Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking collects James's eight Lowell Institute lectures of 1906–7, the most lucid and influential statement of the pragmatist philosophy. Against both arid rationalism and bare materialism, James argues that the meaning of any idea lies in its practical consequences, and that truth is not a fixed property of propositions but something that happens to an idea as it is put to work in experience. Moving from the temperamental divide between "tender-minded" and "tough-minded" philosophies to the theory of truth, free will, religion, and the one and the many, James shows how pragmatism functions both as a method for settling metaphysical disputes and as a theory of what truth and goodness actually are. Written with James's characteristic vividness and moral seriousness, these lectures transformed American and European philosophy and remain the single best introduction to Pragmatism.
8 chapters · Public domain
1
Lecture I — The Present Dilemma in Philosophy
~34 min · 16 pages
›2
Lecture II — What Pragmatism Means
~35 min · 17 pages
›3
Lecture III — Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered
~35 min · 17 pages
›4
Lecture IV — The One and the Many
~32 min · 16 pages
›5
Lecture V — Pragmatism and Common Sense
~26 min · 13 pages
›6
Lecture VI — Pragmatism's Conception of Truth
~36 min · 16 pages
›7
Lecture VII — Pragmatism and Humanism
~29 min · 14 pages
›8
Lecture VIII — Pragmatism and Religion
~41 min · 19 pages
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