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Pragmatism

A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking

By William James

William James presents pragmatism as a method for clarifying ideas through their practical consequences and as an account of how beliefs become true through verification in experience. Across eight lectures, he examines philosophical temperament, metaphysics, common sense, truth, humanism and religion, seeking a position faithful to facts while remaining open to freedom, moral purpose and genuine possibility.

Publication
1907
Genre
Pragmatism; epistemology; metaphysics; philosophy of religion
Era
20th-Century Philosophy, Modern Philosophy

About this work

First published in 1907, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking is William James’s most accessible and influential statement of the pragmatic approach. Developed from eight public lectures, it addresses the conflict between empiricism’s loyalty to facts and rationalism’s attraction to unity, moral meaning and religious hope. James proposes that the meaning of an idea lies in the conceivable difference it makes to experience. He applies this method to substance, materialism, free will, unity, common sense and religion before developing his disputed account of truth as something ideas acquire through verification and successful relations with reality. Written in a direct, conversational style, the book is both an introduction to a major philosophical tradition and a sustained challenge to abstract systems that produce no experiential consequences. It asks readers to treat inquiry as an active, revisable process within a world that may remain plural, unfinished and responsive to human action.

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