THE EXPERIMENTAL THEORY 109 



The experimental or pragmatic theory of knowl 

 edge explains the dominating importance of sci 

 ence; it does not depreciate it or explain it away. 



Possibly pragmatic writers are to blame for the 

 tendency of their critics to assume that the practice 

 they have in mind is utilitarian in some narrow 

 sense, referring to some preconceived and inferior 

 use though I cannot recall any evidence for this 

 admission. But what the pragmatic theory has in 

 mind is precisely the fact that all the affairs of 

 life which need regulation all values of all types 

 depend upon utilizations of meanings. Action 

 is not to be limited to anything less than the carry 

 ing out of ideas, than the execution, whether stren 

 uous or easeful, of meanings. Hence the surpass 

 ing importance which comes to attach to the care 

 ful, impartial construction of the meanings, and to 

 their constant survey and resurvey with reference 

 to their value as evidenced by experiences of ful 

 filment and deviation. 



That truth denotes truths, that is, specific veri 

 fications, combinations of meanings and outcomes 

 reflectively viewed, is, one may say, the central 

 point of the experimental theory. Truth, in gen 

 eral or in the abstract, is a just name for an ex 

 perienced relation among the things of experience : 

 that sort of relation in which intents are retro 

 spectively viewed from the standpoint of the ful 1 

 filment which they secure through their own natural 



