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John Dewey was a student of the pragmatic philosophers Pierce and James. He was a mathematician. Pragmatism is based upon the philosophy of science. It seeks to find undoubtable truths. Like a scientist, the pragmatists try to disprove a fact or theory until there is no doubt. The pragmatist, however, believes there are no totally undoubtable truths, because truth can only be obtained by the future results of current events. Therefore, we never know if something is true until it proves to be so. What is accepted as a truth today, may be proven false in the future. For instance, it was at one time believed the world was flat, and the planets revolved around the earth. This was considered fact. However, when it was proven false, new ideas were accepted as facts, and will be accepted as fact until proven they are proven false. Pragmatic truths, therefore, are the future results of current events. There are no pragmatic truths or undoubtable facts, only probable truths based on empirical experience.
They are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if they are wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. . . . Those who desire to suppress it, of course deny its truth; but they are not infallible. They have no authority to decide the question of all mankind, and exclude every other person from the means of judging. (18)
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Yet no art can deliberately aim at a negative result. The death of a patient is not a triumph of medicine but a failure. The creation of evil is not an accomplishment of justice, but a failure of just...
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But no man, having seen only one body move after being impelled by another, could infer that every other body will move after a like impulse. All inferences from experience, therefore, are effects of ...
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By making a big deal of the charge of corrupting the youth, Plato garners more sympathy from the youth. It is as if their leaders are saying they are not smart enough to think for themselves, and to c...
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23/11/2008 01:22
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Plato's theory of the soul can be found in his major work, *The Republic*, where it is a response to the challenge of the Sophists as to why one ought to live morally. The Sophists in Plato's time wer...
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29/11/2008 11:11
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