But how
plastic even the oldest truths nevertheless really are has been
vividly shown in our day by the transformation of logical and
mathematical ideas, a transformation which seems even to be invading
physics. The ancient formulas are reinterpreted as special
expressions of much wider principles, principles that our ancestors
never got a glimpse of in their present shape and formulation.
Mr. Schiller still gives to all this view of truth the name of
'Humanism,' but, for this doctrine too, the name of pragmatism seems
fairly to be in the ascendant, so I will treat it under the name of
pragmatism in these lectures.
Such then would be the scope of pragmatism--first, a method; and
second, a genetic theory of what is meant by truth. And these two
things must be our future topics.
What I have said of the theory of truth will, I am sure, have
appeared obscure and unsatisfactory to most of you by reason of us
brevity. I shall make amends for that hereafter. In a lecture on
'common sense' I shall try to show what I mean by truths grown
petrified by antiquity. In another lecture I shall expatiate on the
idea that our thoughts become true in proportion as they
successfully exert their go-between function.
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