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Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking Paperback – June 1, 2010

by William James (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 24 ratings
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In PRAGMATISM William James addresses the realist, essentialist and foundationalist philosophers with their abstract and idealistic arguments demonstrating that it is the pragmatist who takes our obligations seriously. The pragmatist is guided by the experience of the senses and the working body of truth each person carries with them and these are no small trifles and is not one who is free to make anything up. William James wrote voluminously throughout his life. He gained widespread recognition with his Principles of Psychology in 1890, a twelve hundred page work in two volumes. Psychology: The Briefer Course, was an 1892 abridgement designed as a less rigorous introduction to the field. These works criticized both the English associationist school and the Hegelianism of his day as competing dogmatisms of little explanatory value, and sought to re-conceive the human mind as inherently purposive and selective.
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  1. Print length
    132 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bottom of the Hill Publishing
  4. Publication date
    June 1, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    5.98 x 0.28 x 9.02 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    193578515X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1935785156
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bottom of the Hill Publishing (June 1, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 132 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 193578515X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1935785156
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.98 x 0.28 x 9.02 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

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William James

William James

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4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
24 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Pragmatic
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2022
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The book is complete and informative.
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larry loebig
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2014
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worth the price to read this classic
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William J Campbell
5.0 out of 5 stars This was one of the best reads in the last year
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2018
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This was one of the best reads in the last year. I'd recommend it to anyone. there are some parts that are talking about what was happening at the time of it's writing (1920s) that don't really mean anything today, but great none the less. Every political read should have to read this!
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Texas Mason
1.0 out of 5 stars Ignore buying
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2020
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Very dense and esoteric. Typical philosophic mambo jumbo
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5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2016
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It's a e-book, works well with my app
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robin friedman
5.0 out of 5 stars James's Pragmatism
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2006
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
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R. Schwartz
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading Towards Tolerant, Open-Democratic Society
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2005
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.
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Top reviews from other countries

S. Myers
1.0 out of 5 stars Awful edition
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2021
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It might seem difficult to see how one can ruin a classic book, but this Amazon edition has managed it. They have removed the preface. They have removed James' very useful overview of contents at the start of each lecture. They have made the font-size too small. They have centred all the text throughout the book.
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