ABSTRACT
It was suggested earlier that pragmatism was partially eclipsed behind such movements as logical positivism in philosophy and behaviourism in psychology. Even among pragmatists James himself has sometimes been thought to be over-shadowed by Peirce. For Peirce based his ideas more solidly on logic and language than did James. One commentator, a psychologist, has even said that although James was a first-rate psychologist, he was not in the same class as a philosopher. He is described as ‘at best little more than a brilliant and
Russell in an obituary notice when he wrote:
The suggestion is that James’s pragmatism, like political pragmatism in general, may be healthy in its critical aspect but has no adequate positive or systematic philosophy to offer.
