Pragmatism

🔗Connect

🔼Topic:: Pragmatism

✒️ Note-Making

💡Clarify

🔈 Summary of main ideas

1. Truth and utility are the same - The "truthiness" of an idea and it's utility are one and the same. Truth is the measure by which believing it helps us understand our experiences and have more effective methods of acting.
2. Limited pluralism - while a pragmatist can't be dogmatic, since we do experience a pluralism in moral views which seems "to work", so a single right answer seems like a non-optimal solution, we are limited to a subset of all views. Not all views are created equal, some "work" more than others. It is loosely tied to our biological and physical nature which dictates certain aspects of our experience.

🗒️Relate

⛓ Life lessons, action items

1. Focus on results - instead of debating on abstract concepts that have no effect on your life, ask yourself which belief is the most helpful to your growth and well-being
2. Sharing knowledge is essential - when we share our knowledge, we are able to learn more on which beliefs "works" and which don't, which is essential to our progress as individuals and as a society.

🔍Critique

✅ by following this method, what will happen?

❌ the logical jumps, holes or simply cases where it is wrong...

🧱 Implementations and limitations of it are...

🗨️Review

💭 my opinions on the book, the writers style... Since this book is a collection of lectures, it is not destined to the "general audience", and it is not as polished, but rather more like a oxford lecture that we intruded.

🖼️Outline

📒 Notes

The Present Dilemma in Philosophy

Philosophy is the most influential yet negligible craft there is, because philosophy is a matter of Perspective. It creates nothing, but from some perspective we can create wonders, and others fall into the abyss.

The history of philosophy is a battle of competing perspectives, mainly Empiricism and Rationalism.

If we can be stereotypical, rationalism is those who believe in monism, in abstract principles, spiritual, believers of free will. We can categorize them as the "soft minded". Empiricists on the other hand are rigid, believes in facts and sees the world as an unconnected mess of attributes. Deterministic. These are the "hard minded"

We tend to have a bit of both in us, but so far we haven't found a system that answers the logical errors of such a mixed theory.

Lecture I. — The Present Dilemma in Philosophy

• For the philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos. (Location 79)
• Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens out the widest vistas. It 'bakes no bread,' as has been said, but it can inspire our souls with courage; (Location 94)
• THE TENDER-MINDED Rationalistic (going by 'principles'), Intellectualistic, Idealistic, Optimistic, Religious, Free-willist, Monistic, Dogmatical. (Location 136)
• THE TOUGH-MINDED Empiricist (going by 'facts'), Sensationalistic, Materialistic, Pessimistic, Irreligious, Fatalistic, Pluralistic, Sceptical. (Location 138)
• You want a system that will combine both things, the scientific loyalty to facts and willingness to take account of them, the spirit of adaptation and accommodation, in short, but also the old confidence in human values and the resultant spontaneity, (Location 196)
• pragmatism as a philosophy that can satisfy both kinds of demand. It can remain religious like the rationalisms, but at the same time, like the empiricisms, it can preserve the richest intimacy with facts. (Location 290)

What is Pragmatism

According to pragmatism, the only "real" difference between two opposing views is the consequences of believing one theory over another. Those who don't have any distinguishable difference are considered similar, no matter how much they differ in "reasons" or "theme". Meaning theories are only relevant as far as they have an impact on our lives, on how they are expressed. This is similar to the scientific method which dictates that what matters is to find the falsification condition of a theory in order to reject it. A theory that can't be rejected, or theories that share the same condition are considered similar, and not a theory at the same time.

Similarly, truth therefore becomes a matter of Instrumental "truth". An idea is "true" as so far they change something in our experience, as their ability to be "useful" to us. Ideas are more like tools that we use and discard If a better one shows up, rather than an abstract truth that can't be replaced. Utility

The concept of truth therefore is inherently linked to the concept of "goodness" of "utility". Something true has to be something good, those are no two distinct attributes. Something true is considered truth because it is "better for us" to believe it as true than as not.

