ダイコトミーとアメリカ文化

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In 1871, Charles Sanders Peirce, the originator of the American philosophy, Pragmatism, founded the Metaphysical Club, hoping to develop his own logic as a new notion to connect idealism with empiricism and science with life. However, it was William James that developed Peirce's conception of the new philosophy. James' book entitled Pragmatism was published in 1907. The dominant theme propounded by these pragmatists involves a rejection of Cartesian certainties. James did not like rationalism or intellectualism per se; he did not believe in the so-called absolute mind or true existence. His view of truth consisted in pluralism and his, pro-utilitarian argument based upon the systematic verifications of different ideas. James denies the absolute claims of empiricism, too. What he thinks we require is a melioristic mixture of bare naturalism and transcendental absolutism. In order to clarify his attitude, he uses dichotomy to characterize the two opposing tendencies of human temperaments, THE TENDER-MINDED and THE TOUGH-MINDED, which represent the two different approaches to the notion of truth pertaining to the Western Enlightenment. The two columns of these two human temperaments-namely, love of "facts in their crude variety" and devotion to "abstract and eternal principles"-help illuminate the contrast that has been long at work in Western philosophies.
2005-04-01