Words That Must Be Put to Work
The history of philosophy is littered with words — substance, Absolute, the One, God, Matter — that have functioned as conversation-stoppers rather than thought-starters. The pragmatist's demand is simple: what experiential difference does it make whether this word applies or not? If none, the word marks a pseudo-problem. If some, the word earns its philosophical keep.
But if you follow the pragmatic method, you cannot look on any such word as closing your quest. You must bring out of each word its practical cash-value, set it at work within the stream of your experience. It appears less as a solution, then, than as a program for more work, and more particularly as an indication of the ways in which existing realities may be CHANGED.
Pragmatism as Anti-Intellectualism
James calls pragmatism "anti-intellectualist" not because it is hostile to intellect but because it opposes the intellectualist pretension that concepts can be final, self-sufficient resting places. Every concept is an instrument, a tool for navigating experience — and tools are judged by what they help us do, not by their theoretical elegance alone. This is why pragmatism appears in the midst of philosophical theories "like a corridor in a hotel" — not a room itself but an opening onto rooms.
Concepts as Maps, Not Copies
The cash-value demand follows from a deeper point about how ideas relate to the world. Ideas do not copy reality — they guide us through it. A map is not true because it resembles the territory but because following it gets us where we want to go. The pragmatist's test is always: does believing this help? Does it lead, when acted on, to an experience that confirms or enriches it? Cash-value is not a degradation of ideas but their proper mode of evaluation.
The "cash-value" metaphor appears in Lecture II of Pragmatism (1907). James credits Peirce with the original insight and Dewey and Schiller with its independent development in America and Britain.
Related Concepts
