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Pragmatism and The Meaning of Truth (Works of William James)

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'Pragmatism' is the one philosophical school that America gave to the world.

Along with Charles Pierce and later on John Dewey , William James is the great creator of this philosophy.

However as could be expected by anyone who has studied Philosophy the exact meaning and intention of James, and the others is a subject for dispute and interpretation.

In one sense Pragmatism is a 'theory of truth' which is strangely echoed by someone who would seem very far from this American way of thinking, Wittgenstein when he said , "Ask the use, not the meaning'. For James one of the key phrases in the definition is in seeking the ' cash - value' of an idea.

What this means is I think, something like this. We ordinarily think of a statement as true if it corresponds to reality, or we believe it corresponds to reality. The test of the truth is in the correspondance. For James the test is not in this but rather in the consequences of the idea in the marketplace. The truth of the idea is its ' uses'.

In this way truth- seeking does not look to a prior reality but to a future one. And truth- seeking is not a passive spectator sport in which we simply ' see' the correspondence it is instead a creative activity.

The truth is in a sense the way we shape the future out of the present.

'Pragmatism'places an emphasis on future facts and empirical realities.

Now this said it is important to understand that James is in a sense contending with the whole of the philosophical tradition. He is saying that in its Rationalism and search for some kind of Prior Absolute Idea it is missing the truth that is being made in the marketplace of the world.

I believe that there is much which can be said that is ' critical' of this idea. But James would of course welcome such criticism and would contend with it in the marketplace of ideas.

'Pragmatism' is a real contribution to philosophical literature and it is important for anyone interested in the philosophical tradition of the West to know it.

In 1907. William James published his short, highly-influential book "Pragmatism" which consisted of a series of eight lectures he had delivered in Boston and New York City. For the most part, "Pragmatism" was written in a popular, accessible style. James explained the pragmatic method as a means of resolving the tensions between religion and science, or, as he put it, the differences between "tough minded" and "tender minded" approaches to philosophy. James developed pragmatism as a method in which metaphysical disputes were to be resolved by testing their practical consequences in life. If the disagreement had no practical consequences, for James, the question was probably misformed or idle.

The most controversial part of "Pragmatism" consisted of its theory of truth which James developed in Chapter VI. He argued that the truth of an idea was the use that could be made of it, or as he put it in the Preface of his book, "The Meaning of Truth," "true ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and verify. False ideas are those that we cannot." James's theory of truth appeared counter-intuitive to many people, philosophers and laymen alike, who believed that a true idea (or true statement, claim, proposition, etc) was one that corresponded in some sense to reality.

In order to explain further his view of truth and to respond to criticism, James gathered together thirteen of his published lectures and addresses on the subject. He added two additional lectures and a Preface and edited and published them in 1909 as a book "The Meaning of Truth: A Sequel to "Pragmatism". These essays show the development of James's thinking about the nature of truth and attempt to rebut criticism of the theory set forth in "Pragmatism". "The Meaning of Truth" differs in style from its famous predecessor. Where "Pragmatism" is nontechical and written for a lay audience, "The Meaning of Truth" was, for the most part written for professional philosophers. It is much more difficult to read and to understand. Yet it is essential to James's thought.

James had another explicit goal in writing "The Meaning of Truth." In addition to developing the pragmatic method, James also was committed to a philosophical view he called radical pluralism which he expounded in his 1907 book, "A Pluralistic Universe." In "Pragmatism", James had said that pragmatism could be accepted as a method without accepting radical pluralism. In the Preface to "The Meaning of Truth", James said that a major advantage to his theory of truth was that it cleared the philosophical ground of absolutes and of fixed, monistic entities behind, in some strange sense, the world of ordinary experience. With the need for absolutes or transcendental theories disposed of, James said, the doctrine of radical empiricism would be supported. That doctrine argued for the contingency, rather than necessity, of much of experience, and held further that the only things that philosophers could sensibly discuss were matters definable in terms drawn from experience.

