Learn › Pragmatism
Pragmatism
Learning path · 7 steps

The Pragmatist Path

Peirce lays the foundation — an idea’s meaning is its practical effects; William James asks what difference that makes in a life; Du Bois turns the instrument on America itself.

0% complete
1
Logic
Concept · 5 minUp next
The Pragmatic Maxim
Charles Sanders Peirce
Peirce’s founding rule: an idea’s meaning is its conceivable effects.
→
2
Chance, Love, and Logic
Full text · 12 chapters
Chance, Love, and Logic
Charles Sanders Peirce
The essays where pragmatism began.
→
3
Epistemology
Concept · 5 min
Truth Happens to an Idea
William James
Truth happens to an idea.
→
4
Pragmatism
Full text · 8 chapters
Pragmatism
William James
Eight lectures that named a philosophy.
→
5
The Will to Believe
Full text · 10 chapters
The Will to Believe
William James
The right to believe ahead of the evidence.
→
6
Social Philosophy
Concept · 6 min
Double-Consciousness
W.E.B. Du Bois
Du Bois’ twoness — pragmatism’s sharpest application.
→
7
The Souls of Black Folk
Full text · 16 chapters
The Souls of Black Folk
W.E.B. Du Bois
Philosophy, history, and sorrow songs.
→
Further reading

More from Pragmatism, beyond the core path.

The Varieties of Religious Experience
The Varieties of Religious Experience
William James · 14 chapters
5 min
The Cash-Value of Ideas
William James
5 min
The Veil and Second-Sight
W.E.B. Du Bois
5 min
The Problem of the Color Line
W.E.B. Du Bois
7 min
Against the Atlanta Compromise
W.E.B. Du Bois
6 min
The Sorrow Songs
W.E.B. Du Bois
5 min
The Mirror of Nature
Richard Rorty
φ
Select a book or concept to begin
Philosophi