THE PRINCIPLES OF PRAGMATISM 123 



of meaning and truth, together with the conception of reality 

 which these theories directly imply; postponing to appendices 

 the treatment of the pragmatic method, the will-to-believe, human- 

 ism (the theory of a 'plastic* reality), and immediatism (the 

 theory that reality is experience in its immediacy). 



A further motive for this division of the subject will become 

 so evident as we proceed, that we are constrained to confess it 

 at the outset. The theories to be treated in this place contain 

 those elements of the complex historical whole called pragmatism, 

 which we believe to be on the side of truth that is to say, true 

 at bottom, and especially true as against the opponents of prag- 

 matism. While we shall criticize these theories at considerable 

 length and- as it seems to us unsparingly, it will be found that 

 our criticisms are in great part positive and constructive. Our 

 persistent effort will be to exhibit the truth in pragmatism at 

 least as prominently as what we conceive to be its errors and 

 contradictions. In the appendices we shall discuss those doc- 

 trines of the pragmatists which w T e believe to be radically un- 

 sound. We hope that upon the whole our treatment will impress 

 the reader as being neither an attack upon pragmatism nor a 

 defense of it. We believe that this philosophy contains too much 

 of good and of evil to warrant either mode of procedure. 



The main charge which we shall bring against the central doc- 

 trines of pragmatism will be apt, w r e fear, to strike the reader as 

 somewhat forced and unfair. And yet it is just such a charge 

 as can generally be made out against any revolutionary creed 

 against Descartes's or Kant's, for example namely, that it is 

 only half-free from the grip of the traditions which it openly 

 repudiates. It is from this cause, indeed, that most of the ap- 

 pearance of extremism is due. Real extremes meet. The rem- 

 edy for radicalism of every sort is, not a mixture of conservatism 

 that never cures -but a more thorough carrying-through of 

 the radical principles. Pragmatism is the first whole-hearted 

 attempt at an appreciation of the significance of Darwinism for 

 logical theory. We propose to show that the attempt has only 



