William James Quotes on Knowledge
William James's Pragmatism (1907) and The Meaning of Truth (1909) develop the most influential American account of knowledge. A belief is true, on the pragmatist criterion, if and to the extent that acting on it satisfactorily leads through the experience that prompted it; truth is therefore not a static correspondence with a pre-given reality but the cash-value of an idea in the world of action. The earlier Will to Believe (1896) defends the legitimacy of belief in genuine, momentous, and forced options that are not decidable on intellectual grounds alone, and the Principles of Psychology supplies the empirical-psychological framework against which all of James's epistemological writing should be read.
Quotes
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“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
Ch. 22 -
“Pragmatism asks its usual question. Grant an idea or belief to be true, what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life?”
Lecture VI, Pragmatism's Conception of Truth -
Attributed to William James:
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”
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Attributed to William James:
“Truth is what works.”
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“All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods .”
Lecture at the Harvard Divinity School (13 March 1884); published in the The Unitarian Review and Religious Magazine as The Dilemma of Determinism (September 1884) -
“Lecture at the Harvard Divinity School (13 March 1884); published in the The Unitarian Review and Religious Magazine as The Dilemma of Determinism (September 1884)”
All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods . -
“The Dilemma of Determinism (1884)”
Freedom is only necessity understood . -
“The Dilemma of Determinism (1884)”
What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural way, — nay, more, a menacing and an imminent way? And what sense can there be in condemning ourselves for taking the wrong way, unless we need have done nothing of the sort, unless the right way was open to us as well? I cannot understand the