So the universe has always
appeared to the natural mind as a kind of enigma, of which the key
must be sought in the shape of some illuminating or power-bringing
word or name. That word names the universe's PRINCIPLE, and to
possess it is, after a fashion, to possess the universe itself.
'God,' 'Matter,' 'Reason,' 'the Absolute,' 'Energy,' are so many
solving names. You can rest when you have them. You are at the end
of your metaphysical quest.
But if you follow the pragmatic method, you cannot look on any such
word as closing your quest. You must bring out of each word its
practical cash-value, set it at work within the stream of your
experience. It appears less as a solution, then, than as a program
for more work, and more particularly as an indication of the ways in
which existing realities may be CHANGED.
THEORIES THUS BECOME INSTRUMENTS, NOT ANSWERS TO ENIGMAS, IN WHICH
WE CAN REST. We don't lie back upon them, we move forward, and, on
occasion, make nature over again by their aid. Pragmatism unstiffens
all our theories, limbers them up and sets each one at work. Being
nothing essentially new, it harmonizes with many ancient philosophic
tendencies. It agrees with nominalism for instance, in always
appealing to particulars; with utilitarianism in emphasizing
practical aspects; with positivism in its disdain for verbal
solutions, useless questions, and metaphysical abstractions.
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