PRAGMATISM AND THE FORM OF THOUGHT 203 



be studied to greatest advantage in those of its manifestations 

 where it is as nearly as possible idle where needs are fictitious, 

 interest lax, effort subliminal, and the entire operation is scarcely 

 more than the repetition of a form of words. 



When thought is seen at work, the meaning of logical validity 

 is clear. Valid thought is efficient thought, thought that accom 

 plishes its function of controlling conduct in accordance with the 

 needs of the organism. The notion, that apart from its proper 

 function thought may possess a peculiar intrinsic, or formal, 

 validity, is delusive. A form of thought, as distinguished from 

 its content, there is none. 



Hence the futility of formal logic. It is the physiology of a 

 corpse of thought which is without function and without life. 

 Even the Hegelian dialectic is better; for in spite of willful ab 

 straction one cannot think the categories without surreptitiously 

 bringing in something of their concrete significance, and it is to 

 this that whatever insight is therein displayed is due. But formal 

 logic, the science of every thought and none, is at the limit of 

 possible insignificance. Any access of sense is rigorously cut off. 



This judgment of the supposed science of thought is strongly 

 confirmed by an examination of the specific content which it has 

 accumulated. We find a body of formulae, which are fitly ex 

 pressed, not in words with their wide and shifting associations, 

 but in bare and simple algebraic symbols. Do these formulae 

 constitute a description of any actual thought? Who knows? 

 The logician, as logician, does not care except that he would 

 like to think that his logic itself is logical, i. e., conforms to its 

 own canons; but this he knows he cannot show. But the inten 

 tion of the formulae is not to describe actual thought (which may 

 be logical or illogical) but a certain type of ideal thought. Whe 

 ther any such thought has occurred or will ever occur, is a 

 secondary consideration. 



The most striking characteristic of the ideal thought is the 

 absolute fixity of its terms. A is A, and A is not not- A, are 

 classic expressions of this feature. The most striking character- 



