Is the world one or
many?--fated or free?--material or spiritual?--here are notions
either of which may or may not hold good of the world; and disputes
over such notions are unending. The pragmatic method in such cases
is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective
practical consequences. What difference would it practically make to
anyone if this notion rather than that notion were true? If no
practical difference whatever can be traced, then the alternatives
mean practically the same thing, and all dispute is idle. Whenever a
dispute is serious, we ought to be able to show some practical
difference that must follow from one side or the other's being
right.
A glance at the history of the idea will show you still better what
pragmatism means. The term is derived from the same Greek word [pi
rho alpha gamma mu alpha], meaning action, from which our words
'practice' and 'practical' come. It was first introduced into
philosophy by Mr. Charles Peirce in 1878. In an article entitled
'How to Make Our Ideas Clear,' in the 'Popular Science Monthly' for
January of that year [Footnote: Translated in the Revue
Philosophique for January, 1879 (vol. vii).] Mr. Peirce, after
pointing out that our beliefs are really rules for action, said that
to develope a thought's meaning, we need only determine what conduct
it is fitted to produce: that conduct is for us its sole
significance.
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