The Meaning of Truth

In this sequel to Pragmatism, one of America's outstanding philosophers, William James (1842-1910), responds to absolutist critics - believers in immutable truth and innate or inherited knowledge - who misrepresent the philosophy of pragmatism as just another form of positivism or regard it as mere egoistic solipsism. Objective truth exists, James argues, but it can be known only in terms of experience; truth isn't "out there" waiting to be discovered. And knowledge derives from a process of inquiry in which a chain of mental and physical intermediates connects thought and things.