Post 4

a) "Pragmatism represents a perfectly familiar attitude in philosophy, the empiricist attitude, but it represents it, as it seems to me, both in a more radical and in a less objectionable form than it has ever yet assumed. [...] At the same time it does not stand for any special results. It is a method only" (p.195). I believe that in these two opening lines of paragraphs James intends to illustrate the how pragmatism ought to have an overarching application into all aspects of philosophy. However, it should not be presumed that the overarching application ought to illicit overarching results. James would argue as would most pragmatists that the universal-ness of pragmatism is in its ability to discover what the current truth is for the particular individual examining the series of circumstances, not necessarily (indeed not likely) a static, universal truth.

b) When James says that pragmatism "has no dogmas, and doctrines save its method" (p. 196). I think James is incorrect. Pragmatism does have a dogma, it has a search for a telos in all things, and a priority placed on experience over just being told the way things are. If James considers these things just part of it's method then I believe that he is being seriously short sighted. These are more than steps in a process, they are principles on which the process is founded.

c) While pragmatism's conception of truth is useful, I find it to be inadequate. I believe that truth cannot be liminal, things either are the way they are or they aren't. It would seem to me that the pragmatists draw dangerously close to confusing truth and belief. I do not believe that truth ought to be based in any one person's beliefs, rather it ought to take root in exactly the way things are. One ought to start from a basic premise that can be universally accepted as true, if one cannot do that, then why ought any person who disagrees with the premise agree with the conclusion. Take for example a deranged man who believes that he may jump off a building and by wearing a cape he will be able to fly like superman. The truth is that gravity will overtake his belief and intervene. A belief need not be accurate to move a person to act on it, but the truth will be that he shall make quite a mess of the pavement.