understanding sufficient for the conduct of life. This brings him, for testing the hypothesis, to taking his stand upon Pragmaticism, which implies faith in common sense and in instinct, though only as they issue from the cupel-furnace of measured criticism. In short, he will say that the N.A. is the First Stage of a scientific inquiry, resulting in a hypothesis of the very highest Plausibility, whose ultimate test must lie in its value in the self-controlled growth of man's conduct of life.
Since I have employed the word Pragmaticism, and
shall have occasion to use it once more, it may perhaps be
well to explain it. About forty years ago, my studies of
Berkeley, Kant, and others led me, after convincing myself
that all thinking is performed in Signs, and that meditation
takes the form of a dialogue, so that it is proper to speak of
the "meaning" of a concept, to conclude that to acquire full
mastery of that meaning it is requisite, in the first place, to
learn to recognise the concept under every disguise, through
extensive familiarity with instances of it. But this, after all,
does not imply any true understanding of it; so that it is
further requisite that we should make an abstract logical
analysis of it into its ultimate elements, or as complete an
analysis as we can compass. But, even so, we may still be
without any living comprehension of it; and the only way to
complete our knowledge of its nature is to discover and recognise just what general habits of conduct a belief in the truth
of the concept (of any conceivable subject, and under any conceivable circumstances) would reasonably develop; that is to
say, what habits would ultimately result from a sufficient consideration of such truth. It is necessary to understand the
word "conduct," here, in the broadest sense. If, for example,
the predication of a given concept were to lead to our admitting that a given form of reasoning concerning the subject of
which it was affirmed was valid, when it would not otherwise
be valid, the recognition of that effect in our reasoning would
decidedly be a habit of conduct.
