Today our group had the pleasure of discussing James. While he was a very interesting Philosopher, he had some strange ideas. This may have been made to look that way because of the authors after him that summarized his works. He had a knowledge on the correspondance theory of truth. This included the famous "world of forms". It is simply the theory of truth that looks at experience. Because we can't prove something, does not make it false. But that also does not make it absolutely true. Kailey brought up the idea of absolute truths. James would not have liked the idea of absolute truths becausse he believed to an extent that something is true if it benefits you or makes you a better all around person. He was a very detail oriented person. He explained everything extremely well. He stated that if something is true for you, then it is relatively good for you. We also proposed a question. If you are the only person that thinks something is good, is it still considered a truth? Truth is relative, and therefore can be extremely different for different people.
DQ: How should we truly evaluate a truth?
I kinda like James. I caught on his idea that maybe this absolute truth/ perfect enlightenment was a bunch of stuff for philosophers to kill time with. I think that he suggested that to an extent, whatever works as the truth, should serve as the truth.
ReplyDeleteJames' idea that truths should be used for the betterment of society, or at least a person, is an interesting viewpoint. Utilizing something, even though it may not be absolutely true, seems to be a step in the right direction, although I do not like the implication that sometimes it is better to leave someone in the dark or without some knowledge just so they hang on to the "truth" that helps them to be a better person. I like his propensity for setting the facts straight and defining all the terms he uses, because this does determine the outcome of many logical conclusions. Finding out how a person defines a specific word or term can lead to a better understanding and a more succinct logical argument.
ReplyDeletehttp://lukenixblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/importance-of-defining-terms.html
DQ: Which truths should be left relative and which ones should be made absolute? And who decides this?
FQ: What makes a truth true according to James? If it accurately describes how the world is.
I kind of like James too. While I personally believe that there are absolute truths in the universe, I still find his philosophy to be interesting. James believes that life is what we make it. If believing something makes some one a better person, he's all for them believing that. And that seems to make sense. (One issue with this is in the case of religion.. if there is a God and people don't believe in him.. it could affect their lives eternally.. so relative truth is not ideal in this situation. But we've exhausted this topic. Moving on.) A quote I found from James was "Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." I like that a lot. I do believe that our attitude strongly affects the way we live. He also said, "I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing." He also seems to believe that our actions affect how we feel. He has a whole lot of cool quotes. I enjoyed reading through them.
ReplyDeleteDQ: Can something exist in one sense but not in another?
FQ: Russell started what is called the ___________ turn in philosophy. Answer: Linguistic
What is the linguistic turn? Philosophers began to think very hard about language and its underlying logical form.
Thanks to the awesome MTSU WiFi I just lost everything I wrote so this won’t be as much as I had before ;(
ReplyDeleteI think James was refreshing to read about. He had somewhat positive views on life compared to some other philosophers. His views on truth are interesting. However, they can be interpreted a couple different ways. He believed if something works for you, it must be true. Now to wjat extent, who knows. This could be taken to extremes. There are some people with crazy beliefs/opinions that seem to think that since it makes sense in their minds, everyone must agree with them. I don’t think this is what James meant by his ideas. I think he wanted people to believe that if something is good for you, it is true. For you. Not everyone.
DQ: Is there relative truth?
FQ: Who said that if it is true for you, it is relatively good for you?
Answer: James