Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking

Summarizing Lecture 4 about the one and the many, James reiterates that noetic, or intellectually derived, monism holds that “[a]bsolute oneness remains, but only as an hypothesis” (63)—namely, a hypothesis of an absolute, omniscient Knower who is God. However, the pragmatic view, which James calls noetic pluralism, must leave room for the possibility that this Knower may not be totally omniscient and that “the widest field of knowledge […] still contains some ignorance” (63).

This means the universe may not be finished, but may still be a work in progress—“eternally incomplete, and at all times subject to addition or liable to loss” (63). Likewise, we know for certain that our knowledge of the world and its workings is incomplete, so at least “in respect of the knowledge it contains the world does genuinely change and grow” (64).

James discusses some ways in which “our knowledge completes itself” (64). First, our knowledge “grows in spots” (64), progressing in some areas and lagging behind in others at an inconsistent pace. When new information comes along, we are forced to modify our knowledge. However, our minds are “strained, sometimes painfully” (64) when new facts challenge old beliefs. Thus, we accommodate the new information to the old, rather than throwing out the old, synthesizing old and new.