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of Pure Reason. Still, in some cases, the desire for knowledge may prove stronger than the attachment to habitual modes of thought, and so it may not be wholly fruitless to point out (1) that our objections are in no wise disposed of by vague charges of a 'confusion of psychology and logic'; (2) that the canons of right Thought must, even from the most narrowly logical of standpoints, be brought into some relation to the procedures of actual thinking; (3) that in point of fact the former are derived from the latter; (4) that if so, our first mode of reasoning must receive logical recognition, because (5) it is not only usual, but useful in the discovery of 'Truth'; (6) that a process which yields. valuable results must in some sense be valid, and (7) that, conversely, an ideal of validity which is not realisable is not valid. In short, how can a logic which professes to be the theory of thought set aside as irrelevant a normal feature of our thinking? And if it cannot, is it not evident that, when reformed by Pragmatism, it must assume a very different complexion, more natural and clearer, than while its movements were impeded by the conventions of a strait-laced Intellectualism?

Secondly, Pragmatism would find an almost inexhaustible field of exploration in the sciences, by examining the multifarious ways in which their 'truths' have come to be established, and showing how, the practical value of scientific conceptions has accelerated and determined their acceptance. And it is not over-sanguine to suppose that a clearer consciousness of the actual procedure of the sciences would also lead to the critical rejection of conceptions which are not needed, and are not useful, and would facilitate the formation of new conceptions which are needed.[1]

  1. ↑ Most opportunely for my argument the kind of transformation of our scientific ideas which Pragmatism will involve has received the most copious and admirable illustration in Professor Ostwald's great Naturphilosophie. Professor
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