Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/363

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After all this talk my readers probably begin to see what it means to be a pragmatist, but it would not surprise me to hear some one say: Then, since it seems the pragmatists prefer theories that are of some use, tell us, please, what is the use of being a pragmatist.

The answer, after what I have said, is not difficult. The spiritual gains of one who is or becomes a pragmatist are not to be despised. The first is a gain of time, for the pragmatist gives a definitive quietus to the so-called "insoluble problems," the pretended "enigmas of the universe," which are merely non-existent or ill-stated problems that become soluble when stated in the pragmatic way. The time thus saved can be used either in the study of other problems, or in the practical application of theories that have been already verified by experience.

The second gain is the mental stimulus given by the consciousness of our human control over scientific conceptions, and over our own minds, and by the feeling of the plasticity of truth and of the opening of ever-wider spheres of possibility offered to the deductive imagination, and to the powers of the human soul over the universe.

This economy of time and strength and this increase of satisfaction and enthusiasm will suffice. I should think, to content those who have any intention of becoming pragmatists. If these do not suffice I will point out other advantages. Pragmatism having the characteristics of a thing not yet finished, not completely worked out, not fixed and crystallized, can therefore offer to him who turns to it the possibility of developing and transforming it, that is, of being not merely one of its followers, but at the same time one of its creators. Pragmatism thus offers the advantage of not being in itself a metaphysic, but of permitting the esthetic or moral enjoyment of possible or actual metaphysics.

There is one last question that could be asked. Who are the men who most readily become pragmatists? Is it possible to predict what classes of minds are the most disposed to receive the teachings of pragmatism?

In order to answer, I should perhaps have to build up the psychology of the pragmatist typo. For theories, even the purest and abstractest, have their actual ground and source in biological needs, and in the deepest sentiments of the general human race, or of particular exceptional persons.

This conception of Nietzsche—which the pragmatists have taken up and unfolded—of the vital and moral sources of "pure thought." so-called, shows us, When applied to pragmatism itself, the three groups