The Century-Old Philosophy of Pragmatism Is an Existential Life Preserver

It’s an attempt to harmonize one’s life with the cruel necessities of nature

John Kaag
Forge
Published in
6 min readMar 19, 2020

--

A singular circular pattern ripples on a calm lake’s surface.
Photo: Chris Hackett/Getty Images

InIn 2010, I was 30, in the midst of my first divorce, and had just watched my estranged, alcoholic father die. During that time, I was at Harvard on a postdoc writing about the pioneering American philosopher and psychologist William James. I was supposed to be finishing a book about the salvific effects of his philosophy known as pragmatism. Instead, I was struggling just to keep going. In that dark period, life felt meaningless.

It’s a feeling that was utterly familiar to James and one that ultimately led him toward his defining ideas. The question James asked, and which pragmatism seeks to answer, is about as loaded as they come: “Is life worth living?” His answer: “Maybe.”

For some, that answer might be off-putting. But for James, whose philosophical framework was informed by a lifetime of physical and psychological duress, “maybe” was laden with possibility. “Maybe” puts the onus on each person to make good on a meaningful life — to find, but more likely to make, something of value before it’s too late.

Finding a new path to meaning

In 1869, James was on the brink of adulthood and, as he confessed in a letter to his friend Henry Bowditch, on the brink of collapse: “I am a low-lived wretch,” he wrote. “I’ve been prey to such disgust for life during the past three months as to make letter writing almost an impossibility.”

Over the following two decades, James would write incessantly, like his life depended on it — letters, essays, books. He’d go on to become the father of American philosophy and psychology. But when he wrote to Bowditch, he couldn’t foresee any of it. Actually, he often struggled to see the next day.

The problem: James was philosophically stuck, mired in thoughts that had plagued countless thinkers before him. Maybe, he worried, human beings are determined by forces beyond their control. Maybe their lives are destined from the start, fated to end tragically and meaninglessly. Maybe human beings, despite their best efforts, can’t act on their own behalf, as free and vibrant beings…

--

--

John Kaag
Forge
Writer for

Philosophy Professor, Writer, author of the forthcoming American Philosophy--A Love Story (October 2016) @fsgbooks