Paper Topic:

William James and his movement of thought Pragmatism

br May 5 , 2007

Research

William James William James : Views And Influences On Pragmatism William James , in Lecture II , tells us about his views on pragmatism when he explains that , All these , you see , are anti-intellectualist tendencies . Against rationalism as a pretension and a method pragmatism is fully armed and militant . But , at the outset , at least , it stands for no particular results . It has no dogmas , and no doctrines save its method . As the young Italian pragmatist Papini has well said , it lies in the midst of our theories

, like a corridor in a hotel . Innumerable chambers open out of it . In one you may find a man writing an atheistic volume in the next some one on his knees praying for faith and strength in a third a chemist investigating a body 's properties . In a fourth a system of idealistic metaphysics is being excogitated in a fifth the impossibility of metaphysics is being shown . But they all own the corridor , and all must pass through it if they want a practicable way of getting into or out of their respective rooms

James goes on to tell us that , No particular results then , so far but only an attitude of orientation is what the pragmatic method means The attitude of looking away from first things , principles categories ' supposed necessities and of looking towards last things , fruits , consequences , fasts

So much for the pragmatic method ! You may say that I have been praising it rather than explaining it to you , but I shall presently explain it abundantly enough by showing how it works on some familiar problems Meanwhile the word pragmatism has come to be used in a still wider sense , as meaning also a certain theory of truth . I mean to give a whole lecture to the statement of that theory , after first paving the way , so I can be very brief now . But brevity is hard to follow , so I ask for your redoubled attention for a quarter of an hour . If much remains obscure , I hope to make it clearer in the later lectures

James ' assertion that the value of a truth depends upon its use to the individual who holds it is known as pragmatism . Additional tenets of James ' pragmatism include the view that the world is a mosaic of diverse experiences that can only be properly understood through an application of "radical empiricism " Radical empiricism , distinct from everyday scientific empiricism , presumes that nature and experience can never be frozen for absolutely objective analysis , that , at the very least , the mind of the observer will affect the outcome of any empirical approach to truth since , empirically , the mind and nature are inseparable . James emphasis on diversity as the default human condition - over and against duality , especially Hegelian dialectical duality - has maintained a strong influence in American culture , especially among liberals , and his radical empiricism lies in the background of contemporary relativism . James ' of the mind-world connection , which he described in terms of a "stream...

4 pages

10.2 KB

Free sing-up