Great Ideas of Philosophy

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B. This shortchanges James’s version of pragmatism and that of Charles Sanders Pierce, with whom Jameswas closely and not always happily associated.1. James held that the pragmatic method is primarily a method of settling metaphysical disputes thatotherwise might be interminable by trying to trace each notion to its respective practical consequences.2. Pierce had earlier framed his own version of pragmatism: “Consider what effects, which mightconceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then the wholeof our conception of those effects is the whole of our conception of the object.”3. The two views are similar but different. Pierce preferred to refer to his position as “pragmatistic,”James’s as being “pragmatism.” What they have in common is the standard to be applied indetermining whether a concept or meaning is clearly comprehended.4. Pragmatism on James’s account matches up with James’s notion of our interests. What we do, we doon behalf of our highest interests.III. What, then, are our highest interests? Aren’t they different for different people, at different times, in differentcultures? James’s pluralism will admit of answers, but no final answers.A. For all we know, the universe itself is evolving such that, in its dynamism, even its own laws change. Thusdoes James reject the block universe, a static mass about which there is some last word that will be true ofit for all time.1. As the human race finds itself in different contexts, equipped with new and promising thoughts andpossibilities, there is always another broad perspective that replaces an earlier one, a perspective thatcannot be expected to be the same everywhere.2. In their given context, and for the lives actually lived in that context, certain beliefs and attitudesdirectly fortify and give direction to those lives.3. No unifying theory will replace this diversity of outlooks, because such a theory presupposes auniformity (over time and context) of “highest interests.”B. James sees our highest interests as not tied to culture.1. We cannot enforce our habits and practices on others, but we can discuss what our natures are andwhat the highest interests of natures such as ours might be.2. If we have no higher interests in common, is it possible to bring moral claims against what the Nazis,the KKK, or the Mafia name as their highest interests?C. James the pluralist is not a relativist of the modern stripe. He countered the reigning positivism of his daywith fallibilism.1. There is always more to the account than any current version can include, because there are alwaysother experiences, other beliefs, and needs.2. We must conduct ourselves in such a way as to record what we take to be our highest interests, whilenever knowing if we have them right or have matched our interests by our actions. There is no finalword.IV. William James was, above all, a realist: We must accept what is. Unlike the positivists, however, James tookthis to mean that we must accept that there is a religious element to life, because credible report points to theexistence of one, as well as to a striving to perfect oneself and to needs that go beyond the individual soul orbody. There are, however, things that we cannot finally know. The fallibilist doesn’t deny that there is someabsolute point of focus on which human interests can converge, but we are warned to be suspicious of thosewho come to us with final answers.Recommended Reading:James, W. Essays in Radical Empiricism and A Pluralistic Universe. Phoenix, 1977.James, W. The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy. Harvard University Press, 1979.Robinson, D. Toward a Science of Human Nature. Columbia University Press, 1982, chapter 5, “William James.”30©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership
Questions to Consider:1. Conclude whether James’s pluralism is simply relativism by another name.2. Suppose our highest interests are simply features of our merely contingent biology. Summarize whether thisimplies that our developed knowledge, too, is simply something credible to an organism of a certain kind.©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 31
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Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D.Philosophy
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Lecture OneFrom the Upanishads to H
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E. The Upanishads would merge us wi
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2. Despite their oracles, priests,
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4. Looking at geometry, we are told
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E. The contribution of pre-Socratic
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of the mystery of earth itself impe
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Lecture SixHerodotus and the Lamp o
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Lecture SevenSocrates on the Examin
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Xenophon. Memorabilia. Cornell Univ
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II. A philosopher is engaged in the
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Lecture NineCan Virtue Be Taught?Sc
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Lecture TenPlato’s Republic⎯Man
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Annas, J. “Classical Greek Philos
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III. The dominant school of Greek m
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1. Epistemonikon is a special featu
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Timeline800-600 B.C.E. ............
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1705...............................
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1873...............................
