ABSTRACT
James often indicates his view of the general relationship between truth, belief, and action, even though he does not devote any single passage to the clarification of these connections. He says such things as ‘All feeling is for the sake of action’,1 or ‘The essence of consciousness is to instigate action’,2 and ‘Perception and thinking are only there for behaviour’s sake’.3 In these claims action and behaviour are treated without differentiation, and, unless a specific need arises to distinguish them I shall follow James. Elsewhere he says that ‘Truth is only that which inclines belief’,4 and speaks of belief as ‘measured by action’.5 These claims fit quite naturally into the account of truth given so far. The basic phenomenon to which truth is primarily attached is the individual ‘trower’s’ belief. Such an individual accepts, and is often forced to accept, beliefs in order to respond in action to the current circumstances. Truth therefore depends in some way upon that basic phenomenon which James calls the inclination to belief; but belief is itself measured by action and so is in some way subordinate to it.
