Archetypes of Wisdom
Douglas J. Soccio
Chapter 15
The Pragmatist: William James
Learning Objectives
On completion of this chapter, you should be able to
answer the following questions:
What is pragmatism?
What is pragmaticism?
What is the “pragmatic theory of meaning”?
What is the “pragmatic method”?
What is meant by the “cash value” of an idea?
What is determinism?
What does it mean to be “healthy-minded”?
What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?
What is the “pragmatic paradox”?
William James
William James (1842-1910) was the first truly great
American philosopher, and the most original and
influential advocate of pragmatism.
Pragmatism is an empirically based philosophy that
defines knowledge and truth in terms of practical
consequences.
James believed that philosophy must be more than a mere
intellectual enterprise.
Its true purpose is to help us live by showing how to
discover and adopt beliefs that fit our individual needs and
temperaments.
The Education of a Philosopher
In 1855, James’s father lost faith in American education
and moved the entire family to Europe – from Switzerland
to England, France, and Italy.
At sixteen, James started college and for the first time
managed to attend the same school for an entire year.
In 1861, James entered Harvard as a chemistry major, but
his interests shifted to biology and anatomy, which led to
Harvard’s Medical School.
During his time at Harvard, James became so impressed by
the paleontologist Jean Louis Agassiz that he
accompanied Agassiz on an eight-month expedition into
the Amazon.
Anxiety and Depression
During his student years, James suffered mentally and
physically, describing himself as “on the continual verge of
suicide.”
In a constant state of anxiety, and dreading to be alone,
James went into a severe depression, writing in his journal
that “nature and life have unfitted me for any affectionate
relations with other individuals.”
The Idea of Free Will
Some time later, James was saved by an idea from the
French philosopher Charles Renouvier, who had
characterized free will as the ability to hold onto one idea
among a number of possibilities.
Willing himself to hold onto the idea of health and wellbeing, James effectively decided to get well.
“My first act of freedom,” he said, “will be to believe in
free will.”
James’s interest in medicine and psychology developed. In
1878, he was asked to write a psychology textbook.
Principles of Psychology
Twelve years later, he produced Principles of Psychology,
establishing him as an important figure in the early history
of the field.
He became interested in philosophy but regarded it as a
matter of personal involvement, as a function of the will,
and as a means to overcome despair and futility.
He developed the kind of philosophy he needed to cope
and presented it in a series of lectures, making it accessible
to others.
Convinced that life was too important and complex to
reduce to any philosophical system, he refused to offer
one. Instead, he offered a method for marshalling the will.
Charles Sanders Peirce
The first expression of pragmatism actually appears in the
work of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914).
Peirce studied philosophy, mathematics, and chemistry at
Harvard before going to work for the United States Coastal
and Geodetic Survey.
A brilliant but eccentric man, Peirce was never able to
secure a full-time university position.
As a result, he had a difficult time publishing his work.
Peirce’s “Pragmaticism”
Peirce first presented what he referred to as “pragmatism”
in the 1878 article, “How to Make Our Ideas Clear.”
The article was largely ignored until James devoted a
series of lectures to it, but Peirce strenuously objected to
James’s version of pragmatism.
So Peirce “gave” him the term and coined yet another for
himself – pragmaticism. He wanted to show that the
meanings of words depend on some kind of action.
Both “pragmatism” and “pragmaticism” come from the
Greek root pragma, meaning “an act” or “consequence.”
The slight variation signifies the difference in meaning
between Peirce and James’s thoughts.
Pragmatic Theory of Meaning
Peirce argued that the only differences between the
meanings of words are how they test out in experience.
He thus equated meaning with the effects related to words,
saying, “Our idea of anything is our idea of its sensible
effects.”
Meaningful statements refer to practical effects
(consequences).
But Peirce pointed out that all thinking and all meaning are
context dependent. Context includes material, social, and
emotional components, as well as an intellectual one.
Pragmatic Method and
Philosophy
Agreeing with the empiricists, Peirce argued that meaning
is based on experience. We test to see whether a surface is
hard before calling it that.
If there is no way of testing the effects of words (and
ideas), no way of verifying their public consequences, they
are meaningless. Meaningful ideas make a practical
difference.
Building on Peirce’s foundation, James advocated a
philosophical approach he claimed others had recognized
before, but only in parts. For James, pragmatism was to be
a method for solving those problems that interfere with
feeling “at home” in the world.
James’ Pragmatism
James looked for what he called the cash value of
statements, the practical payoff, and he rejected any
philosophy that lacked it. This includes virtually all
metaphysics.
