Pragmatism · Chapter
Endnotes explained
The endnotes provide references and citations for sources mentioned throughout the lectures, including works by Swift, Ostwald, Franklin, Bellanger, Schiller, Taylor, Rickert, and others, along with brief commentary on pragmatism and ration
What happens
The endnotes provide references and citations for sources mentioned throughout the lectures, including works by Swift, Ostwald, Franklin, Bellanger, Schiller, Taylor, Rickert, and others, along with brief commentary on pragmatism and rationalism.
Themes in this chapter
Pragmatic Theory of Truth
Discussed in relation to Rickert's abandonment of truth as agreement with reality and the bankruptcy of rationalism.
Instrumentalism
Franklin's definition of physics as 'the science of the ways of taking hold of bodies and pushing them' exemplifies instrumentalist thinking.
Characters to notice
- Wilhelm Ostwald
Cited for his radical pragmatism in an engineering journal.
- F. C. S. Schiller
Referenced for his essay 'Activity and Substance' in Humanism.
- Heinrich Rickert
Mentioned for his views on truth and reality, and criticized for weak argumentation.
- Mr. Swift
Author of Human Submission, cited in the first endnote.
Key passages
“I think that the sickliest notion of physics, even if a student gets it, is that it is 'the science of masses, molecules and the ether.' And I think that the healthiest notion, even if a student does not wholly get it, is that physics is the science of the ways of taking hold of bodies and pushing them!”
Franklin argues that physics should be understood practically as the study of how to manipulate objects, rather than as a theoretical science of abstract entities.
This quote illustrates a pragmatic, instrumentalist view of science.