Pragmatism

Pragmatism

William James

A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking

By William James

To the Memory of John Stuart Mill

from whom I first learned the pragmatic openness of mind and whom my

fancy likes to picture as our leader were he alive to-day.

The lectures that follow were delivered at the Lowell Institute in

Boston in November and December, 1906, and in January, 1907, at

Columbia University, in New York. They are printed as delivered, without

developments or notes. The pragmatic movement, so-called--I do not like

the name, but apparently it is too late to change it--seems to have

rather suddenly precipitated itself out of the air. A number of

tendencies that have always existed in philosophy have all at once

become conscious of themselves collectively, and of their combined

mission; and this has occurred in so many countries, and from so many

different points of view, that much unconcerted statement has resulted.

I have sought to unify the picture as it presents itself to my own eyes,

dealing in broad strokes, and avoiding minute controversy. Much futile

controversy might have been avoided, I believe, if our critics had been

willing to wait until we got our message fairly out.

If my lectures interest any reader in the general subject, he will

doubtless wish to read farther. I therefore give him a few references.

In America, John Dewey's 'Studies in Logical Theory' are the foundation.

Read also by Dewey the articles in the Philosophical Review, vol.

xv, pp. 113 and 465, in Mind, vol. xv, p. 293, and in the Journal of

Philosophy, vol. iv, p. 197.

Probably the best statements to begin with however, are F. C. S.

Schiller's in his 'Studies in Humanism,' especially the essays numbered

i, v, vi, vii, xviii and xix. His previous essays and in general

the polemic literature of the subject are fully referred to in his

footnotes.

Furthermore, see G. Milhaud: le Rationnel, 1898, and the fine articles

by Le Roy in the Revue de Metaphysique, vols. 7, 8 and 9. Also articles

by Blondel and de Sailly in the Annales de Philosophie Chretienne, 4me

Serie, vols. 2 and 3. Papini announces a book on Pragmatism, in the

French language, to be published very soon.

To avoid one misunderstanding at least, let me say that there is no

logical connexion between pragmatism, as I understand it, and a doctrine

which I have recently set forth as 'radical empiricism.' The latter

stands on its own feet. One may entirely reject it and still be a

pragmatist.

Harvard University, April, 1907.