Finally we have a logic of a type fundamentally psychological, if it be
not more properly characterized as a psychology which claims to cover
the whole field of philosophy, including the logical field. The central
and organizing principle of this is that knowledge is in genesis, that
the genesis takes place in the medium of individual minds, and that this
fact implies that there is a necessary reference throughout to interests
or purposes of the subject which thinks because it wills and acts.
Historically this doctrine was formulated as the declaration of
independence of the insurgents in revolt against the pretensions of
absolutist logic. It drew for support upon the psychological movement
that begins with Fries and Herbart. It has been chiefly indebted to
writers, who were not, or were not primarily, logicians, to Avenarius,
for example, for the law of the economy of thought, to Wundt, whose
system, and therewith his logic,[150] is a pendant to his psychology,
for the volitional character of judgment, to Herbert Spencer and others.
A judgment is practical, and not to be divorced without improper
abstraction from the purpose and will that informs it. A concept is
instrumental to an end beyond itself, without any validity other than
its value for action. A situation involving a need of adaptation to
environment arises and the problem it sets must be solved that the will
may control environment and be justified by success. Truth is the
improvised machinery that is interjected, so far as this works. It is
clear that we are in the presence of what is at least an important
half-truth, which intellectuallism with its statics of the rational
order viewed as a completely articulate system has tended to ignore. It
throws light on many phases of the search for truth, upon the plain
man's claim to start with a subject which he knows whose predicate which
he does not know is still to be developed, or again upon his use of the
negative form of judgment, when the further determination of his
purposive system is served by a positive judgment from without, the
positive content of which is yet to be dropped as irrelevant to the
matter in hand. The movement has, however, scarcely developed its
logic[151] except as polemic. What seems clear is that it cannot be the
whole solution. While man must confront nature from the human and
largely the practical standpoint, yet his control is achieved only by
the increasing recognition of objective controls. He conquers by
obedience. So truth works and is economical because it is truth. Working
is proportioned to inner coherence. It is well that the view should be
developed into all its consequences. The result will be to limit it,
though perhaps also to justify it, save in its claim to reign alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account