This work examines the discourse of the American philosopher and educator John Dewey (1859-1852) about "human nature", adopting as reference the book Human nature and conduct: an introduction to Social Psychology. In this book, published in 1922, Dewey discusses fundamental concepts of Psychology - instinct, habit, intelligence, and others - and proposes a new psychological science; the author's elaborations cover the fields of philosophy, psychology and education. The methodology to analyze his discourse follows the studies developed by the Research Group "Rhetoric and Argumentation in Pedagogy". Such studies are based on Chaïm Perelman's and Stephen Toulmin's theories.
John Dewey; Social Psychology; educational foundations; rhetoric analysis