William James Lecture 8
Nathan Buckley, #11
This lecture is mainly about 2 ways of pragmatic thinking, the monistic way and the pluralistic way of thinking, and how people's lives can change just by changing the way they think.
Lecture 8 starts out with a poem titled “To You” by Walt Whitman, which James then proceeds to break down and analyze in a pragmatic manner. James describes the 2 ways to look at the poem as, a monistic way and the pluralistic way. The monistic way is the more relaxed way of looking at it, where you lie back and reflect on the past actions that you have made, and stand by your “true principle of being.”, standing by the decisions you've made and feeling safe. On the other hand, a pluralistic outlook would consist of looking back onto your life in more of a negative manner, as you reflect on your lows in life. After you assess your past mistakes or tragedies, you then pick out some high points in your life which you're proud of, then reflect on both in such a way that you accept it, and move forward knowing that it paved the way to who you are today. Both ways of reflection lead to the same end result, however, coming to terms with what you have done in the past, and painting yourself in a gold background. In the grand scheme of these ways of thinking, the pluralistic way is more in touch with pragmatism. The way it dwells into the grand scheme of things piece by piece and dissecting it to reflect on each individual concept embodies the pragmatic way of thinking a lot more. This example also helps show the difference between tough-mindedness and tender-mindedness, which James talks about as well throughout his lecture.
James later on in his lecture dives into the concept of pragmatism and how it has affected his output in life, and how important these ways of thinking were in his day to day life. A quote from the lecture that really stuck with me is when James said “ The possibility of this is involved in the pragmatistic willingness to treat pluralism as a serious hypothesis. In the end it is our faith and not our logic that decides such questions, and I deny the right of any pretended logic to veto my own faith.” James talks about how the pragmatic way of thinking shouldn't change your morals and faith, but just as a way of thinking in a progressive way to benefit yourself. That isn't to say however after changing the way you think that you would reconsider religion, as James stated “ Pragmatism has to postpone dogmatic answers, for we do not yet know which type of religion is going to work best in the long run. The various over beliefs of men, their several faith-ventures, are in fact what are needed to bring the evidence in.” Like stated before, there are the 2 types of mental strength, tough-mindedness and tender-mindedness, and depending on your own personal mental strength can affect the outlook you have on religion as a whole. James believes that the stronger your mental strength is, the less you need religion, and if you're more on the tender side and have a pluralistic outlook that you lean on religion more as an outlet for security and safety. James said “Nirvana means safety from this everlasting round of adventures of which the world of sense consists.”
Overall, James gives great insight into the different times of pragmatic thinking, and uses plenty of poems and excerpts to help heighten his points about these ways of thinking. These pragmatic ways of thinking can drastically change a person's outlook, and how they handle and approach different situations, as well as helping them reflect on situations from the past in order to grow as a person. This lecture was definitely worth reading in my opinion, and is really interesting to see how other people would think about a situation compared to myself.
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