Human Traits and their Social Significance

THE PRE-CONDITIONS OF MORALITY--INSTINCT, IMPULSE, AND DESIRE. In Art and Science, man attempts to transform the world of nature into conditions more in conformity with his desi...

THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. Since human nature remains constant in its essential traits, despite the variations it exhibits among different individuals, it is to be expected that...

WHAT SCIENCE IS. Science may be considered either as the product of a certain type of human activity, or as a human activity satisfactory even apart from its fruits. As an activ...

ART _VERSUS_ NATURE. In the Career of Reason man has gradually learned to control the world in which he lives in the interests of his own welfare as he imaginatively contemplate...

That the history of the race is an unbroken continuum goes without saying. What this means in the way of transmission of the arts, the sciences, the religion, the ideas, the cus...

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A SENSE OF PERSONAL SELFHOOD. The expression of individuality in opinion is only one way men have of expressing their personality, individuality, or se...

MAN AS A SOCIAL BEING. Man has long been defined as the "social animal," and it is certainly characteristic of human activity that it takes place largely with reference to other...

INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIOR. We have already noted the fact that both men and animals are equipped with a wide variety of unlearned responses to given stimuli. In the case of human bei...

THE MEANING OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES. The major part of this volume has been devoted to a consideration of those traits, interests, and capacities which all individuals share,...

It was earlier pointed out that human beings alone possess language. They alone can make written symbols and heard sounds stand for other things, for objects, actions, qualities...

THE INTERPENETRATION OF HUMAN TRAITS. This chapter is devoted to a consideration of a number of individual human traits--curiosity, pugnacity, leadership, fear, love, hate, etc....

INSTINCT AND HABIT _VERSUS_ REFLECTION. In the two types of behavior already discussed, man is, as it were, "pushed from behind." In the case of instinct he performs an action s...

THE HUMAN ANIMAL. Any attempt to understand what the nature of man is, apart from its training and education during the life of the individual, must start with the realization t...

FOOD, SHELTER, AND SEX. Thus far our analysis has been confined to the general types of human behavior. We have found that all human activity is conditioned by a native equipmen...

PRIVACY AND SOLITUDE. Although one of man's most powerful tendencies, as has already been pointed out, is his desire to be with his fellows, this desire is not unqualified. Just...

But in the two types it is not the fruit of action or contemplation, but action and contemplation themselves that the two types find respectively interesting. The man of action...

The foregoing analysis of human behavior might thus be briefly summarized. We found that man is born a creature with certain tendencies to act in certain definite ways, tendenci...

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 "folkwa...

of the four great activities of the human mind and imagination--religion, art, science, and morals. These are discussed as normal though complex activities developed, through th...

Contempt for this world's goods, when generalized, promotes an attitude of indifference to the social conditions in which men live. The history of the saints is filled with refe...

survey of individual traits and their significance in social life, a brief consideration of the nature and development of the self, individual differences, language and communic...

Man as a social being--Gregariousness--Gregariousness important for social solidarity--Gregariousness may hinder the solidarity of large groups--Gregariousness in belief--Gregar...

Instinct and habit _versus_ reflection--The origin and nature of reflection--Illustration of the reflective process--Reflection as the modifier of instinct--Reflective behavior...

Instinctive behavior--The necessity for the control of instinct--Habitual behavior--The mechanism of habit--The acquisition of new modes of response--Trial and error and deliber...

The religious experience--"The reality of the unseen"--Experiences which frequently find religious expression--Need and impotence--Fear and awe--Regret, remorse: repentance and...

What science is--Science as explanation--Science and a world view--The æsthetic value of science--The danger of "pure science"--Practical or applied science--Analysis of scienti...

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 dissati...

Restriction of population--Cultural continuity--Uncritical veneration of the past--Romantic idealization of the past--Change synonymous with evil--"Order" _versus_ change--Perso...

The human animal--The number and variety of man's instincts--Learning in animals and men--The prolonged period of infancy--Consciousness of self and reaction to ideas--Human bei...

The interpenetration of human traits--The fighting instinct--Pugnacity a menace when uncontrolled--Pugnacity as a beneficent social force--The "submissive instinct"--Men display...