In his words, “A pragmatist turns his back…once and for
all upon a lot of inveterate habits dear to professional
philosophers. He turns away from… pretended absolutes
and origins. He turns toward concreteness and adequacy,
toward facts, toward action and toward power.”
Sophistic Relativism?
If any theory with a practical payoff is true, does it not
follow that one theory is as good as another to those who
believe it?
It would seem as if James were advocating sophistic
relativism, but he did not see pragmatism that way.
Because he saw pragmatism as a method, rather than a
system of beliefs, he saw no use for theories of verification
and meaning.
For James, “True ideas are those we can assimilate,
validate, corroborate, and verify. False ideas are those
that we cannot. That is the practical difference it makes to
us to have true ideas; that, therefore, is the meaning of
truth, for it is all that truth is known as…”
The Temper of Belief
James sometimes refers to pragmatism as a creed, a body
of beliefs by which we can live our lives and cope better in
the world.
James classified philosophical outlooks into two
temperamental types, which he called the tough-minded
and the tender-minded.
The tender-minded go by “principles,” are religious,
“free-willist,” and “dogmatic.”
The tough-minded go by “facts,” are materialistic,
irreligious, fatalistic, and skeptical.
The Temper of Belief
James felt philosophers tended to these extremes, while
most of us are a mixture of both.
Rather than forcing ourselves into a particular mold, we
should adopt those beliefs that are products of our own
temperament and experience.
The Temper of Belief
The Will to Believe
Because life demands action, we have no choice but to
believe something.
Our options are what James calls “forced,” so that even
“not acting” is a course of action.
Even if the rationalist’s demand for certainty is never met,
we must continue to act.
The Will to Believe
James thinks believing itself makes a difference:
“Suppose you are climbing a mountain…Have faith
that you can successfully make it, and your feet are
nerved to its accomplishment. But mistrust yourself,
and…you roll into the abyss. In such a case, the part of
wisdom as well as courage is to believe in the line of
your needs, for only by such belief is the need
fulfilled.”
James’s ultimate position is that beliefs are “adaptations.”
They can only be justified by whether they help us
navigate our way through life.
Truth Happens to an Idea
James rejected the rationalist’s model of truth, taken from
logic and mathematics, as simplistic.
Instead, we decide whether an idea is true by testing it.
Experience shows that ideas become true; elsewhere he
says that truth happens to an idea.
We test ideas against our past experiences, keeping some
and discarding others (as we and the world change).
Truth Happens to an Idea
So there is no such thing as disinterested truth. Pragmatic
truth is human truth.
“Purely objective truth,” James asserts, “plays no role
whatsoever, is nowhere to be found.”
The most absolute-seeming truths “also were once
plastic…also called for human reasons. They mediated
between still earlier truths and what in those days were
novel observations.”
The Dilemma of Determinism
Determinism is the belief that everything that happens
must happen exactly the way it does.
Some say that it is inevitable, since all matter is governed
by cause and effect.
James acknowledged that there is no scientific way to
refute such a possibility, but argued that belief in
determinism is incompatible with our need for freedom.
But this process is public, and others force us to retest, or
re-evaluate, our ideas.
The Dilemma of Determinism
We believe in the uniformity of the laws of nature, though
– as Hume said – it cannot be proven.
We believe in free will as a necessary condition for moral
responsibility, though it can’t be proven.
In the end, James opts for acting “as if” free will exists,
since it “pays” more than not believing so.
This, as much as anything, is an illustration of what
believing is for James – action and consequence.
Pragmatic Religion
In The Varieties of Religious Experience – a psychological
study of a number of cases with a keen philosophical
analysis, James attempted to discover how God works in
people’s lives.
James asserted that we judge the truth of religious ideas by
their “moral helpfulness.”
Accordingly, moral absolutes are impossible, and attempts
to impose them are especially bad.
Pragmatic Religion
James’s position is that we are entitled to commit ourselves
to whatever beliefs best express our deepest selves.
He was less worried about being “duped” by a false belief
than he was about being unhappy.
“He who says, ‘Better go without belief forever than
believe a lie!’ merely shows his own preponderant private
horror of becoming a dupe.”
So it is better to live “a lie” than never to live at all.
Discussion Questions
What was James driving at when he claimed that a
religious orientation is more effective than a non-religious
one?
What reasons did he have for this belief?
Do you share his opinion? Why or why not?
Chapter Review:
Key Concepts and Figures
Pragmatism
Determinism
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Pragmatic Paradox
William James (1842-1910)
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)