Great Ideas of Philosophy

Lecture Forty-SevenWilliam James’s PragmatismScope: If some broad “ism” is to be used as a label for the character of James’s work, it would be functionalism.Both philosophy and science may ask about anything what it is for, what part it plays in the larger schemeof things, and within that larger scheme of things is where life is actually lived. The functionalistperspective translates directly into pragmatism and pluralism.James’s pragmatism ties truth to what are, in fact, the “highest interests” of those who pursue truth orattribute it to their assertions and negations. The basis on which even scientific theories stand or fall isultimately pragmatic in this sense, for what cannot serve these highest interests must ultimately yield towhat does. James’s pluralism rejects rigid theories of the true and the false; there is no final word on theuniverse or on what the highest interests of beings such as ourselves may be.OutlineI. We now move from William James’s radical empiricism to his pragmatism and pluralism.A. The practical side of James’s philosophy begins with functionalism. His Principles of Psychology put inplace an essentially functionalist psychology and formed the foundation for American behaviorism. Jamestakes the position that the creatures of nature, via evolution, obviously are fit to deal with the environmentthey find themselves in.B. There’s a famous brief treatise by James on the question “Does consciousness exist?” The answer Jamesgives is “yes and no.”1. If we think of consciousness as immaterial, spaceless, massless but nonetheless an ontologically realthing, no, that doesn’t exist.2. But if we think of it as a flow of ideas, the stream of perceptions and thoughts and feelings, the processby which a supernumerary intelligence knits together experiences over a course of time, thenconsciousness is indubitable.C. Without invoking Aristotelian “final causes” or attaching himself to every feature of Darwinian biology,James nonetheless ties processes to functions, to larger purposes and possibilities.D. What, then, is the function of consciousness? What is it for? What does it achieve that could be achieved inno other way?1. The brain is a fabulously complex organ, consisting of millions of cells constantly at work processingsensory input. Yet the result is not simply a “blooming, buzzing confusion.”2. For survival, we must not only be able to sense our environment with great subtlety but react to stimuliinstantly and correctly: This is the “hair-trigger” nature of brain functions.3. Our conscious processes are declared to be necessary to regulate the flow of mental functioning,through such specifically conscious functions as attention, selection, and will.E. It is out of experience that the will itself is constructed. This is James’s ideomotor theory of the growth andfunction of the will:1. It is under purely reflexive control at first, as the infant responds to stimuli.2. These reflexive experiences continue, and they persist as a reservoir of behavior the individual candraw on.3. By attending to the possibilities around us, we are able, in responding, to select one behavior overanother from the reservoir we have accumulated.F. For James, the will is simply part of our nature, as it must be if the game of living is to get going in the firstplace.II. James’s pragmatism is tied to his functionalism.A. Critics of pragmatism often take pragmatists to be claiming, “If it works, it’s true.” On this understanding,there would be no way to distinguish between competing scientific worldviews if both of them led tocomparable practical success.©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 29