ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that there is a valuable insight hidden in these counter-intuitive claims, even though this insight is partially hidden by a subtle confusion that is shared by James and Heidegger. The prudent or strong human being is an agent that does things, among which are acts which are prudent or exhibit strength. But the bearers of truth are not individual agents. There is at least one problem with this suggestion that people read James’s analogy as an indirect way of proposing that truth stands to true activity as strength stands to strong activity. There are peculiarities in his psycho-physical system that make him act prudently; and there are tendencies to association in our thoughts that prompt some of them to make for truth and others for error. James sometimes uses ‘idea’ as his word for truth bearers, and at other times he uses ‘thought’.