The essays in "The Meaning of Truth" were originally written between 1884 and 1909, and in them James foreshadows, explains, defends, and subtly modifies the theory articulated in "Pragmatism". The most important single section of the book is the Preface which James composed for the volume to explain where he had been in the theory of truth and where he was going. I will comment briefly on some of the key essays.

The first essay, "The Function of Cognition," written in 1884, explains the theory of truth in psychological terms -- some critics argue that throughout his writings James tended to confuse psychological with philosophical issues. Of the other essays in the book predating "Pragmatism", I found "The Essence of Humanism" written in 1905 most useful in stating James's position.

James's most sustained attempt to rebut critics of his doctrine was in his essay "The Pragmatist Account of Truth and its Misunderstanders" published in 1908. In this essay, James set forth what he deemed to be eight misunderstandings of pragmatism and struggled to answer these misunderstandings. This essay is essential in considering James's views. The essay "Two English Critics", first written for the volume attempts to answer Bertrand Russell's criticisms of James, and in the concluding "Dialogue" James tries to show how the pragmatic theory answers questions about which we have no experience -- say back in the early days of the earth before human beings appeared.

James's theory of truth is difficult and slippery, and he seems to change it subtly in response to critics. Several objections to the doctrine note its idealistic character in that James's theory seems to make true statements independent of the existence of reality -- of physical objects, say, existing independent of the knower. In "The Pragmatist Account of Truth", in the subsequent essays, and in the Preface, James tries to answer this objection by insisting that his pragmatism is committed to metaphysical realism -- to the existence of objects outside the knower and that his theory of truth works because it is about these objects. (In "A Pluralistic Universe", James's metaphysics seems more idealist in character.) Some readers take this response as qualifying James's pragmatic theory or even as giving away the game as it imparts a realist component to his epistemology that is over and above his theory of truth as what works, consistent with other beliefs. Ultimately it seems to me that James wants to have it both ways between a representational theory and a pragmatic theory.

Pragmatism as developed by James, Peirce, Dewey, and others is, in many forms and varieties, still much alive today. James laid the foundation for the doctrine in "Pragmatism" and in "The Meaning of Truth" but he did not say the last word. The former book is a grand introduction to the subject while the latter book is detailed and technical. Taken together the works will help the reader think about pragmatism and to understand a distinctive American contribution to philosophy.

Robin Friedman

This 2-in-1 volume contains various lectures and essays written by William James around the turn of the 20th century. "Pragmatism" is a series of lectures he gave regarding his development of Truth's meaning & use from Pierce, Dewey and Schiller. "The Meaning Of Truth" is largely a series of rebuttals to various critics who opposed the seemingly anti-common sense pragmatist approach.

The funny thing about reading this was my continued identification with James' critics. As I studied his ideas, I kept raising objections about his philosophy, only to have those objections countered by him later on in response to the critics (e.g. Russell). James continually makes reference to his difficulty in accepting that such intellectual and intelligent philosophers would so misunderstand his views. Part of the problem appears to be a) his continued redefinition of truth as not representing reality so much as it's working relation between subject and object, and b) his subtle modifications to his theory in response to criticism. Each of these prior points make for some confusion and hence seems to be the cause for much of the misunderstanding regarding his pragmatic philosophy.

Pragmatism holds a special use in epistemological inquiry given it's universality and pro-evolving character. As a philosophy it can encompass all fields of discovery and personal knowledge and is most open to change given sufficient reason (akin to the scientific method). However, in another sense it seems to longingly grasp for the universal as objections such as "Belief A may not be true but may still be useful" are not adequately dealt with by this philosophy. He actually at one point briefly mentions this objection and then brushes it off without further analysis.

I recommend this book for anyone looking for a heavy read into an alternate theory of truth. Absolutists will repeatedly cringe (and not always justifiably so) and relativists will delight (once again, not always justifiably so), but it is a thought-provoking look into how one can view the process of truth-verification.

