Pragmatism · Chapter
Lecture VII: Pragmatism and Humanism explained
James argues that truth is not a single, eternal, or absolute entity but a human-made product that grows and evolves through experience.
What happens
James argues that truth is not a single, eternal, or absolute entity but a human-made product that grows and evolves through experience. He introduces F.C.S. Schiller's 'Humanism,' which holds that truths are man-made and that the world is plastic, shaped by human motives and satisfactions. James contrasts the pragmatist view of an unfinished, pluralistic universe with the rationalist view of a complete, monistic universe, emphasizing that truth is constructed within finite experiences and that reality is inseparable from human contributions.
Themes in this chapter
Pragmatic Theory of Truth
James argues that truth is not a fixed, absolute entity but a human-made product that evolves through experience, grafting onto previous truths.
Pluralism and Meliorism
James contrasts the pragmatist view of an unfinished, pluralistic universe with the rationalist monistic universe, emphasizing growth and human contribution.
Humanism Defended
James defends Schiller's Humanism, which holds that truths are man-made and that the world is plastic, shaped by human motives and satisfactions.
Characters to notice
- F. C. S. Schiller
James introduces Schiller's doctrine of Humanism, which asserts that truths are man-made products and that the world is plastic, shaped by human motives and satisfactions.
- Pragmatism
Pragmatism is presented as the philosophical stance that truth grows within finite experiences and that the universe is unfinished and pluralistic.
- The Absolute
The Absolute is referenced as the rationalist ideal of a complete, eternal, and unalterable reality that underpins the mutable world.
- Immanuel Kant
James compares Schiller's view of the sensible core of reality to Kant's categories, noting the chasm between rationalism and empiricism.
- Swami Vivekananda
Vivekananda's mystical One is cited as an example of the rationalist conception of an absolute, timeless reality.
- John Dewey
Dewey is mentioned alongside Schiller as treating the sensible core of reality as a 'limit'.
Key passages
“Truth grafts itself on previous truth, modifying it in the process, just as idiom grafts itself on previous idiom, and law on previous law.”
Truth evolves by building upon and altering earlier truths, similar to how language and legal systems develop incrementally.
James illustrates the pragmatic view of truth as a dynamic, cumulative process.
“The world is essentially υλη , it is what we make of it. It is fruitless to define it by what it originally was or by what it is apart from us; it is what is made of it.”
The world is raw material that we shape; its nature is determined by our actions and interpretations, not by any original or independent essence.
James quotes Schiller to emphasize the plasticity of reality and the human role in constructing truth.
“We receive in short the block of marble, but we carve the statue ourselves.”
We are given raw sensory experience, but we actively shape and interpret it to form our understanding.
James uses the metaphor of sculpture to describe how human minds impose order and meaning on reality.