Summary
William James: Pragmatism
It is amazing how many philosophical disputes become moot the moment you subject them to that simple test of concrete consequence. There can be no difference anywhere that would not produce another difference somewhere else - there is no difference in an abstract truth that is not manifested in a difference in a concrete fact as well as in the behavior that follows from that fact, the behavior that was imposed on someone, somehow, somewhere and sometime. The whole task of philosophy should be to establish what it will be different for you and me in some precise sense, in some precise moments of our lives, if this or that pattern of explaining the world turns out to be true.
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