Public-domain ebook
by Irwin Edman
Language: en1,750 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Psychiatry/Psychology·Philosophy & Ethics·Sociology
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #22306.
Irwin Edman’s Human Traits and Their Social Significance is a textbook‑style survey of the psychological foundations of human behavior, written for Columbia College’s “Introduction to Contemporary Civilization” course in 1920. The opening pages explain that the work seeks a “bird’s‑eye view” of innate impulses, habits, and reflective processes, and then traces how these traits shape religion, art, science, and morals. Part I offers a systematic analysis of behavior types, the development of the self, language, and cultural continuity, drawing on the experimental findings of Thorndike and Woodworth. Part II, titled “The Career of Reason,” extends the discussion to the four great mental activities, presenting material that Edman hopes will serve both social‑psychology and introductory philosophy classes. The book is deliberately limited to material with clear social relevance, avoiding technical controversies, and it is framed as a concise guide to the human factors underlying contemporary institutions.
The prose reflects the didactic tone of early‑twentieth‑century American academia, with a naturalistic perspective shaped by thinkers such as James, Santayana, and Dewey. Edman’s voice is clear and orderly, employing occasional literary examples to illustrate abstract concepts, while remaining grounded in empirical psychology. Readers who enjoy a historically situated synthesis of psychology, philosophy, and sociology, particularly those interested in the intellectual climate of the 1920s or the origins of social‑psychology curricula, will find this work both informative and thought‑provoking.
The opening · free to read
This book was written, originally and primarily, for use in a course entitled "Introduction to Contemporary Civilization," required of all Freshmen in Columbia College. It is an attempt to give a bird's-eye view of the processes of human nature, from man's simple inborn impulses and needs to the most complete fulfillment of these in the deliberate activities of religion, art, science, and morals. It is hoped that the book may give to the student and general reader a knowledge of the fundamentals of human nature and a sense of the possibilities and limits these give to human enterprise.
Part I consists of an analysis of the types of behavior, a 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 communication, racial and cultural continuity. Those fruits of psychological inquiry have been stressed which bear most strikingly on the relations of men in our present-day social and economic organization. In consequence, there has been a deliberate exclusion of purely technical or controversial material, however interesting. The psychological analysis is in general based upon the results of the objective inquiries into human behavior which have been so fruitfully conducted in the last twenty-five years by Thorndike and Woodworth. To the work of the first-mentioned, the author is particularly indebted.
Part II is a brief analysis, chiefly psychological in character, 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 the process of reflection, in the fulfillment of man's inborn impulses and needs. Thus descriptively to treat these spiritual enterprises implies on the part of the author a naturalistic viewpoint whose main outlines have been fixed for this generation by James, Santayana, and Dewey. To the last-named the writer wishes to express the very special obligation that a pupil owes to a great teacher.
The book as a whole, so far as can be judged from the experience the author and others have had in using it during the past year as a text at Columbia, should fit well into any general course in social psychology. It has been increasingly realized that the student's understanding of contemporary problems of government and industry is immensely clarified by a knowledge of the human factors which they involve. This volume supplies a brief account of the essential facts of human behavior with especial emphasis on their social consequences. Part I may be independently used, as it has been with success, in a general course in social psychology. Part II, the "Career of Reason," presents material which many instructors find it highly desirable to use in introductory philosophy courses, but for which no elementary texts are available. The usual textbooks deal with the more metaphysical problems to the exclusion of religion, art, morals, and science, humanly the most interesting and significant of philosophical problems. Where, as in many colleges, the introductory philosophy course is preceded by a course in psychology, the arrangement of the volume should prove particularly well suited.
The illustrative material has been drawn, possibly to an unusual extent, from literature. The latter seems to give the student in the vivid reality of specific situations facts which the psychologist is condemned, from the necessities of scientific method, to discuss in the abstract.
The book follows more or less closely that part of the syllabus for the course in Contemporary Civilization, which is called "The World of Human Nature," which section of the outline was chiefly the joint product of collaboration by Professor John J. Coss and the author. To the former the author wishes to express his large indebtedness. Also to Miss Edith G. Taber, for her careful and valuable editing of the manuscript in preparation for the printer, he desires to convey his deep appreciation.
I. E.
Columbia University, June 1920.
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 beings alone possess language--Man the only maker and user of tools.
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 deliberate learning--Some conditions of habit-formation--Drill versus attentive repetition in learning--Learning affected by age, fatigue, and health--Habit as a time-saver--Habit as a stabilizer of action--Disserviceable habits in the individual--Social inertia--The importance of the learning habit--The specificity of habits--The conscious transference of habits--Emotion.
Instinct and habit versus reflection--The origin and nature of reflection--Illustration of the reflective process--Reflection as the modifier of instinct--Reflective behavior modifies habit--The limits of reflection as a modifier of instinct and habit--How instincts and habits impair the processes of reflection--The value of reflection for life--The social importance of reflective behavior--Reflection removed from immediate application: science--The practical aspect of science--The creation of beautiful objects and the expression of ideas and feelings in beautiful form.
