthood, they are placed w/ other monkeys   
  Normal adult monkey behavior results from experiences while growing up as a member of a group of monkeys   
  Normal adult experiences enable a monkey to perfect its instinctive behavior through learning   
  INSTINCTUALISTS CONCEIVE OF THE HUMAN BEING AS DRIVEN BY NATURAL, INTERNAL, GENETICALLY DETERMINED, BIOPSYCHIC FORCES   
  Fear, anger, rivalry, the desire for mastery over others, maternal love, sexual desire, aggressiveness, & many more, are said to be determined by an instinct 
 
  For instinctualists, an instinct is an inherited & innate biological process that tells the individual how to act in a specific situation 
 
  In Dewey's time, social scientists invented the concept of instincts to explain almost every form of human action, & this model of humanity still persists today among most of the general, Western public 
 
  The instinctualists derived their doctrine from Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection 
 
  DEWEY DEMONSTRATED THAT THE INSTINCTUALIST DOCTRINE WAS MISLEADING, EVEN AS APPLIED TO ANIMALS 
 
  Lions, when raised in captivity, grow up incapable of hunting & are anything but aggressive 
 
  If lions are returned to their usual, natural habitat, they are unable to provide for themselves 
 
  Although the natural potential for hunting is present in the lion, he must undergo a definite training & acquire experience in order for the potentiality to develop 
 
  Wolves, like lions, also have to learn how to hunt 
 
  If after being raised domestically they are returned to the wild, they will observe caribou w/ only casual interest; even when they are hungry 
 
  Hunting caribou never occurs to wolves; caribou are not potential prey   
  MANY SOC SCIENTISTS REGARD HUMAN SEXUALITY AS LARGELY INSTINCTUAL  
  The sex instinct tells individuals how to act in specific situations   
  In animals the endocrine & generative systems of a mature, female mammal go through an estrous cycle, which makes copulation possible in definite periods, & in those periods only   
  During the rutting season in deer, for example, is when the female is in heat, which leads to sexual excitement in the male deer   
  Even in animals, a measure of learning is necessary before the animal is informed how to act in a specific sexual situation   
  For many animals, learning is in the form of trial & error behavior   
  In humans, there is no estrous cycle   
  There are neuro physiological organs & processes that make it possible for humans to engage in sexual behavior w/o a considerable amount of learning   
  No human can perform sexually before he or she has learned to do so in some social context   
  Sexual knowledge may be gained from family, peers, texts, etc; but  learned knowledge is absolutely essential for the capacity for sexual performance is to be actualized in behavior   
  If one has not learned what to do about his or her sexual feelings, there is nothing in the human organism that automatically leads an individual to sexual intercourse   
  There does exist in every human physiological processes that are the source of sexual or erotic impulses, but to call such impulses instincts obscures the fact that the conduct of individuals is influenced by their cultural context   
  The object of one's sexual interest may depend on such cultural conditions as standards of beauty & ethnic, religious, social class background, & many more factors that must be learned   
  It was clear to Dewey that no instinct governs human sexuality   
 
 Rather than a sexual instinct, what we have is a wide range of erotic impulses, which may be directed toward oneself, toward member of either or both sexes, & toward animals & objects   
  DEWEY PROPOSES THAT SOC SCIENTISTS USE THE CONCEPT OF IMPULSE INSTEAD OF INSTINCT TO DESCRIBE THE SOURCE OF HUMAN NATURE   
  Because of necessity of learning for any complex behavior to manifest itself, Dewey rejects the insinctualist doctrine, & like William James, proposes the word impulse be used instead   
  For Dewey & James, impulses refers to the biologically rooted factor prompting certain actions in animals & humans   

 
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 Outline on  Ethology
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  ETHOLOGY IS THE BRANCH OF ZOOLOGY THAT DEALS W/ ANIMAL INSTINCTS
 
  Ethologists study such instinctive behavior as courtship, mating, and care of young 
 
  Ethologists study how animals communicate and how they establish and defend their territories 
 
  Ethologists seek to determine what causes instinctive behavior, how such behavior developed over millions of years, and how it helps a species survive 
 
  For each kind of animal studied, ethologists prepare an ethogram, which is a list that describes the known behavior patterns of the species 
 
  In the ethogram, they also try to specify the conditions under which each instinctive act occurs 
 
  Ethologists have developed ethograms for various species of insects, fishes, birds, and mammals 
 

