"I agree with the pragmatists that apparent objective truth is not the whole matter; that there is an authoritative need to believe the things that are necessary to the human mind. But I say that one of those necessities precisely is a belief in objective truth. The pragmatist tells a man to think what he must think and never mind the Absolute. But precisely one of the things that he must think is the Absolute. This philosophy, indeed, is a kind of verbal paradox. Pragmatism is a matter of human needs; and one of the first of human needs is to be something more than a pragmatist. Extreme pragmatism is just as inhuman as the determinism it so powerfully attacks. The determinist (who, to do him justice, does not pretend to be a human being) makes nonsense of the human sense of actual choice. The pragmatist, who professes to be specially human, makes nonsense of the human sense of actual fact."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orthodoxy_(book)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Orthodoxy (book)
136 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Orthodoxy (book) →
Related Quotes
"The truth is that there is a real humility typical of our time; but it so happens that it is practically a more poiso…"
"The sages, it is often said, can see no answer to the riddle of religion. But the trouble with our sages is not that …"
"The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. W…"
"Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never me…"
"There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped."
"We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table. We are in d…"
"Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle."
"The phrases of the street are not only forcible but subtle: for a figure of speech can often get into a crack too sma…"
"It is only with one aspect of humility that we are here concerned. Humility was largely meant as a restraint upon the…"
"Religious authority has often, doubtless, been oppressive or unreasonable; just as every legal system (and especially…"