Lecture I
p. 8 James argues that a philosopher’s temperament is integral to his philosophizing, though he tries to deny this and characterize his philosophizing as “objective.”
1) What does James mean by this?
2) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 10 James divides philosophers into two major camps: Tender-minded Rationalists and Tough-minded Empiricists.
3) What do Rationalists tend to believe (in a nutshell)?
4) What do Empiricists tend to believe (in a nutshell)?
5) Do you tend to agree or disagree with James’s division? Why?
Pps. 12,13 James introduces religious philosophy and the notion of the Absolute.
6) How does he characterize religious philosophy?
7) How is it connected to the tender-minded rationalists? Explain.
p. 14 James argues that refinement of metaphysics tends to be artificial and that empiricists prefer to turn their backs on metaphysics.
8) What does he mean by metaphysics?
9) What constitutes “refinements” of metaphysics? Explain.
10) Why might empirically-oriented philosophers reject metaphysics and its refinements?
p. 18 James introduces the term “pragmatism,” arguing that this philosophy can address both rationalists and empiricists.
11) Though it is not yet developed as a philosophy, how might pragmatism (at this initial stage) address concerns of both rationalists and empiricists? Discuss.
Lecture II
p. 26 James argues that “the pragmatic method …is to try to interpret [notions] by tracing [their] respective practical consequences. What difference would it practically make to any one if this notion rather than that notion is true? If no practical difference whatever can be traced, then the alternatives mean practically the same thing and all dispute is idle.”
12) How do you understand this? Explain.
13) Do you tend to agree with it or not? Why?
p. 28 James argues that pragmatism “unstiffens all our theories, limbers them up and sets each one at work.”
14) What does he mean by this? Example?
p. 31 James describes the process of pragmatism.
15) What is that process? Describe it.
16) Do you tend to agree or disagree with it? Why?
p. 32 James argues that a new opinion counts as “true” just in proportion as it gratifies the individual’s desire to assimilate the novel in his experience to his beliefs in stock.”
17) What does that mean? Explain.
18) Do you tend to agree or disagree with it? Why?
p. 33 James argues that “the reasons why we call things true is the reason why they are true, to ‘to be true’ means only to perform this marriage function.”
19) What does he mean? Explain.
20) Do you tend to agree or disagree with it? Why?
p. 35 James discusses “idealistic pantheism” and evolution vs. “dualistic theism” and God.
21) What is his stand here? Explain.
22) Do you tend to agree or disagree with it? Why?
p. 36 James admits theological ideas into his pragmatic systems.
23) How? Explain.
24) Do you tend to agree or disagree with it? Why?
p. 38 James differentiates between rationalism, empiricism and pragmatism.
25) How does the do this? Explain.
Lecture III
p. 43 James discusses the concept of “substance.”
26) What is a substance? Explain.
p. 43 James says that nominalists think that “substance’ is a “spurious idea due to our inveterate human trick of turning names into things.”
27) What does he mean by nominalist?
28) What does he mean by our penchant for “turning names into things”, and how does it apply to “substance?”
p. 44 James argues that Berkeley’s criticism of ‘matter’ was pragmatistic.
29) What is Berkeley’s thesis in relation to matter?
30) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
31) How is Berkeley’s thesis pragmatistic?
p. 47 James argues that “it makes not a single job of difference so far as the past of the world goes, whether we deem it to have been the work of matter or whether we think a divine spirit was its author.”
32) What does he mean by this?
33) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him. Why?
p. 48 James argues that “God, if there, has been doing just what atoms could do – appearing in the character of atoms, so to speak – and earning such gratitude as is due to atoms, and no more.”
34) What does he mean by this?
35) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him. Why?
p.50,51 James argues that the “notion of God…however inferior it may be in clearness to those mathematical notions so current in mechanical philosophy, has at least this practical superiority over them, that it guarantees an ideal order that shall be permanently preserved.”
36) What does he mean by this?
37) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 51 James argues that “Materialism means simply the denial that the moral order is eternal, and the cutting off of ultimate hopes; spiritualism means the affirmation of an eternal moral order and the letting loose of hope.”
38) What does he mean by this?
39) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him. Why?
p. 54 James argues that “anyone who insists that there is a designer and who is sure he is a divine one, gets a certain pragmatic benefit from the term – the same, in face, which we saw that the terms God, Spirit, or the Absolute, yield us. ‘Design’, worthless tho it be as a mere rationalistic principle set above or behind things for our admiration, becomes, if our faith concretes it into something theistic, a term of promise.”
40) What does he mean by a “term of promise” in this context? Explain.
41) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 55 James argues that “Free-will pragmatically means novelties in the world, the right to expect that in its deepest elements as well as in its surface phenomena, the future may not identically repeat and imitate the past.” He calls free-will a “general cosmological theory of promise.”
42) What does he mean by this? How is free will a “general cosmological theory of promise?”
43) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 56 James argues that “Other than this pragmatical significance, the words God, free will, design, etc., have none.