Man as a social being--Gregariousness--Gregariousness important for social solidarity--Gregariousness may hinder the solidarity of large groups--Gregariousness in belief--Gregariousness in habits of action--The effect of gregariousness on innovation--Sympathy (a specialization of gregariousness)--Praise and blame--Praise and blame modify habit--Desire for praise may lead to the profession rather than the practice of virtue--The social effectiveness of praise and blame--Social estimates and standards of conduct--Importance of relating praise and blame to socially important conduct--Education as the agency of social control--Social activity and the social motive.
The interpenetration of human traits--The fighting instinct--Pugnacity a menace when uncontrolled--Pugnacity as a beneficent social force--The "submissive instinct"--Men display qualities of leadership--Man pities and protects weak and suffering things--Fear--Love and hate--Love--Hate.
Privacy and solitude--Satisfaction in personal possession: the acquisitive instinct--Individuality in opinion and belief--The social importance of individuality in opinion.
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 dissatisfaction--The contrast between the self and others--Types of self--Self-display or boldness--Self-sufficient modesty--The positive and flexible self--Dogmatism and self-assertion--Enthusiasm--The negative self--Eccentrics--The active and the contemplative--Emotions aroused in the maintenance of the self--The individuality of groups.
The meaning of individual differences--Causes of individual differences--The influence of sex--The influence of race--The influence of immediate ancestry or family--The influence of the environment--Individual differences--Democracy and education.
Language as a social habit--Language and mental life--The instability of language--Changes in meaning--Uniformities in language--Standardization of language--Counter-tendencies toward differentiation--Language as emotional and logical--Language and logic.
Restriction of population--Cultural continuity--Uncritical veneration of the past--Romantic idealization of the past--Change synonymous with evil--"Order" versus change--Personal or class opposition to change--Uncritical disparagement--Critical examination of the past--Limitations of the past--Education as the transmitter of the past.
The religious experience--"The reality of the unseen"--Experiences which frequently find religious expression--Need and impotence--Fear and awe--Regret, remorse: repentance and penance--Joy and enthusiasm: festivals and thanksgivings--Theology--The description of the divine--The divine as the human ideal--The religious experience, theology and science--Mechanistic science and theology--Religion and science--The church as a social institution--The social consequences of institutionalized religion--Intolerance and inquisition--Quietism and consolation: other-worldliness.
Art versus nature--The emergence of the fine arts--The aesthetic experience--Appreciation versus action--Sense satisfaction--Form--Expression--Art as vicarious experience--Art and aesthetic experience in the social order--Art as an industry--Art and morals.
What science is--Science as explanation--Science and a world view--The aesthetic value of science--The danger of "pure science"--Practical or applied science--Analysis of scientific procedure--Science and common sense--Curiosity and scientific inquiry--Thinking begins with a problem--The quality of thinking: suggestion--Classification--Experimental variation of conditions--Generalizations, their elaboration and testing--The quantitative basis of scientific procedure--Statistics and probability--Science as an instrument of human progress.
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 "folkways"--Morality as conformity to the established--The values of customary morality--The defects of customary morality--Custom and progress--Origin and nature of reflective morality--Reflective reconstruction of moral standards--The values of reflective morality--Reflection transforms customs into principles--Reflective action genuinely moral--Reflection sets up ideal standards--The defects of reflective morality--The inadequacy of theory in moral life--The danger of intellectualism in morals--Types of moral theory--Absolutism--Relativistic or teleological morality--Utilitarianism--Moral knowledge--Intuitionalism--Empiricism--Ethics and life--Morality and human nature--Morals, law, and education.
HUMAN TRAITS AND CIVILIZATION. Throughout the long enterprise of civilization in which mankind have more or less consciously changed the world they found into one more in conformity with their desires, two factors have remained constant: (1) the physical order of the universe, which we commonly call Nature, and (2) the native biological equipment of man, commonly known as human nature. Both of these, we are almost unanimously assured by modern science, have remained essentially the same from the dawn of history to the present. They are the raw material out of which is built up the vast complex of government, industry, science, art--all that we call civilization. In a very genuine sense, there is nothing new under the sun. Matter and men remain the same.
But while this fundamental material is constant, it may be given various forms; and both Nature itself and the nature of man may, with increasing knowledge, be increasingly controlled in man's own interests. The railroad, the wireless, and the aeroplane are striking and familiar testimonies to the efficacy of man's informed mastery of the world into which he is born. In the field of physical science, man has, in the short period of three centuries since Francis Bacon sounded the trumpet call to the study of Nature and Newton discovered the laws of motion, magnificently attained and appreciated the power to know exactly what the facts of Nature are, what consequences follow from them, and how they may be applied to enlarge the boundaries of the "empire of man."
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