William James, Pragmatism Lecture 2 | The Pragmatic Theory of Truth | Philosophy Core Concepts

This is a video in my new Core Concepts series -- designed to provide students and lifelong learners a brief discussion focused on one main concept from a classic philosophical text and thinker.

This Core Concept video focuses on William James' set of lectures, "Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking", specifically on lecture 2, "What Pragmatism Means", and discusses the pragmatic theory of truth.

My videos are used by students, lifelong learners, other professors, and professionals to learn more about topics, texts, and thinkers in philosophy, religious studies, literature, social-political theory, critical thinking, and communications. These include college and university classes, British A-levels preparation, and Indian civil service (IAS) examination preparation

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[RAIDENMN]

Interestingly enough, the way you described how Dewey's and Schiller's idea of older truths reminds me of Natural Selection. Truths that worked successfully were kept, while truths that became useless or detrimental were replaced by better truths. It sounds like how some genetic traits within a species that helped them adapt to their environment are accepted and replace other traits that are now lost to time, which existed in extinct species. Pragmatism has some way to connect back to a law of nature, and that fascinates me. Great video!

[tcl]

Very well done. I like James and have read portions of his work as well as listening to people like yourself who are philosophers.

Your explanation of his ideas regarding pragmatism are excellent. I’m not an academic but a person who enjoys looking into what we can know about human knowledge. Who we are, why do we behave the way we do, what we know about ourselves by virtue of what many people from antiquity to the present have had to say about many important questions.

Thanks!