Produced by Adrian Mastronardi, Barbara Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) THE PRAGMATIC THEORY OF TRUTH AS DEVELOPED BY PEIRCE, JAMES, AND DEWEY BY DENTON LORING GEYER B.A. University of Wisconsin, 1910 M.A. University of Wisconsin, 1911 THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN PHILOSOPHY IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 1914 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. THE PRAGMATIC DOCTRINE AS ORIGINALLY PROPOSED BY PEIRCE CHAPTER II. THE INTERPRETATION GIVEN TO PRAGMATISM BY JAMES JAMES' EXPOSITION OF PEIRCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRAGMATIC DOCTRINE THROUGH THE EARLIER WRITINGS OF JAMES THE THEORY OF TRUTH IN 'PRAGMATISM' AND 'THE MEANING OF TRUTH' _The Ambiguity of 'Satisfaction'_ _The Relation of Truth to Utility_ _The Relation of Satisfaction to Agreement and Consistency_ CHAPTER III. THE PRAGMATIC DOCTRINE AS SET FORTH BY DEWEY "THE EXPERIMENTAL THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE" CONTRAST BETWEEN JAMES AND DEWEY CHAPTER IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY THE PRAGMATIC THEORY OF TRUTH AS DEVELOPED BY PEIRCE, JAMES, AND DEWEY. INTRODUCTORY. This thesis attempts to trace the growth of the pragmatic doctrine of truth through the works of its three most famous advocates in America. An examination of Peirce's initial statement of pragmatism is followed by a discussion of his objections to the meaning put upon his doctrine by his would-be disciples, and his resort, in order to save himself from these 'perversions', to a renaming of his theory. Some evident contradictions in his different principles are pointed out.