One may entirely reject it and
still be a pragmatist.
Harvard University, April, 1907.
Contents
Lecture I
The Present Dilemma in Philosophy
Chesterton quoted. Everyone has a philosophy. Temperament is a
factor in all philosophizing. Rationalists and empiricists. The
tender-minded and the tough-minded. Most men wish both facts and
religion. Empiricism gives facts without religion. Rationalism gives
religion without facts. The layman's dilemma. The unreality in
rationalistic systems. Leibnitz on the damned, as an example. M. I.
Swift on the optimism of idealists. Pragmatism as a mediating
system. An objection. Reply: philosophies have characters like men,
and are liable to as summary judgments. Spencer as an example.
Lecture II
What Pragmatism Means
The squirrel. Pragmatism as a method. History of the method. Its
character and affinities. How it contrasts with rationalism and
intellectualism. A 'corridor theory.' Pragmatism as a theory of
truth, equivalent to 'humanism.' Earlier views of mathematical,
logical, and natural truth. More recent views. Schiller's and
Dewey's 'instrumental' view. The formation of new beliefs. Older
truth always has to be kept account of. Older truth arose similarly.
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