Lecture II. — What Pragmatism Means

• The pragmatic method in such cases is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences. What difference would it practically make to anyone if this notion rather than that notion were true? (Location 366)
• To attain perfect clearness in our thoughts of an object, then, we need only consider what conceivable effects of a practical kind the object may involve—what sensations we are to expect from it, and what reactions we must prepare. (Location 375)
• It is astonishing to see how many philosophical disputes collapse into insignificance the moment you subject them to this simple test of tracing a concrete consequence. (Location 398)
• THEORIES THUS BECOME INSTRUMENTS, NOT ANSWERS TO ENIGMAS, IN WHICH WE CAN REST. (Location 424)
• IDEAS (WHICH THEMSELVES ARE BUT PARTS OF OUR EXPERIENCE) BECOME TRUE JUST IN SO FAR AS THEY HELP US TO GET INTO SATISFACTORY RELATION WITH OTHER PARTS OF OUR EXPERIENCE, (Location 458)
• IF THEOLOGICAL IDEAS PROVE TO HAVE A VALUE FOR CONCRETE LIFE, THEY WILL BE TRUE, (Location 567)
• an idea is 'true' so long as to believe it is profitable to our lives. (Location 584)
• truth is ONE SPECIES OF GOOD, and not, as is usually supposed, a category distinct from good, and coordinate with it. THE TRUE IS THE NAME OF WHATEVER PROVES ITSELF TO BE GOOD (Location 588)
• If there be any life that it is really better we should lead, and if there be any idea which, if believed in, would help us to lead that life, then it would be really BETTER FOR US to believe in that idea, UNLESS, INDEED, BELIEF IN IT INCIDENTALLY CLASHED WITH OTHER GREATER VITAL BENEFITS. 'What would be better for us to believe'! This sounds very like a definition of truth. (Location 595)
• the greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths. (Location 605)
• Her only test of probable truth is what works best in the way of leading us, what fits every part of life best and combines with the collectivity of experience's demands, nothing being omitted. If theological ideas should do this, if the notion of God, in particular, should prove to do it, how could pragmatism possibly deny God's existence? (Location 622)

Some Metaphysical Examples

even the concept of believing in god, or free will, should be a debate on whether those things "actually" exist, but rather whether believing in those things is helpful for our lives. For example, believing in god can help us be more compassionate, or stick to following our values, while believing in free will is beneficial for our sense of accountability and proactiveness. Those benefits stem from believing in those things, rather than "knowing" whether they are true or not. By the fact that they are beneficial, to a pragmatist they are considered "true".

The One and the Many

The debate between monism and pluralism is fierce, and in essence pragmatism tends to be more on the pluralism side, if only because monism is a theory that has little grasp of reality. Even if everything is "one", it is expressed through a variety, and therefore believing it provides little value. While acknowledging the difference, the variety we have in the world, and talk about how those different aspects interact is more beneficial.

Pragmatism and Common Sense

When we learn something new, our mind tries to change as little as possible our previous knowledge that relates to it. Meaning that our knowledge grows in patches, where we make the smallest adjustments as to not give up on what we already know Conformation Bias Layering

Lecture V. — Pragmatism and Common Sense

• Our minds thus grow in spots; and like grease-spots, the spots spread. But we let them spread as little as possible: we keep unaltered as much of our old knowledge, as many of our old prejudices and beliefs, as we can. We patch and tinker more than we renew. (Location 1197)
• OUR FUNDAMENTAL WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT THINGS ARE DISCOVERIES OF EXCEEDINGLY REMOTE ANCESTORS, WHICH HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PRESERVE THEMSELVES THROUGHOUT THE EXPERIENCE OF ALL SUBSEQUENT TIME. (Location 1209)

Pragmatist's Concept of Truth

For empiricists, truth is a matter of falsification, to examine the idea in real life. While the intention is true, it is often limited only to physical beliefs. How can you test "justice"? For realist, truth stems from the "absolute essence" of a thing. Truth is "somewhere" where we can't really access or know for sure what it is. So either we stick only with truth of natural things, or we give us the idea of falsification entirely. Pragmatism offers a third way.

Truth of a matter isn't just "knowing" it, but rather "using" it. An idea is true as far as it is usable, falsifiable, verifiable. It helps us reach a certain goal that isn't possible using other ideas. The connection between utility and truthfulness is bi directional. This connects to how we think as humans. The more an idea serves us, the more we believe it, the more we are entrenched by it Rationalization

then why do we believe in ideas that don't serve us, like Imposter Syndrome

Not all truths have to be verified by us (or at all) as long as they "work". we can trade truths with one another. We can believe in Japan without ever vising it because it "works", but like a banking system, we need that someone out there will check the validity of the statement, otherwise the entire structure collapse Trust Dependency. This can explain cases of Herd Mentality. Therefore, thinking and Deliberation should both be essential to humanity because those are they ways we filter and verify truths.

