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Pragmatism's Conceptions of Truth

Pragmatism's Conceptions of Truth. William James 1906. Truth. Truth is a property of certain of our ideas. It means the ideas agree with reality . Ideas of sensible things copy them. What does agreement mean?. To copy something

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Pragmatism's Conceptions of Truth

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  1. Pragmatism's Conceptions of Truth William James 1906

  2. Truth • Truth is a property of certain of our ideas. • It means the ideas agree with reality. • Ideas of sensible things copy them.

  3. What does agreement mean? • To copy something • To resemble an eternal idea (Plato’s theory of participation) • Intellectualists/rationalists: agreement consists in an inert, static relation.

  4. Intellectualistic Static View • Once you have truth there is nothing further. • You have arrived at your “rational destiny”. • Once you have truth (and evidence) you have complete knowledge. • There is nothing further to pursue.

  5. Pragmatism and Truth • The pragmatist should ask: “What concrete difference will it [an idea or belief] being true make in any one’s actual life?” • How will the truth be realized? • What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false? • “What, in short, is the truth’s cash-value in experiential terms?”

  6. True Ideas • “True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate and verify.” • Truth happens to an idea • It becomes true • It is made true by events. • What is true works and what works is true.

  7. Verification of Matters of Fact • We assume without verification. • Direct verification of all that we believe is impossible. • In fact, we cannot and do not directly verify (personally) most of what we believe. • Truth on Credit. • It works.

  8. Verification of Relations Among Mental Ideas • 1+1=2 • Definitions • Certain • Eternal • A priori

  9. Definition of truth revisited What is Reality? • 1) concrete facts • 2) abstract kinds • 3) relations perceived intuitively between them.

  10. Rationalists vs. Pragmatists • What is meant by truth as agreement? • Copy? • Resemblance? • My ideas “represent” reality (Locke) • My ideas resemble reality (Plato)

  11. Is James a Realist? • “our ready-made ideal framework for all sorts of possible objects follows from the very structure of our thinking. We can no more play fast and loose with these abstract relations than we can do so with our sense-experience.” • “Between the coercions of the sensible order and those of the ideal order, our mind is thus wedged tightly. Our ideas must agree with realities, be such realities concrete or abstract, be they facts or be they principles, under penalty of endless inconsistency and frustration” (316).

  12. Agreement • “to be guided either straight up to it or into its surroundings, or to be put into such working touch with it as to handle either it or something connected with it better than if we disagree.” • Agreement is perfomative; it guides us, leads us. • Helps us to dealwith reality; it does not entangle our progress in frustrations • Truth fits well with beliefs derived from prior experiences (correspondence) and with our future experiences. • Adapts our life to the reality’s whole setting.

  13. Agreement • An affair of leading • Leading us into what is useful • Leads to consistency, • Leads us toward stability • Leads us to a smooth flowing human intercourse • Leads us away from eccentricity and isolation • Leads us away from contradiction and clash (indirect verification)

  14. Verification • How do you know it’s true. • Agreement: Consistency with existing belief and new ones, fitting well into our discourse with others and everyday experiences. • The fact that a belief does not derange commonsense and previous beliefs is a form of verification

  15. Truth vs. truths • Truths are made • Like health, wealth and strength • We construct the definition of these ideas. • They are not pre-existing ideas with pre-existing standards that we simply have to achieve • They are relative concepts that need to be understood and defined within a given context. • For instance, strength, for whom, when, where?

  16. Truths in time • Retrospective judgments • Are truths of the past that are false today, still considered to be true by us today for those in the past?

  17. Pragmatism • Truth is made out of previous truths. Truth is in the future. Start Over 3) New truths/ new beliefs today's truths/beliefs 2) Experience new facts

  18. Truth and Change • Experience is a always changing. • Reality is always changing. • Truth is always changing. • Truth is a moving target. • For the rationalist truth is ready-made from eternity. • For the rationalist truth is in the eternal past. • For pragmatists truth is related to our practical interests and desires.

  19. Truth as conditional • James admits that truth is good and should be desired. • He also admits that falsehood is bad and should be shun. • However, these sorts of abstract and unconditional claims about truth lead to absurd results when applied to concrete experiences. • If you ask me the time, the fact that I live at 309 Evergreen Drive has not importance.

  20. James response to critics: • Schiller “the true is that which works”. • Dewey says “truth is what gives satisfaction: • How have these been misinterpreted?

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