A SHORT CATECHISM CONCERNING 

 TRUTH * 



I am desirous, respected teacher, of 

 forming an independent judgment concern 

 ing the novel theory of truth that you are said 

 to profess. My eagerness is whetted because the 

 theory as expounded to me by my old teacher, 

 Professor Purus Intellectus, so obviously contra 

 venes common sense, science, and philosophy that I 

 do not understand how it can be advanced in good 

 faith by any reasonable man. 



Teacher. As you are already somewhat ac 

 quainted with the theory (or at least with what 

 it purports to be), perhaps if you will set forth in 

 order your objections, it will appear that the 

 theory that you are acquainted with is not ad 

 vanced by any reasonable persons, and that by 

 understanding the theory as it is you will also be 

 led to embrace it. 



Pupil: Objection One. Pragmatism makes 

 truth a subjective affair, namely the satisfaction 

 afforded individuals by ideas, while everybody 



*A paper read in the spring of 1909 before the Philo 

 sophical Club of Smith College and not previously published. 



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