ABSTRACT
In spite of the epistemological resemblance just described, Irving Babbitt's general attitude towards the philosophical school of pragmatism is mostly negative. Philosophical reason is at work whenever Irving Babbitt makes one of his numerous dichotomies. Babbitt's success as a teacher depended on the willingness of his students to accept the terms in which his dichotomies were stated on a common-sense basis. Babbitt was strangely loath to attempt a consciously systematic philosophy. The weakness of Babbitt's vaguely pragmatic assumptions about the nature of reason may be further demonstrated by considering one of his favorite doctrines. Babbitt has a strong sense of the limits of "reason" when it comes to grasping the essential facts of human life. Speaking of Henri Bergson and similar thinkers, Babbitt likes to say that they proved themselves the keenest of intellectuals when developing their philosophies of anti-intellectualism.
