4 ms·
An entire article about William James and pragmatism with nary a mention of Charles Sanders Peirce. Curious. If I may excerpt from The Complete Idiot's Guide t
by igravious 9y ago
An entire article about William James and pragmatism with nary a mention of Charles Sanders Peirce. Curious.
If I may excerpt from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Philosophy,
“
Peirce's pragmatism eventually became well known, thanks largely to the work of William James, who drew attention to Peirce's ideas. But Peirce objected to many of James' views and sought to distance his own thinking from that of James. At one point, he rejected the term, "pragmatism" for his own philosophy and proposed the term, "pragmatacism" in its place, joking that the new term was "ugly enough to be safe from kidnappers."†
”
† As has turned out to be the case!
- mcguire 9y agoPeirce's pragmatism seems to me to be rather less pragmatic than James'.
- woodandsteel 9y agoAnd then there is the third great founder of pragmatism, John Dewey, who was also left out. That said, I was happy to read such a clear and interesting presentation of James' ideas.