This also means that our internal truth has to somewhat be aligned with society's truth, otherwise I'm detached from truth statements that work simply because they are shared (like the concept of money), especially if it has been verified, like scientific results. Since ideas do correlate with the realities, it's illogical to have endless variety among pragmatists because some ideas should be more true/useful than others, but we are also not obligated for a monistic answer either.

Truth is a process, like strength, it is built up over time through experience, rather than existing separately and unrelated to it gradual process

Lecture VI. — Pragmatism's Conception of Truth

• the great assumption of the intellectualists is that truth means essentially an inert static relation. When you've got your true idea of anything, there's an end of the matter. You're in possession; you KNOW; you have fulfilled your thinking destiny. You are where you ought to be mentally; you have obeyed your categorical imperative; and nothing more need follow on that climax of your rational destiny. Epistemologically you are in stable equilibrium. Pragmatism, on the other hand, asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life? (Location 1407)
• TRUE IDEAS ARE THOSE THAT WE CAN ASSIMILATE, VALIDATE, CORROBORATE AND VERIFY. FALSE IDEAS ARE THOSE THAT WE CANNOT. (Location 1413)
• 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 veri-FICATION. Its validity is the process of its valid-ATION. (Location 1415)
• You can say of it then either that 'it is useful because it is true' or that 'it is true because it is useful.' Both these phrases mean exactly the same thing, namely that here is an idea that gets fulfilled and can be verified. True is the name for whatever idea starts the verification-process, useful is the name for its completed function in experience. (Location 1437)
• this all points to direct face-to-face verifications somewhere, without which the fabric of truth collapses like a financial system with no cash-basis whatever. You accept my verification of one thing, I yours of another. We trade on each other's truth. But beliefs verified concretely by SOMEBODY are the posts of the whole superstructure. (Location 1463)
• Our ideas must agree with realities, be such realities concrete or abstract, be they facts or be they principles, under penalty of endless inconsistency and frustration. (Location 1490)
• All human thinking gets discursified; we exchange ideas; we lend and borrow verifications, get them from one another by means of social intercourse. All truth thus gets verbally built out, stored up, and made available for everyone. Hence, we must TALK consistently just as we must THINK consistently: (Location 1505)
• True ideas lead us into useful verbal and conceptual quarters as well as directly up to useful sensible termini. They lead to consistency, stability and flowing human intercourse. They lead away from eccentricity and isolation, (Location 1516)
• Truth for us is simply a collective name for verification-processes, just as health, wealth, strength, etc., are names for other processes connected with life, and also pursued because it pays to pursue them. Truth is MADE, just as health, wealth and strength are made, in the course of experience. (Location 1538)
• The 'absolutely' true, meaning what no farther experience will ever alter, is that ideal vanishing-point towards which we imagine that all our temporary truths will some day converge. (Location 1571)
• we have to live to-day by what truth we can get to-day, and be ready to-morrow to call it falsehood. (Location 1573)
• It is the nature of truths to be validated, verified. It pays for our ideas to be validated. Our obligation to seek truth is part of our general obligation to do what pays. The payments true ideas bring are the sole why of our duty to follow them. (Location 1626)

Pragmatism and Humanism

Although empiricism is very similar in it's rigorous method of falsification and what "works", it's looks only at a narrow subset of our sensory universe. Most of the things we sense, we know, we observe, are Social Construct. From "seasons" to "constellations" to "money" and "race", all these are constructs that binds human consciousness into the universe, that merge "fact" and "perspective", and pragmatists can't ignore these types of knowledge.

Lecture VII. — Pragmatism and Humanism

• What we say about reality thus depends on the perspective into which we throw it. (Location 1727)
• On the pragmatist side we have only one edition of the universe, unfinished, growing in all sorts of places, especially in the places where thinking beings are at work. (Location 1820)

Pragmatism and Religion

A pragmatist can't deny religion "right off the bat", but it also can't be fully dogmatic either.

Lecture VIII. — Pragmatism and Religion

• pragmatism can be called religious, if you allow that religion can be pluralistic or merely melioristic in type. (Location 2108)
• Pragmatism has to postpone dogmatic answer, for we do not yet know certainly which type of religion is going to work best in the long run. (Location 2110)