ONT Differences That Make A Difference
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| The pragmatic method is primarily a method of settling
| metaphysical disputes that otherwise might be interminable.
| Is the world one or many? -- fated or free? -- material or
| spiritual? -- here are notions either of which may or may
| not hold good of the world; and disputes over such notions
| are unending. 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
| any one if this notion rather than that notion were true?
| If no practical difference whatever can be traced, then the
| alternatives mean practically the same thing, and all dispute
| is idle. Whenever a dispute is serious, we ought to be able
| to show some practical differnce that must follow from one side
| or the other's being right. (James, p. 45-46).
|
| William James,
|'Pragmatism, A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking',
| Longmans, Green, and Company, New York, NY, 1907.
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