The Meaning of Truth

by Dr. William James

Overview

Preeminent American philosopher and educator John Dewey (1859-1952) rejected Hegelian idealism for the pragmatism of William James. In this collection of informal originally published between 1897 and 1909, Dewey articulates his now classic philosophical concepts of knowledge and truth and the nature of reality. Here Dewey introduces his scientific method and uses critical intelligence to reject the traditional ways of viewing philosophical discourse. Knowledge cannot be divorced from experience; it is gradually acquired through interaction with nature. Philosophy, therefore, has to be regarded as itself a method of knowledge and not as a repository of disembodied, pre-existing absolute truths.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627930352
Publisher:	Start Publishing LLC
Publication date:	04/08/2013
Series:	Unabridged Start Publishing LLC
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	155
File size:	328 KB

About the Author

William James (1842 -1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism. He was the brother of novelist Henry James and of diarist Alice James. William James was born at the Astor House in New York City. He was the son of Henry James Sr., an independently wealthy and notoriously eccentric Swedenborgian theologian well acquainted with the literary and intellectual elites of his day. The intellectual brilliance of the James family milieu and the remarkable epistolary talents of several of its members have made them a subject of continuing interest to historians, biographers, and critics. James interacted with a wide array of writers and scholars throughout his life, including his godfather Ralph Waldo Emerson, his godson William James Sidis, as well as Charles Sanders Peirce, Bertrand Russell, Josiah Royce, Ernst Mach, John Dewey, Walter Lippmann, Mark Twain, Horatio Alger, Jr., Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud.

Table of Contents

I THE FUNCTION OF COGNITION
II THE TIGERS IN INDIA
III HUMANISM AND TRUTH
IV THE RELATION BETWEEN KNOWER AND KNOWN
V THE ESSENCE OF HUMANISM
VI A WORD MORE ABOUT TRUTH
VII PROFESSOR PRATT ON TRUTH
VIII THE PRAGMATIST ACCOUNT OF TRUTH AND ITS MISUNDERSTANDERS
IX THE MEANING OF THE WORD TRUTH
X THE EXISTENCE OF JULIUS CÆSAR
XI THE ABSOLUTE AND THE STRENUOUS LIFE
XII PROFESSOR HÉBERT ON PRAGMATISM
XIII ABSTRACTIONISM AND ' RELATIVISMUS '
XIV TWO ENGLISH CRITICS
XV A DIALOGUE