Customary and Reflective Morality (1908)

Thus far I have discussed open-mindedness as a sort of active scientific method. So I find it reasonable to consider the following: How does open-mindedness fare as an ethical concept? I believe that this selection answers that question, in which Dewey separates customary and reflective morality.

“[Reflective Morality] make[s] a clear distinction between ‘manners’ and morals, while in customary morality manners are morals[.]”

Customary morality is the morality that combines everything. The decisions of how to act or behave hold equal weight to the decisions of how to dress or what to eat. Morality such as this is commonly seen in religion, but more modernly in professions such as business. A businessman may do something not because it is truly right and good, but because it is custom, and custom is good.

“[M]any business men do not bother themselves about the morality of certain ways of doing business. Such and such is the custom of the trade, and if a man is going to do business at all he must follow its customs – or get out.”

Reflective morality separates act and behavior from culture and custom, and adopts the viewpoint that all things can and should be considered for reform, despite tradition and habit.

The problem of customary morality is that it is hard to change, even if change is necessary. To revolt against the custom is to be deemed impious, and such persons will be exiled or punished for their intelligence. Custom then continues ad infinidum, lest there be a divine intervention or conquering by war.

Indeed even the observance of custom is not enough for Dewey. The reflective mindset goes beyond this mere observance and takes ground in active consideration. A child of customary morality may be taught that the fork is on the left and the knife on the right but the reflective person asks why this is so, and rules out the ethical importance of such customs in exchange for principles more worthy of serious thought. “[T]he individual has to grasp the meaning of these customs over and above the bare fact of their existence, and has to guide himself by their meaning and not by the mere fact noted.”

Dewey is pointing at the fact that unless we adopt a collectively reflective mindset, we are doomed to remain in a vicious circle of ignorance. Custom may give us comfort, for it implies order and society, but what is custom when it is compared to vast conscious consideration and reflection? The reflective mind may look toward the customary mind comically, for the reflective person leaps and walks through the ethical while the mind of custom merely stands blindfolded, taking no interest in their ability to do as the reflective person does.

The adoption of this reflective morality is an inward process, as Dewey describes it. When a person’s experience causes them to question their customs and habits, they realize their ability to judge for themselves the rightness of their actions, that the current standard is not justification of its own conduct. The fact that it exists is no moral warrant (as Dewey describes it.) Thus, reflection is adopted and fostered as a responsibility in a person’s mind. Active consideration becomes an obligation of a person to his or her society.

“In the morally more advanced members of contemporary society, the need of fostering a habit of examination and judgment, of keeping the mind open, sensitive, to the defects and the excellences of the existing social order is recognized as obligation.”

As an ethical concept, open-mindedness is the gateway to transition between customary thought and reflective thought. To adopt the viewpoint that despite what I have been taught and what I believe to be right, there may be something out there that is more right, of which I do not know yet, and I should actively search for what is more right is the means by which a person may actively refine their ethical viewpoints independently, as opposed to the means of some will of God or decree by a King or Dictator. To analogize, customary morality is to be a passenger on a bus and reflective morality to be the operator of your own vehicle. Open-mindedness is the means by which you get off the bus and begin driving your own car. Indeed it implies a sort of moral freedom. 

The means by which a person comes to want open-mindedness is a concept tenfold complex. People like their habits. People cling to their customs. To convince a man/woman to cast their thoughts of the ethical into doubt seems equally as hard as convincing them to doubt that the sun will rise tomorrow. “This is how it is,” they would say. “To think differently is to err.” How may a student foster this idea and become a reflective thinker, then? What cause can there be for open-mindedness to plague and kill the vicious customary beliefs? When we travel to other societies, our instinct to survive kicks in and we open our minds or perish in the walls of our customs. This is a proven method by which a person may open their mind. They who place themselves in other cultures are akin to they who travel to a place where the sun does not always rise in the morning. (above the arctic circle during the winter solstice, perhaps?) 

So if we wish to ask ourselves “can we foster an active open-mindedness in students?” we truly ask ourselves “can there be something that impresses the mind with such force as experience?” Such questions are ideal starting points for further enquiries. 

Dewey, John. “Ethics. Part 1 The Beginnings and Growth of Morality. 9. A General Comparison of Customary and Reflective Morality. § 2. Elements of Contrast.” The Middle Works of John Dewey, Vol 5 (1908), pp. 166-171