William James

The Meaning of Truth William James

William James' publication of Pragmatism, in which he promoted his philosophical doctrine on what he called radical empiricism, was subject to both praise and criticism. As a result he published a sequel, The Meaning of Truth, in an effort to clarify his arguments toward objective truth. "THE pivotal part of my book named Pragmatism is its account of the relation called 'truth' which may obtain between an idea and its object. 'Truth,' I there say, 'is a property of certain of our ideas. It means their agreement, as falsity means their disagreement, with reality. Pragmatists and intellectualists both accept this definition as a matter of course. "'The truth of an idea is not a stagnant property inherent in it. Truth HAPPENS to an idea. It BECOMES true, is MADE true by events. Its verity IS in fact an event, a process, the process namely of its verifying itself, its veriFICATION. Its validity is the process of its validATION." William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher trained as a medical doctor. He wrote influential books on psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and the philosophy of pragmatism. He gained widespread recognition with his monumental Principles of Psychology, totaling twelve hundred pages in two volumes, which took twelve years to complete.