CHAPTER I 



THE PRINCIPLES OF PRAGMATISM 



No scientific hypothesis has ever exerted a more profound or 

 far-reaching influence upon the thought of a period, than has 

 the Darwinian theory of evolution upon that of the last half- 

 century. Not only have the group of biological sciences been 

 re-created, but there is scarcely one of the mental and social 

 sciences, that has not been in large degree revolutionized. It 

 was, indeed, in the realm of social science, as we have already seen, 

 that the idea of evolution first became effective. But it was not 

 until the work of Darwin in biology, that there existed anything 

 like a scientific theory of evolution, based on wide and intensive 

 empirical study. That is to say, the process of evolution had 

 been conceived in an essentially abstract fashion, without any 

 adequate consideration of the factors which operated in any field 

 or of the manner in which they produced their effect. 



The importance of Darwin's work did not lie simply in the 

 fact that it provided an acceptable theory of the evolution of 

 organic species. In the first place, the fact that he was able to 

 furnish a tolerably satisfactory explanation of the evolutionary 

 origin of species which up to his time had seemed inexplicable 

 this very fact gave weight to previously existing evidence for 

 such evolution, and opened the way for a universal theory of 

 evolution. In the second place, the bridging of the gap between 

 man and the lower orders meant a transformation of those 

 sciences dealing with essentially human activities. For if man 

 had developed from the condition of a brute, then it must be 

 possible to trace the rise and growth of his activities from instinc- 

 tive animal behavior. A tremendous impetus was thus given to 

 the application of evolutionary methods to the entire body of 

 mental and social sciences. 



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