 
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 Outline on  Dewey on Impulses
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 AN IMPULSE IS A SUDDEN INCLINATION OR TENDENCY TO ACT 
 
 
 An impulse is the stimulating force of desire or emotion 
 
 
 An impulse is a sudden, driving force or influence; thrust; push 
 
 
 Compulsion is an irresistible impulse to perform a certain action again & again 
 
 
 DEWEY PROPOSES THAT THE CONCEPT OF IMPULSE DESCRIBES FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN DRIVES BETTER THAN THE CONCEPT OF INSTINCT
 
 
 Because for any complex behavior must be preceded by learning, Dewey rejects the instinctualist doctrine, & like William James, proposes the word impulse be used instead 
 
 
 For Dewey & James, impulse refers to the biologically rooted factor prompting certain actions in animals & humans 
 
 
 Dewey recognized that humans possess no instinct defined as biologically rooted, adaptive mechanisms that tell an individual how to act in a specific situation 
 
 
 For Dewey an impulse is that something inside of us that is biological, yet loose & undirected 
 
 
 The term impulse, in contrast to instinct, leaves room for the fact that most serviceable actions must be learned & become habitual 
 
 
 In learning good habits, it is desirable to learn the good habit of learning 
 
  Instinctualists assert the practical inalterability of the human condition   
  Instinctualists derived their notion of the instinct from an exaggeration of the fixity & certainly of the operation of instincts among the lower animals   
  Instinctualists are ignorant of the fact that instincts in the animals are less infallible & definite than they assume   
  Instinctualists fail to recognize that human differ from the lower animals precisely in the fact that their activities lack the ready made organization of animals' abilities   
  THE CONCEPT OF IMPULSE DESCRIBES FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN DRIVES BETTER THAN THE CONCEPT OF THE TABULA RASA (BLANK SLATE) OF THE BEHAVIORISTS   
  For behaviorists, humans have no inner drives, instinct, impulses, tendencies, etc & thus humans are a tabula rasa, ie a blank slate   
 
 Behaviorists hold that humans are infinitely malleable like clay or putty 
 
 
 For behaviorists, human nature is wholly empty & passive, the basis for their asserting the omnipotence of external conditioning 
 
 
 Behaviorists assert the practical complex malleability of the human condition 
 
 
 Behaviorists derived their notion of the malleability in behavior from an exaggeration of the adaptability of the behavior of the lower animals 
 
 
 FOR DEWEY, HUMAN NATURE IS AN IMPULSE, DESCRIBING OUR HUMAN NATURE AS SOMETHING BTWN THE FIXITY OF INSTINCTUALISTS & THE ADAPTABILITY OF BEHAVIORISM
 
  Dewey is claiming that the concept of the impulse places human nature somewhere btwn that of the fixity of the instinctualists & the freedom of the behaviorists   
  The terms impulse & habit enable Dewey to distinguish his approach from both the instinctualists & the behaviorists   
  Dewey reminds us that to Aristotle, slavery was rooted in human nature   
  For Dewey, scholars today similarly asserted that war & the prevailing wage system are grounded in so called immutable human nature & that any effort to change such conditions is foolish   
 
 FOR ROUSSEAU, WE HAD NO INSTINCTS TOWARD VIOLENCE OR AGGRESSION, BUT RATHER AN IMPULSE TOWARD NATURAL, SIMPLE LIVING
 
 
 Rousseau believed that people are not social beings by nature 
 
 
 Rousseau stated that people, living in a natural condition, isolated & w/o language, are kind & w/o motive or the impulse to hurt one another 
 
  For Rousseau once people live together in society, people become evil   
  Society corrupts individuals by bringing out their inclination toward aggression & selfishness   
  Though learning, even peaceful impulses can be diverted toward war & aggression   
  Rousseau foreshadowed Romanticism, a movement that dominated the arts from the late 1700s to the mid 1800s which also embraced the idea of a human nature characterized by harmonious impulses   
  In both his writings &  his personal life, Rousseau exemplified the spirit of Romanticism by valuing feeling more than reason, impulse & spontaneity more than self discipline   
  THE ENLIGHTENMENT PHILOSOPHERS HELD THAT THE PEOPLE ACTED ON IMPULSES & SHOULD BE EDUCATED TO INCREASE REASONED ACTION  
  The Enlightenment philosophers realized that people do not always plan ahead but often act on impulse, which they attributed to inadequate education   
  All people, the Enlightenment philosophers believed, are born w/ the capacity to reason   
  Descartes wrote that "the power of forming a good judgment & of distinguishing the true from the false, which is properly speaking what is called good sense or reason, is by nature equal in all men"   
  Descartes therefore thought that to become rational, a person need only acquire an education that teaches a good method of reasoning   
  WALTER LIPPMANN HELD THAT PEOPLE / SOCIETY MUST BE GOVERNED BY REASON & NOT IMPULSE  
  Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), expressed the view that civilized society could exist only if people govern their conduct by reason instead of impulse  
  Lippmann urged politicians to base their decisions on statesmanship rather than politics   
  Lippmann's opinions influenced political leaders throughout the world & several US Presidents asked him for advice on various issues   
  Lippmann helped President Woodrow Wilson prepare the Fourteen Points that Wilson hoped would form the basis of a peace settlement   

