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
In this realm of mental relations, truth again is an affair of leading.
We relate one abstract idea with another, framing in the end great
systems of logical and mathematical truth, under the respective terms of
which the sensible facts of experience eventually arrange themselves,
so that our eternal truths hold good of realities also. This marriage of
fact and theory is endlessly fertile. What we say is here already true
in advance of special verification, IF WE HAVE SUBSUMED OUR OBJECTS
RIGHTLY. Our ready-made ideal framework for all sorts of possible
objects follows from the very structure of our thinking. We can no more
play fast and loose with these abstract relations than we can do so with
our sense-experiences. They coerce us; we must treat them consistently,
whether or not we like the results. The rules of addition apply to our
debts as rigorously as to our assets. The hundredth decimal of pi, the
ratio of the circumference to its diameter, is predetermined ideally
now, tho no one may have computed it. If we should ever need the figure
in our dealings with an actual circle we should need to have it given
rightly, calculated by the usual rules; for it is the same kind of truth
that those rules elsewhere calculate.
Between the coercions of the sensible order and those of the ideal
order, our mind is thus wedged tightly. Our ideas must agree with
realities, be such realities concrete or abstract, be they facts or be
they principles, under penalty of endless inconsistency and frustration.
So far, intellectualists can raise no protest. They can only say that we
have barely touched the skin of the matter.
Realities mean, then, either concrete facts, or abstract kinds of things
and relations perceived intuitively between them. They furthermore and
thirdly mean, as things that new ideas of ours must no less take account
of, the whole body of other truths already in our possession. But what
now does 'agreement' with such three-fold realities mean?--to use again
the definition that is current.
Here it is that pragmatism and intellectualism begin to part company.
Primarily, no doubt, to agree means to copy, but we saw that the mere
word 'clock' would do instead of a mental picture of its works, and that
of many realities our ideas can only be symbols and not copies. 'Past
time,' 'power,' 'spontaneity'--how can our mind copy such realities?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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