James's Ambition Of Truth

finds a cow-path which he believes will lead to a habitation. In taking this belief to be true, and following the path to the house, the man saves himself from the dangers of the woods. Even if the path had not led to a habitation, by believing that it would, the man was able to verify the reality of his experience. This passage suggests that beliefs are true if they allow one to make accurate predictions of future experience. However, James furthers develops his notion of truth by suggesting that if a belief offers its supporters happiness and fulfilment in their lives, then according to the pragmatic notion that an idea is true if it has a "value for concrete life," the belief can be taken as true. For example James postulates that, …show more content…
Thus, the concept cannot be taken as true pragmatically. The same critic of James, especially one of a scientific leaning, may then suggest that pragmatism does not solve the debate between science and religion, because religion is itself an irrational model of explanation that conflicts too heavily with science for the disciplines to be able to coexist. However, to counter this criticism, one may once again employ the example of the evolutionism-creationism divided. While it may initially seem that these explanatory models are in direct conflict, one may equally argue that they are not. After all, the Big Bang 's implication of creation out of nothing could be explained as the result of God 's intervention; as no other reason yet exists to explain the Universe 's earliest origins, a divine explanation …show more content…
James proposed that science and religion can coexist harmoniously, because both disciplines play a concrete function in the lives of their followers, and, thus, are simultaneously true systems of meaning. While James ' philosophy of pragmatism was not one that was received without criticism, the fact that he attempted to bridge the divide between science and religion, two disciplines which had been in contention for centuries, is a truly remarkable feat and a testament to James ' lasting legacy as one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth