Truth and Belief
Uploaded by Admin on Jan 22, 1999
James is a believer in the pragmatic theory of truth. He draws a relationship between the good and the true. The true is not an separate entity from good, but is one of the species of good.
Truth is defined as the "name of whatever proves itself to be good in a way of belief..."(p298). He continues in explaining truth as having a 'good' property because of definite assignable reasons. He uses a situation of having no good in true ideas, where the knowledge is worthless and the only useful ones are the false ideas. This situation leads to the problem of the opinion of truth. The current notion of truth is divine and precious, but if true ideas have no good and are worthless then this conception of truth could have never arisen. James holds that if true ideas were meaningless then we would ignore truth.
But in actuality truths are not all agreeable as our positive tastes to our tongue. People may have different ideas about the truth, and concepts supporting other truths that we believe in. These truths are also helpful in life's practical struggles, as certain food is good for our bodies.
Therefore the connection between good and truth is one in which truth is a type of goodness. Meaning truth and good coordinate with each other. The truth are things such as beliefs which are based upon if they are good and meaningful to a person. Also truths which are helpful to us are considered as a meaningful idea.
Thus, the truth is the combination of these two concepts and involves if these ideas have goodness in there meaning.