Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking

A little about the book

William James starts with the frustration of watching people argue over abstract positions without first asking what difference accepting one of them would make. His pragmatic method asks readers to consider what would follow from an idea in experience and practice. He uses concrete examples, including a dispute about whether someone goes around a squirrel, to show why a careful definition can alter a problem.

The lectures revisit truth, experience, religion, and the relations between ideas. James’s speaking voice gives the work an approachable pace even where the claims become technical. He is interested in how beliefs guide people through unfamiliar situations and in what happens when new experiences force them to revise a belief they thought they understood.

Things You May Not Know About Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking

• Given as lectures. James says he spoke at the Lowell Institute in Boston in 1906 and at Columbia University in 1907.
• A squirrel clarifies the method. A dispute about walking around a squirrel turns on what the people arguing mean by going around it.
• Old disputes get a practical test. James uses the method to reconsider metaphysical questions about unity, freedom, and the nature of truth.
• Eight lectures. The table of contents gives a sequence from philosophical temperaments to a final discussion of religion.
• A guide to other thinkers. The preface names writers including John Dewey and F. C. S. Schiller for readers who want to go further.