5 h 53 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the best way to understand an idea is to ask what difference it makes in your life?
In Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, William James brings philosophy down to earth. Across eight lectures, he asks how ideas about truth, free will, matter and God affect experience. His starting point is simple: if rival ideas make no practical difference, the quarrel between them may be empty.
James writes for curious people, not only professors. A squirrel on a tree and a hotel corridor with many doors help him explore difficult questions. He examines how temperament shapes thought, where common sense comes from, and what makes an idea true. The stakes are close to home: how you judge arguments and decide what to believe.
What you’ll discover
- A test for ideas Ask what changes in practice when you accept an idea as true.
- Temperament behind the argument Explore James's claim that a philosopher's thinking begins with a feeling about the universe.
- Truth meets experience Follow James as he connects truth with what proves useful in experience.
- Belief and its fruits Consider how James applies his practical method to questions of religious belief.
- Big questions, familiar pictures Let jokes, stories and everyday images draw you into old philosophical disputes.
Who will love it
For curious readers who love a clear, lively entry to American philosophy, and anyone who wonders whether abstract debates matter in daily life. James explores truth, free will and belief through jokes, stories and everyday examples.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Temperament shapes every philosopher's thinking
- Ask what practical difference an idea makes
- Pragmatism is an attitude, not a doctrine
- Old metaphysical puzzles tested by their consequences
- The world may be one and many
- Common sense is a stage of human thought
- Truth is what proves useful in experience
- Truth is partly made by us
- Faith may be tested by its fruits
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Der Pragmatismus: Ein neuer Name für einige alte Denkweisen
by William James · 1907
William James puts truth, free will and religious belief to the test of what difference they make in everyday life.
Challenging5–10 hours to readDeutsch
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In short
What if most philosophical quarrels are really about nothing at all? In 1906 and 1907, the Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James gave eight lectures to ordinary listeners, and published them as Pragmatism.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Temperament shapes every philosopher's thinking
James opens by saying that everyone has a philosophy, a feeling for what the universe is like. He thinks the history of philosophy is largely a clash of human temperaments. The tender-minded go by principles and tend to be idealistic, religious and fond of free will. The tough-minded go by facts and tend to be materialistic and skeptical.
Most of us are neither, and want something from both sides. We want to respect science, and we also want a world where our moral and religious hopes still count. Empiricism gives facts but often strips the world of meaning. Rationalism gives meaning but floats far above real life.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1907
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 3 h 50 min
- Level
- Challenging
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What is pragmatism by William James about?
It argues that ideas should be judged by their practical consequences. James uses this method to settle old philosophical disputes and to offer a theory of truth in which an idea is true if it can be verified and works well in experience.
What does James mean by the cash value of an idea?
He means the concrete difference an idea makes in someone's actual life or experience. If believing it changes nothing we can see or do, it has no cash value, and arguments about it are empty.
Did William James invent pragmatism?
No. James credits Charles Sanders Peirce, who stated the principle in 1878. James popularized it in these lectures of 1906 and 1907 and extended it to truth and religion.
The author
William James
1842–1910 · American philosopher and psychologist
William James (1842–1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. Born in New York City, he taught at Harvard University in Massachusetts. He wrote The Principles of Psychology (1890), The Will to Believe (1897), The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), and Pragmatism (1907). He died in Chocorua, New Hampshire.
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