reality, the Each-form, is logically as acceptable and empirical
and probable as the All-form.” This is the theory of the outspoken
“radical empiricism”[15] which is the contention of the volume upon
_The Meaning of Truth_, the main effort of which seems to be to show
again that the world is still in the process of making. It has the
additional drawback of bringing Pragmatism down not only to the level
of radical empiricism, but to that of common-sense realism or dualism
[the belief in the two independent realities of matter and mind], and
to that of the “copy-theory”[16] of truth, from which both Pragmatism
and Radical Empiricism are especially supposed to deliver us. “I will
say here again, for the sake of emphasis, that the existence of the
object ... is the only reason, in innumerable cases, why the idea does
work successfully.... Both Dewey and I hold firmly ... to objects
independent of our own judgments.”[17] Much of all this is, no doubt,
like surrendering philosophy altogether.
In the case of Dr. Schiller, we may notice first his frequent and
successful exhibition of the extent to which human activity enters into
the constitution not only of “truth,” but of “reality,” of what we mean
by reality. This is interwoven in his books with his whole philosophy
of truth as something merely human, as “dependent upon human purposes,”
as a “valuation” expressive of the satisfactory, or the unsatisfactory,
nature of the contents of “primary reality.” It is interwoven, too,
with his doctrine that reality is essentially a ὕλη, something that is
still in the making, something that human beings can somehow re-make
and make perfect. Then this position about truth and reality is used
by him, as by James, as a ground of attack against Absolutism, with
its notion of a “pre-existing ideal” of knowledge and reality, as
already existing in a super-sensible world, that descends magically
into the passively recipient soul of man. There is no such thing, he
claims, as absolute truth, and the conception of an “absolute reality”
is both futile and pernicious. Absolutism, too, has an affinity
to Solipsism,[18] the difficulties of which it can escape only by
self-elimination.
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