THIRD PILLAR - Portal για την Φιλοσοφία

Athena's Temple

Athena's Temple
ΑΕΙΦΩΤΟΣ ΛΥΧΝΟΣ

Search This Blog

Showing posts with label William James. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William James. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

"The meaning of Truth" by William James,1909


..
An idea is true if it works ;
truth happens to an idea ;
the true is whatever is expedient in the way of thinking.
.
In answer to the objection that such a theory makes truth a function of attitude so that truth has nothing to do with reality,the critics are reminded that knowledge depends on immediate,perceptual experience (brute facts) and on the satisfactory use of concepts.
.
A concept (proposition) is true if it is such that,if acted upon,what one would receive perceptually is what one expects ; in this sense,a true proposition satisfies an expectation.
.
No idea is satisfactory unless it works in such a way as actually to put the person who counts on the idea into a harmonious relationship with reality.
.
Although satisfaction is subjective,it can be a sign of objective truth.
..

'Pragmatism" by William James,1907


..
Pragmatism is both a philosophical method and a theory of truth.
.
As a method,it resolves metaphysical disputes by asking for the practical consequences of alternative resolutions.
.
Once a distinction of practice is made,theoretical difficulties disappear.
.
As a theory of truth,Pragmatism claims that ideas are true insofar as they are satisfactory ; to be satisfactory,ideas must be consistent with other ideas,conformable to facts,and subject to the practical tests of experience.
..

Monday, November 30, 2009

"The Will to Believe" by William James,1897


..
Decisions between hypotheses proposed to our belief are genuine options when
they are living (of vital concern to us),
forced (no third alternative is possible),
and momentous (presenting a unique opportunity of considerable importance).
.
Whenever a genuine option cannot be settled on intellectual grounds,
it is right and necessary to settle it according to our passional inclinations.
.
The religious option concerning the belief in God is a genuine option which promises most to the person who has the passional need to take the world religiously.
.
Men possess free wills which are not determined ;
determinism -the theory that decisions are causally determined-
fails to account for the sense of human freedom.
..