Philosophy - Pragmatism

Pragmatism

Charles Peirce (1839-1914) - founder of Pragmaticism, an essentially American philosophy

Pragmaticism = “the whole function of thought is to produce habits of action”

- the rational meaning of a word “lies exclusively in its conceivable bearing upon the conduct of life”  ie. speculative thought cannot be divorced from action

- regarded pragmaticism as the logical application of Jesus’ principles “by ye fruits you will be known”

- the function of doubt is to stimulate thought and the purpose of thought is to arrive at belief.

- a belief is “that upon which man is prepared to act”

- Peirce believed in a metaphysics postulating ontologically real objects.

Williams James (1842-1910) - anything that is meaningful or real must have some influence on practice, on our experience, and everything that has a practical effect must be acknowledged to be meaningful and real.

- abstract truths are meaningless unless they make a difference in concrete facts.

- the theoretical has value only when it bears upon the practical

pragmaticism is both Nominalistic in that it stresses the concrete particular over the abstract universal, and anti-intellectual in its stand against rationalism.

- there is no room for metaphysical speculations (ie. God).

Truth must possess consequential characteristics, truths are created in a manner similar to the creation of health and wealth; truth is a system of verification (relative).

- religious belief is good only if it has a direct positive affect upon our life and actions.

- evidence for God’s existence (truth) is to be found in one’s personal inner experiences

John Dewey (1859-1952) - built his system of Instrumentalism on the foundation of Behaviouristic psychology; his views reflected those of organic evolution and a faith in man’s capacity to achieve moral progress and a more nearly ideal social environment primarily through improvements in education.

- the proper ethical goals are the fulfilment of human needs and desires, the continuous growth of human beings in moral sensitivity and human progress in the practical realization of a better social world; absolute goods or evils do not exist.

meliorist- believing that the world can be made better solely through man’s initiative in bringing about desirable consequences.

- theory divorces from concrete action is sterile, empty and vain; moral responsibility is social, “all morality is social”

God = the “active relation between ideal and actual”; the ideal ends  Humanism = an extreme form of Pragmatism based upon the concept of the Greek Sophists that man is the measure of all things.