 
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 Outline on the   Progressive Education
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  -  Project:  Progressive Education
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  Progressive education (prog ed) was developed prior to the advent of pragmatism & was then further developed & advocated by the pragmatists  
  Prog ed was a revolt against the traditional schools of thought in the US of the 1800s
 
  Prog ed grew from the belief that schools had failed to keep pace w/ rapid changes in Am life
 
  The new child centered theories of ed influenced many educators who felt that the schools had not kept up w/ changes in soc  
  Prog educators proposed that teachers adopt such methods as field trips, group discussions, & creative activities to help prepare children for life in a democracy  
  The traditional school stressed specific subjects such as reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, & grammar
 
  In trad schools, the teacher lectured or dictated a lesson, & the students copied it in their notebooks
 
  In trad schools, the students then learned by heart what was in their notebooks & recited what they learned from their textbooks
 
  In trad schools, the teacher enforced order & quiet except for recitation periods
 
  In trad schools, the students sat at rows of desks fastened to the floor, & they could not move or talk w/o permission. 
 
  Prog educators thought that traditional ed should be reformed
 
  Famous progressive educators of the 1800's included Francis Parker & G. Stanley Hall
 
  John Dewey & William H. Kilpatrick became a well known spokesmen for progressive education & were two of the principal supporters of such ideas
 
  Prog educators tried to reform elementary school methods in several ways
 
  Prog educators thought teachers should pay more attention to the individual child & not treat all children alike
 
  Prog educators believed that children learn best when they are genuinely interested in the material, & not when they are forced to memorize facts that seem useless to them
 
  Children should learn by direct contact w/ things, places, & people, as well as by reading & hearing about them
 
  Thus, elementary schools should include science laboratories, workshops, art studios, kitchens, gymnasiums, & gardens  
  Prog educators believed this procedure would develop the child's physical, social, & emotional nature as well as its mind  
  In addition, prog educators stressed greater freedom, activity, & informality in the classroom  
  They believed that children learn better when they can move about & work at their own pace  
  They thought children should gather materials from many sources rather than from just one textbook, & should work in groups w/ other students  
 
 Discussion, dramatics, music, & art activities became a larger part of classroom procedures
 
  Prog ed spread more widely through elementary schools than it did in high schools or colleges  
  Teachers planned individual instruction & centered it around projects, units, or activities rather than the usual courses or subjects  
  They taught students of different abilities in separate groups  
  CRITICISM OF PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION  
  Many writers & some educators began increasingly to criticize progressive education during the 1940s & 1950s  
  Critics charged students did not learn fundamental subjects well enough  
  Other educators said that students learned as well under prog ed as under trad methods  
  But by the early 1960s, many schools had begun to experiment w/ different teaching methods  
  Many experiments used "progressive" principles but did not use the term  
  For prog ed to work, the students must be motivated to learn & the reality is that because of home life & general societal values, ed is not valued  
  Many students who come to school are not motivated to learn, rather they seek to avoid work & ed  
  In the class room env of prog ed, the greater level of freedom & less discipline in general often results in classes being so chaotic that learning is difficult  
  Under progressive ed, individual instruction is more expensive in terms & money & time than the one size fits all ed of the trad class room  
  Under prog ed, while the ideal of individual instruction is valid & would probably be more effective, in the reality of most schools, teachers do not have enough time & resources available to teach in the trad method, much less in the prog ed method  
  The prog ed methods of laboratories, workshops, art studios, kitchens, gymnasiums, & gardens are much more expensive than the one room class room & many schools cannot even afford up to date text books  
  Critics argue that we are asking too much of the ed sys to expect physical, social, emotional, & physical development  

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