The Meaning of Truth (1909)

photograph: William James

William James

Portrait from Wikipedia: William James

The Meaning of Truth, by William James, was first published in 1909. The collection of essays represented James's attempt to assemble all the work of my pen that bears directly on the truth-question, including both previously published work from 1884 to 1909, and a few articles that appeared for the first time. This is an electronic transcription of the public domain text, with internal references altered to refer to essays, sections and paragraphs rather than pages. The text is based on the Prometheus Books 1997 edition in the Great Books in Philosophy Series (ISBN 1-57392-138-6).

Contents

  1. Preface
  2. I. The Function of Cognition
  3. II. The Tigers in India
  4. III. Humanism and Truth
  5. IV. The Relation Between Knower and Known
  6. V. The Essence of Humanism
  7. VI. A Word More About Truth
  8. VII. Professor Pratt on Truth
  9. VIII. The Pragmatist Account of Truth and its Misunderstanders
  10. IX. The Meaning of the Word Truth
  11. X. The Existence of Julius Cæsar
  12. XI. The Absolute and the Strenuous Life
  13. XII. Professor Hébert on Pragmatism
  14. XIII. Abstractionism and Relativismus
  15. XIV. Two English Critics
  16. XV. A Dialogue