PREFACE xiii 



of Pure Reason. Still, in some cases, the desire for 

 knowledge may prove stronger than the attachment to 

 habitual modes of thought, and so it may not be wholly 

 fruitless to point out (i) that our objections are in no 

 wise disposed of by vague charges of a confusion of 

 psychology and logic ; (2) that the canons of right 

 Thought must, even from the most narrowly logical of 

 standpoints, be brought into some relation to the pro 

 cedures of actual thinking ; (3) that in point of fact the 

 former are derived from the latter ; (4) that if so, our 

 first mode of reasoning must receive logical recognition, 

 because (5) it is not only usual, but useful in the dis 

 covery of Truth ; (6) that a process which yields 

 valuable results must in some sense be valid, and (7) 

 that, conversely, an ideal of validity which is not realis 

 able is not valid. In short, how can a logic which 

 professes to be the theory of thought set aside as 

 irrelevant a normal feature of our thinking ? And if 

 it cannot, is it not evident that, when reformed by Prag 

 matism, it must assume a very different complexion, more 

 natural and clearer, than while its movements were im 

 peded by the conventions of a strait-laced Intellectualism ? 

 Secondly, Pragmatism would find an almost in 

 exhaustible field of exploration in the sciences, by 

 examining the multifarious ways in which their truths 

 have come to be established, and showing how the 

 practical value of scientific conceptions has accelerated 

 and determined their acceptance. And it is not over- 

 sanguine to suppose that a clearer consciousness of the 

 actual procedure of the sciences would also lead to the 

 critical rejection of conceptions which are not needed, and 

 are not useful, and would facilitate the formation of new 

 conceptions which are needed. 1 



1 Most opportunely for my argument the kind of transformation of our 

 scientific ideas which Pragmatism will involve has received the most copious and 

 admirable illustration in Professor Ostwald s great Naturphilosophie. Professor 



b 



