James: Common Sense, Science, and Critical Philosophy

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„Science and critical philosophy thus burst the bounds of common sense. With science NAIF realism ceases: ‚Secondary‘ qualities become unreal; primary ones alone remain. With critical philosophy, havoc is made of everything. The common-sense categories one and all cease to represent anything in the way of BEING; they are but sublime tricks of human thought, our ways of escaping bewilderment in the midst of sensation’s irremediable flow.“ (p. 150) #James #CommonSense #Science #CriticalPhilosophy

James: The Pragmatic Method

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„The pragmatic method in such cases is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences. What difference would it practically make to anyone if this notion rather than that notion were true?“ (p. 41) #James #PragmaticMethod

James: Refinement

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„Refinement has its place in things, true enough. But a philosophy that breathes out nothing but refinement will never satisfy the empiricist temper of mind. It will seem rather a monument of artificiality.“ (p. 24) #James #refinement

James: The Number of the Eternally Damned

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„Among other obstacles to his optimistic philosophy, it falls to Leibnitz to consider the number of the eternally damned. That it is infinitely greater, in our human case, than that of those saved he assumes as a premise from the theologians, and then proceeds to argue in this way.“ (p. 24f) #James #EternallyDamned #Leibnitz #Leibniz