Nonfiction · 1907
Pragmatism
A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking
Eight lectures in which William James set out the philosophy he called pragmatism: that the meaning of an idea lies in its practical consequences, and that truth is what works. Plainly written and often funny, they are the most accessible statement of American philosophy’s most influential school.
James begins by dividing philosophers into the tender-minded and the tough-minded and offering pragmatism as a way out of the quarrel. Truth, on his account, is not a property an idea possesses but something that happens to it: an idea becomes true in so far as it helps us deal with experience. He applies the test to substance, to free will, to the one and the many, and finally to religious belief, where he plainly wants the answer to come out yes.
Delivered in Boston and New York in 1906–07 and published in 1907, the lectures are given here complete with James’s preface.
Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- Lecture I — The Present Dilemma in Philosophy
- Lecture II — What Pragmatism Means
- Lecture III — Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered
- Lecture IV — The One and the Many
- Lecture V — Pragmatism and Common Sense
- Lecture VI — Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth
- Lecture VII — Pragmatism and Humanism
- Lecture VIII — Pragmatism and Religion
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
Part of Essential Philosophy.
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About the author
1842–1910 · Victorian
William James (1842–1910) was born in New York City, the elder brother of the novelist Henry James. He trained first as a painter and then as a physician, and taught at Harvard for thirty-five years — physiology, then psychology, then philosophy. The Principles of Psychology (1890) established the discipline in America; The Will to Believe (1897), The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) and Pragmatism (1907) followed. He took the word pragmatism from Charles Sanders Peirce and made it public. He died at his summer house in New Hampshire.
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