Premodern Concordance

Citable passage

Pragmatism

William James. Pragmatism. 1907.

PragmatismWilliam James, 1907
Suggested
How can new being come in local spots and patches which add themselves or stay away at random, independently of the rest? There must be a reason for our acts, and where in the last resort can any reason be looked for save in the material pressure or the logical compulsion of the total nature of the world? There can be but one real agent of growth, or seeming growth, anywhere, and that agent is the integral world itself. It may grow all-over, if growth there be, but that single parts should grow per se is irrational. But if one talks of rationality and of reasons for things, and insists that they can’t just come in spots, what KIND of a reason can there ultimately be why anything should come at all? Talk of logic and necessity and categories and the absolute and the contents of the whole philosophical machine-shop as you will, the only REAL reason I can think of why anything should ever come is that someone wishes it to be here.

Citation

William James. Pragmatism. 1907. Premodern Concordance passage passage-9faf836f59928e98e3e5.

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