A very important book consisting of different lectures given by William James in 1907. Actually, I think this book, or the thoughts conveyed here, are essential to the future development of open-democratic society. All of the lectures are extremely interesting and flow, while some seem to teeter out to an extent, maybe to fill out the lecture hour. I found this book crucial for understanding both pragmatism and the application for pluralistic comprehension and tolerance of various different viewpoints that both compliment and contradict themselves. This is an important concept that when applied to politics, education, philosophy, religion, science and etc., the world becomes a more tolerant and hospitable place to live in.

This book is for the higher minded person, the person who does not have to cling on to a formula for an absolute answer and then condemn all others that fail to agree. And so it is the liberal, the open ended democratic, the agnostic, the skeptics, that raise themselves in inclusivity and tolerance over the conservatives, the orthodox, the religionists. Pragmatism is spiritual, tolerant and grows, while absolutism is stagnant.

What James presents is the ability to look beyond each of our theories of truth, perceptions of reality, idealism's and see all such objectively as we view outside of our thinking patterns and so-called truths. We enter an area apart from our absolutes, securities and theorems.

If you follow the pragmatic method, you cannot look to a closing absolute theory. Not a solution, but an on going process of questioning, answering and creating in an objectivity of many theories which about contrast and contradict each others. Theories thus become instruments, not answers to enigmas, to rest in, but a continual movement forward verifying truths and comparing with others, elaborating on, reshaping, recreating new paradigms and meanings, within the context of the present moment of time. The aim is it's cash value, its practical utility in working toward the good; the organizing, the unity; that is, within a diversity; the democratic, equalitarian, rights to pursue life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. What follows towards disunity, chaos, divisiveness is that which is discarded.

The corridor theory of pragmatism, James gives as: "pragmatism stands for no particular results, no dogmas, no doctrines, but objectively considers all theories like a corridor in a hotel with innumerable rooms open out of it. In one you may find atheism, the other - theism, the third - skeptics, the fourth - metaphysical thinkers, the fifth - anti-metaphysical, but all of these ideas must pass through the corridor if they want a practicable way of getting into or out of their respective rooms. So its not a particular resulting theory but an attitude of orientation. The attitude of looking away from the first things, principles, 'categories,' supposed necessities; which prevent the practical application towards wholeness. The end result is always of higher value than the immediate part or theory that one is enveloped in.

There is a rearranging of truths, a verifying process, a copying of workable axioms, but more; objectively creating, art, creation, built on previous truths and our mental verification processes of levels of 'facts' we consider absolute or the level to stop reduction. We know there is no apriori, we understand that truths are created conceptions based on their conceptual relationships with other conceptions, webs of thought-relations we derive as equations and answers from verifications of previous created truths. And yet there is something outside of all these truths, a directions we aim for, a movement towards a higher point, the point of good, or the Platonic-Socratic meaning of good; unity, peace. And here we are towards the unity from diversity in the democratic process. The absolutes are given up as objective observers putting a net of concepts over all others, the conceptual net of comparing, of space and time, the same or different, subjects and attributes and so forth.

Pragmatism is pluralism without independence, it is multiple perceptions, multiple theories and ideas, each valuable in what lens you are looking though, each having more or less practical attributes depending on who it is and from where they are thinking from, however, not in a blindless realitivity, which the critics and conservatives so inadequately accuse. Pragamatism is pluralistic, but not entirely, as it is a pluralism towards a monistic unity or purpose of practical and utilitarian means, the means of the good; the harmonious peace of unity from diversity, tolerance and inclusive creativity that retains values.

There is quite more details in this and this book is significant in restoring the pragmatist ideas in the Whitman, Emmersonian, Dewey and James - American democracy, which as eroded and in need of repair, or then again, in creating the democracy that never truly was, but only in ideals and aims. Perhaps one day, even after a major regression toward totalitarianism and tyranny, an honest-optimistic, open-democratic pragmatism will come about working towards a unity of practical application which goes far beyond an application of monetary capitalism, but a unity from democratic diversity in an monetary equalitarian society.