Pragmatism


Read by Fredrik Karlsson

(4.7 stars; 49 reviews)

'Pragmatism' contains a series of public lectures held by William James in Boston 1906–7. James provides a popularizing outline of his view of philosophical pragmatism while making highly rhetorical and entertaining lashes towards rationalism and other competing schools of thought. James is especially concerned with the pragmatic view of truth. True beliefs should be defined as, according to James, beliefs that can successfully assist people in their everyday life. This is claimed to not be relativism. That reality exists is argued to be a fact true beyond the human subject. James argues, nevertheless, that people select which parts of reality are made relevant and how they are understood to relate to each other. Charles Sanders Peirce, widely considered to be the founder of pragmatism, eventually chose to separate himself intellectually from James, renaming his own theory to ‘pragmaticism’. (6 hr 32 min)

Chapters

Preface 3:41 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 1: The Present Dilemma in Philosophy, part 1 27:02 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 1: The Present Dilemma in Philosophy, part 2 26:39 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 2: What Pragmatism Means, part 1 28:43 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 2: What Pragmatism Means, part 2 24:23 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 3: Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered, part 1 25:09 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 3: Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered, part 2 27:36 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 4: The One and the Many, part 1 25:30 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 4: The One and the Many, part 2 23:34 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 5: Pragmatism and Common Sense, part 1 18:34 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 5: Pragmatism and Common Sense, part 2 22:03 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 6: Pragmatism's Conception of Truth. part 1 27:20 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 6: Pragmatism's Conception of Truth. part 2 29:21 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 7: Pragmatism and Humanism, part 1 22:03 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 7: Pragmatism and Humanism, part 2 22:10 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 8: Pragmatism and Religion, part 1 18:56 Read by Fredrik Karlsson
Lecture 8: Pragmatism and Religion, part 2 20:07 Read by Fredrik Karlsson

Reviews


(3.5 stars)

This audiobook is recommended if you were once a student of philosophy and are interested in the history of ideas - or you want to use an audiobook to put you to sleep at night (the ideas presented are complex and the language erudite, such that they will challenge your brain’s comprehension and so it will give up trying, and you will thence fall to sleep). This work by William James was first published in 1907 and he died 3 years later at the age of 68. It is in the field of epistemology or the philosophy of philosophy. It is both a philosophical method and a theory of truth according to my old textbook. “As a theory of truth, Pragmatism claims that ideas are true insofar as they are satisfactory. To be satisfactory, ideas must be consistent with other ideas, comfortable to facts, and subject to the practical tests of experience” So, is it true that Building 7 blew itself up on 9/11, 2001?

Great reading


(5 stars)

wasn't expecting to find this gem on Librivox. Beautifully, and thoughtfully, read by someone who is probably a philosopher himself.

Well enunciated in spite of mispronunciations.


(5 stars)

Well worth listening to. A philosophy which finds a mean between extremes.

great reading


(5 stars)

occasionally a strong accent peeks in, but otherwise, decent and easily comprehensible