Pragmatism by D. L. Murray
page 18 of 58 (31%)
page 18 of 58 (31%)
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approval of our interference be restricted to selections. It must be
extended to _additions_. Just as we can select factors from 'the given' to construct 'reality,' we can add hypotheses to it to make it 'intelligible.' We can claim the right of causal analysis, and assume that our dissections have laid bare the inner springs of the connection of events. Moreover, to the 'real world which our choice has built out of the chaos of 'appearances' we may hypothetically add 'infernal' and 'heavenly' regions.[B] Both are transformations of 'the given' by the will, but, like the postulate of causal series, experience _may_ confirm them. Kant's _a priori_ activity of the mind may thus in a sense supply an answer to Hume--but only in a voluntaristic philosophy which would probably have seemed too bold both to him and to Hume. There can be no doubt that we do not approach the data of perception in an attitude of quiescent resignation. Our desires and needs equip us with assumptions and 'first principles,' which originate from within, not from without. But how precisely should this mental contribution to knowledge be conceived? In the last chapter of his _Psychology_ James suggested that the mind's organization is essentially biological. It has evolved according to sound Darwinian principles, and in so doing the fittest of its 'variations' have survived. But were these variations quite fortuitous? May they not have been purposive responses to the stimulation of environment? Can logic have been invented like saws and ships for purposes of human service? These are some of the stimulating questions which James's work in _Psychology_ has suggested. FOOTNOTES: |
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