To be sure, both the extent and even the reality of all this supposed
cession of ground in philosophy to the pragmatists has been doubted
and denied by the representatives of Rationalism. They would be
questioned, too, by many sober thinkers and scholars who have long
regarded Hegelian intellectualism and pragmatist “voluntarism” as
extremes in philosophy, as inimical, both of them, to the interests
of a true and catholic conception of philosophy. The latter, as we
know from Aristotle, should be inclusive of the realities both of the
intellectual and the practical life.
Pragmatist criticisms of Rationalism, again, may fairly be claimed to
have been to a large extent anticipated by the independent findings
of living idealist thinkers like Professors Pringle-Pattison,
Baillie, Jones, and others, in respect of the supposed extreme claims
of Hegelianism, as well as by similar findings and independent
constructive efforts on the part of the recent group of the Oxford
Personal Idealists.[141] That there is still a place for pragmatist
anti-intellectualism is evidently the conclusion to be drawn from such
things as the present wide acceptance of the philosophy of Bergson, or
the recent declarations of Mr. Bradley that we are justified “in the
intelligent refusal to accept as final an theoretical criterion which
actually so far exists,” and that the “action of narrow consistency
must be definitely given up.”
The reflection ought, moreover, to be inserted here that even if
Pragmatism has been of some possible service in bringing forth from
rationalists some of their many recent confessions of the limitations
of an abstract intellectualism, it is not at all unlikely that
Rationalism in its turn may succeed in convicting Pragmatism of an
undue emphasis[142] upon volition and action and upon merely practical
truth.
We shall now terminate the foregoing characterization of Pragmatism
by a reference to two or three other specific things for which it
may, with more or less justice, be supposed to stand in philosophy.
These are (1) the repudiation of the “correspondence view”[143] of
the relation of truth to reality, (2) the rejection of the idea of
there being any ultimate or rigid distinction between “appearance” and
“reality,” and (3) the reaffirmation of the “teleological” point of
view as characteristic of philosophy in distinction from science.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account