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James, William, 1842-1910

"Pragmatism"

It may grow
all-over, if growth there be, but that single parts should grow per
se is irrational.
But if one talks of rationality and of reasons for things, and
insists that they can't just come in spots, what KIND of a reason
can there ultimately be why anything should come at all? Talk of
logic and necessity and categories and the absolute and the contents
of the whole philosophical machine-shop as you will, the only REAL
reason I can think of why anything should ever come is that someone
wishes it to be here. It is DEMANDED, demanded, it may be, to give
relief to no matter how small a fraction of the world's mass. This
is living reason, and compared with it material causes and logical
necessities are spectral things.
In short the only fully rational world would be the world of
wishing-caps, the world of telepathy, where every desire is
fulfilled instanter, without having to consider or placate
surrounding or intermediate powers. This is the Absolute's own
world. He calls upon the phenomenal world to be, and it IS, exactly
as he calls for it, no other condition being required. In our world,
the wishes of the individual are only one condition. Other
individuals are there with other wishes and they must be propitiated
first.


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