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Primary sourceBook1907

Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking

William James · 1907

William James's 1907 lectures that popularized pragmatism, including the 'cash value' theory of truth.

James delivered and wrote these lectures, which made his philosophy of pragmatism widely known.

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What it is

Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking is a book by William James, drawn from lectures he delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston and at Columbia University in New York in late 1906 and early 1907. James dedicated the work to the memory of John Stuart Mill.

Why it matters

The lectures helped make pragmatism a widely discussed philosophical movement, arguing that the truth or meaning of an idea should be judged by its practical consequences. James presented the lectures as printed without later revision, giving a direct sense of how he spoke to a general audience rather than only to specialist philosophers.

Look closer

  • Why might James have dedicated the book to John Stuart Mill rather than to a living philosopher?
  • What does James mean by saying the pragmatic movement seemed to 'precipitate itself out of the air'?
  • How might delivering these ideas as public lectures, rather than in a scholarly journal, have shaped what James chose to say?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of William James on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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