The pragmatic thinker, William James (1842–1910 ) is easily one of the most lucid of philosophers, with a charming and attractive writing style. It is no coincidence his brother, Henry James, is one of the finest novelists of the 20th century. William's most famous book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, is one of the great classic accounts of the subject. Another recommendation is the keen attention shown by James to questions of faith. One of the first modern psychologists, James, unlike the Freudians, recognised the importance of the religious dimension in human life.
James’ philosophy is what is called pragmatism. Pragmatism has been prone to misunderstandings and prejudice from the start, to be pragmatic in popular usage is to pursue a kind of ruthless or unscrupulous practicality. In business or politics, someone who is pragmatic is often someone who cuts ethical corners in order to achieve some practical result. Similarly, a pragmatic decision is one that ignores principle in favour of practical judgment. This is not at all what James means by pragmatism. James insists that pragmatism is not a doctrine, but a method for testing truths. And it is a method that can very well coexist with, and complement, other philosophical outlooks.
What pragmatism posits as its core principle is that truths are to be evaluated by their practical consequences. By “practical” James means human belief, behaviour, and the totality of human life, personal and social and spiritual. Indeed, for James “practical” meant something closer to “particular and concrete.”
“The truth is what works” is one popular formulation of pragmatism. To say that “truth works” is first and foremost to say something about what truth does. One of the properties of truth, one of the reasons we know truth is true, is that it works, has good effects. Truth is not merely a matter of contemplation and speculative thought; it also accomplishes things in the world. It must be emphasised that practicality is a test of what a truth means. James’s conception of truth is existential and experiential; truth must mean something for us; there must be a passionate reason for pursuing truth.
One of the marks of truth is that it works. Falsehood by contrast does not work. Falsehood fails, sooner or later, and therefore pursuing it is a delusion. We therefore have a duty and responsibility to pursue truth and avoid falsehood. The fact that truth is good for us is one reason why we ought to value and pursue it. James sees pragmatism as providing a motive for pursuing truth.
Unlike many philosophers, James never propounds his method as the philosophy, but merely as a tool, a tool of universal common sense. Pragmatism is not a new creed at all, but simply a description of what we all do already whether we realise it or not. We all test ideas against their practical consequences. What consequences will this belief or that doctrine have? What differences will it make in my life, or the lives of others?
James himself was troubled by the dominance of scientific materialism over the intellectual world, and his writings demonstrate his desire to leave room in the modern world for faith. James came to believe that pragmatism was the ideal philosophical method because it meets the human need for a practical meaning to existence. A psychologist fascinated by the workings of the human mind, his studies for his great work Varieties of Religious Experience had convinced him that man had a natural need for religion and that religious experience belonged unquestionably to the category of the real.
Theism passes the pragmatic test because it “guarantees an ideal order that shall be permanently preserved”; and the need of an eternal moral order, as James reminds us “is one of the deepest needs of human beings”. Viewed pragmatically, viewed in terms of ultimate consequences, “spiritualistic faith in all its forms deals with a world of promise, while materialism’s sun sets in a sea of disappointment".
The same goes for such theological issues as human free will or the theory of design in nature. The theory of free will is more plausible, passes the pragmatic test, precisely because it allows man greater freedom of action. Free will and intelligent design are what James calls “theories of promise” or “doctrines of relief” because they inspire hope and confidence in the future, allowing man to live well in the present.
Pragmatism is itself a mediating tool between various systems of thought and belief. The pragmatic method encourages us to see reality as multifaceted and complex, and truth as deeply implicated in the human mind and its concerns, needs, and sensibilities. Pragmatism in the end fosters a humility in the face of truth.
Barnaby ffrench
