Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of ThinkingJames, William
Philosophy
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking
James, William
Pragmatism
It is possible to imagine alternative universes to the one we know, in
which the most various grades and types of union should be embodied.
Thus the lowest grade of universe would be a world of mere WITHNESS, of
which the parts were only strung together by the conjunction 'and.' Such
a universe is even now the collection of our several inner lives. The
spaces and times of your imagination, the objects and events of your
day-dreams are not only more or less incoherent inter se, but are wholly
out of definite relation with the similar contents of anyone else's
mind. Our various reveries now as we sit here compenetrate each other
idly without influencing or interfering. They coexist, but in no order
and in no receptacle, being the nearest approach to an absolute 'many'
that we can conceive. We cannot even imagine any reason why they SHOULD
be known all together, and we can imagine even less, if they were known
together, how they could be known as one systematic whole.
But add our sensations and bodily actions, and the union mounts to
a much higher grade. Our audita et visa and our acts fall into those
receptacles of time and space in which each event finds its date and
place. They form 'things' and are of 'kinds' too, and can be classed.
Yet we can imagine a world of things and of kinds in which the causal
interactions with which we are so familiar should not exist. Everything
there might be inert towards everything else, and refuse to propagate
its influence. Or gross mechanical influences might pass, but no
chemical action. Such worlds would be far less unified than ours. Again
there might be complete physico-chemical interaction, but no minds; or
minds, but altogether private ones, with no social life; or social
life limited to acquaintance, but no love; or love, but no customs
or institutions that should systematize it. No one of these grades of
universe would be absolutely irrational or disintegrated, inferior tho
it might appear when looked at from the higher grades. For instance, if
our minds should ever become 'telepathically' connected, so that we knew
immediately, or could under certain conditions know immediately, each
what the other was thinking, the world we now live in would appear to
the thinkers in that world to have been of an inferior grade.
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