William James's Theory Of Pragmatism

William James Theories of Pragmatic Misconceptions and His Automatic Sweetheart Proposal

William James, a philosopher in the late 18th and early 19th century shared his view on the common misconceptions of pragmatists account for the truth. Although I am only going to reinforce James views on a couple of these, there were in fact eight misunderstandings in his eyes. There is a passage written by James on his thoughts of what he called an automatic sweetheart.

According to Hergenhahn & Henley (2014) pragmatism is the belief that if an idea works, it is valid. An idea is judged on its usefulness, however, according to James there is a limit to its usefulness or cash value (p.324). This leads to the assumption that pragmatisms primary appeal is to action. (James) wrote that this is the second mistake people make when they judge pragmatism they

i, p. 673, James proposed a question wondering if one could accept what he dubbed the “Automatic Sweetheart” (a robot) as a human if it was made with no noticeable difference between a machine and a human. It would be a soulless body that could laugh, show emotion, and do all things a human could do as if a soul were present in them. Could we accept it as human? James thought not. That as humans we crave attention. We crave love and admiration, and the need to be recognized.

From what I have learned thus far in psychology, there are many different views. I do not nor have I ever believed in just one truth. Everyone’s truths are different. Each of us have a mind of our own and perceive things entirely different from others. So in regards to James proposal of pragmatism, for me, trying to come to one truth is simply not possible, if we are talking in a personal sense. We cannot find the same truth for everyone, across the board. Each of us has our own mind and perceive things differently. When we think in terms of ideas, what works for me may not work for others and vice