THE PRINCIPLES OF PRAGMATISM I2/ 



out that our beliefs are really rules for action, said that, to develop 

 a thought s meaning, we need only determine what conduct it is 

 fitted to produce: 1 that conduct is for us its sole significance. 

 And the tangible fact at the root of all our thought-distinctions, 

 however subtle, is that there is no one of them so fine as to consist 

 in anything but a possible difference of practice. To attain per 

 fect clearness in our thoughts of an object, then, we need only 

 consider what conceivable effects of a practical kind the ob 

 ject may involve what sensations we are to expect from 

 it, and what reactions we must prepare. Our conception of 

 these effects, whether immediate or remote, is then for us the 

 whole of our conception of the object so far as that conception 

 has positive significance at all.&quot; To the same purport is the 

 opinion of Ostwald, &quot;All realities influence our practice, and 

 that influence is their meaning for us.&quot; Upon which Professor 

 James comments that meaning other than practical, there is 

 for us none.&quot; 2 



So far, then, as these passages are typical, the assertion 

 holds, that for pragmatism the relation of an idea to the vaguer 

 idea within which the distinction occurred that gave rise to it, 

 as well as to the more concrete ideas which may arise by distinc 

 tion within itself, forms no part of the meaning of the idea. 

 And yet it is by reference to these relations that functional 

 psychology must explain a whole group of conceptions which 

 would ordinarily be regarded as having something to do with 

 meaning; e. g., genus and species, definition, division, and predi 

 cation generally. 



But while the above assertion is formally correct as an account 

 of a prevalent use of terms, it is not wholly just as an appraise 

 ment of the pragmatist theory of meaning. It is not simply 

 that certain members of the school may be pointed out as speci 

 fically recognizing content as a kind or aspect of meaning, 3 and 



iThe pragmatic method, treated in Appendix I. 

 ^Pragmatism, pp. 46-48. 



3 Note (e. g.) Professor Dewey s incisive inquiry with respect to the pragmatic 

 method: &quot;Does Mr. James employ the pragmatic method to discover the value 