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Functionalism: The view that consci
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Tabula rasa: A blank slate. In the
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progress in one of its most summoni
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John Locke (1632-1704): Physician a
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The Great Ideas ofPhilosophy, 2 nd
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Table of ContentsThe Great Ideas of
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Lecture ThirteenAristotle on Friend
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C. Aristotle is recovering the Home
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III. The problem of conduct is then
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C. The Stoic account relies on the
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Lecture SixteenThe Stoic Bridge to
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Recommended Reading:Bede. A History
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III. Roman law successfully permitt
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Lecture EighteenThe Light Within⎯
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B. Augustine approaches the problem
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B. Very early, the Islamic commitme
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Lecture TwentySecular Knowledge⎯T
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IV. The third great institutional c
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1. Scholasticism was an attempt to
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Lecture Twenty-TwoScholasticism and
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E. Further, to the intellectual vir
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historical volumes tell Florentines
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Lecture Twenty-FourLet Us Burn the
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1. First, the courts required a doc
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650-850 C.E. ......................
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1794...............................
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Apatheia: Freedom from pathos and s
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ut cannot know what it is. Ultimate
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Biographical NotesAeschylus (525-45
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Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771)
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Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.): Greek p
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Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D.Philosophy
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Scope:The Great Ideas of Philosophy
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B. This expansion, however, does no
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1. This standard essentially rules
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Lecture Twenty-SevenNewton⎯The Sa
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Lecture Twenty-EightHobbes and the
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Recommended Reading:Hobbes, T. Levi
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B. Other things can be known to be
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Lecture ThirtyNo Matter? The Challe
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Lecture Thirty-OneHume and the Purs
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Lecture Thirty-TwoThomas Reid and t
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efore him were not always faithful
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2. His Letters on the English makes
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Lecture Thirty-FourThe Federalist P
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VI. The Federalist Papers and the g
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III. Kant argues that there is some
Page 139 and 140: Lecture Thirty-SixMoral Science and
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Page 147 and 148: Apatheia: Freedom from pathos and s
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Page 151 and 152: Biographical NotesAeschylus (525-45
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Page 159 and 160: Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D.Philosophy
Page 161 and 162: Scope:The Great Ideas of Philosophy
Page 163 and 164: C. Though his system would be mocke
Page 165 and 166: 1. There is nothing in the physics
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Page 169 and 170: Lecture FortyThe Aesthetic Movement
Page 171 and 172: insisted that our very character is
Page 173 and 174: III. Nietzsche was an admirer and o
Page 175 and 176: B. In the final state, we’re all
Page 177 and 178: Lecture Forty-ThreeDarwin and Natur
Page 179 and 180: 2. There is room for altruism but o
Page 181 and 182: 1. He is a Hegelian who stands Hege
Page 183 and 184: Lecture Forty-FiveThe Freudian Worl
Page 185 and 186: B. How can repressed elements be un
Page 187 and 188: III. What figures in the human imag
Page 189: Lecture Forty-SevenWilliam James’
Page 193 and 194: III. As long as we subscribe to a
Page 195 and 196: Timeline800-600 B.C.E. ............
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Page 201 and 202: Functionalism: The view that consci
Page 203 and 204: Tabula rasa: A blank slate. In the
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Page 207 and 208: John Locke (1632-1704): Physician a
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Page 212 and 213: Table of ContentsThe Great Ideas of
Page 214 and 215: Lecture Forty-NineAlan Turing in th
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Page 220 and 221: B. The inclination to classify is a
Page 222 and 223: Lecture Fifty-TwoPhilosophy of Scie
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Page 232 and 233: Lecture Fifty-FiveWhat Makes a Prob
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Page 238 and 239: Lecture Fifty-SevenOn the Nature of
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2. So far as it can coexist with th
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3. Slavery is commonplace in all of
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3. Does the just-war theorist have
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B. The quadrivium comprised arithme
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2. He argues that the former is pre
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1. The objects of the knowable worl
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etween a world of beauty and one of
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⎯⎯⎯. On Free choice of Will.
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Herodotus. The Persian Wars. G. Raw
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———. Toward a Science of Huma
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