44) What does he mean by this?
45) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
Lecture VI
p. 92 James argues that “True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate and verify. False ideas are those that we can not.”
46) What does he mean by this? How is it connected to his basic thesis so far?
47) Do you tend to agree or disagree with it? Why?
p. 92 James argues that “Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true. It is made true by events.”
48) What does this mean? Explain.
p. 93 James argues that “The possession of truth, so far from being here an end in itself, is only a preliminary means towards other vital satisfactions.”
49) What does he mean?
50) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 93 James argues that “You can say of it then either that ‘it is useful because it is true’ or that ‘it is true because it is useful.’”
51) Explain what you think he means.
p. 95 James argues that “Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system.”
52) What does he mean by this? Explain
53) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 96 James argues the “Realities mean, then, either concrete facts, or abstract kinds of thing and relations perceived intuitively between them. They furthermore and thirdly mean, as things that new ideas of our must no less take account of, the whole body of other truths already in our possession.”
54) What does he mean? Explain.
55) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 98 James argues that “Truth for us is simply a collective name for verification-processes, just as health, wealth, strength, etc., are names for other processes connected with life, and also pursued because it pays to pursue them. Truth is made, just as health, wealth and strength are made, in the course of experience.”
56) What does he mean? Consider truth as a verification-process, and how all the other abstract terms are like “truth.”
57) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 99 James offers a counter-argument to his thesis: “You pragmatists put the cart before the horse in making truth’s being reside in verification-processes. These are merely signs of its being merely our lame ways of ascertaining after the fact, which of our ideas already has possessed the wondrous quality.”
58) What does the counter-argument mean?
59) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 100 James argues that “The true, ‘to put it very briefly, is only the expedient in the way of our thinking, just as ‘the right’ is only the expedient in the way of our behaving.”
60) What does he mean by this?
61) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 101 James argues that “The ‘facts’ themselves meanwhile are not true. They simply are. Truth is the function of the beliefs that start and terminate among them.”
62) What does this mean?
63) Do you tend to agree or disagree with it? Why?
p. 102 James lays out a review of the rationalist argument for truth.
64) Review the argument.
65) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
p. 103 James argues that the “rationalist’s fallacy here is exactly like the sentimentalist’s. both extract a quality from the muddy particulars of experience, and find it so pure when extracted that they contrast it with each and all its muddy instances as an opposite and their nature. All the while it is their nature. It is the nature of truths to be validated, verified. It pays for our ideas to be validated.”
66) What does he mean by this? Explain.
67) Do you tend to agree or disagree with him? Why?
Sample Solution
Proposed Office oversupply arrangement. Organizations are growing rapidly in the UK and around the globe; the states of organizations on the planet are changing and developing rapidly. In this task we will endeavor to discover long haul and here and now answers for the issue of oversupply in the workplace showcase. Before we can propose the arrangements we have to see how the issue has advanced and the contrasts between the customary and present day needs of organizations that came about because of the adjustment in organizations themselves. Customary meaning of office: Office is the physical place from which an organization plays out its capacities. Why firms require an office? Workplaces are vital so as to demonstrate to the partners of the organization that the organization exists and have a standard place. Workplaces are regularly where staff work and play out their obligations. Workplaces are a position of holding gatherings with customers and providers. Customary criteria in picking the area of the workplace: Before, picking the area of an office was identified with numerous elements, I would say the most vital of them here: Trading data with peer organizations: previously, obtaining data was a standout amongst the most imperative issues in building an upper hand, organizations used to find their workplaces near each other keeping in mind the end goal to trade data about valuing, economic situations, free market activity, for instance, in the city of London and New York the majority of the budgetary organizations were situated in focal London and Manhattan around the national banks and the stock trade. Workplaces are typically found where clients are: organizations used to find their workplaces where they can meet their clients and think about them more data, for instance, the workplaces of auto insurance agencies are in the urban communities where they can meet individuals and converse with them straightforwardly eye to eye and feel their necessities. Workplaces of one organization are near each other: workplaces of one organization are been near each other keeping in mind the end goal to rely upon each other, trade products and enterprises and make it simpler to meet and talk about vital issues. Lawful connection between the landowner and the organization: The lawful connection between the workplace proprietor and the organization that possesses the workplace is normally characterized in the rent. What is the rent? GE Capital meaning of the rent is that: "Rent is a lawful assention between the property proprietor and occupant stipulates the conditions under which the inhabitant may have the land for a predetermined period". Regularly, the rent is a long haul connection between the two gatherings; this long haul relationship includes budgetary responsibility from the property occupier. Who can bear the cost of the rent? The above definition implies that the property occupier is generally a set up business with steady or developing customer base and deals keeping in mind the end goal to meet the money related commitments of going into the rent. Rent is the most costly thing after the cost of work. Why private ventures generally come up short? Most private ventures have income issues coming about because of their commitments to pay their workers, proprietors and loan bosses. Private ventures generally don't have stable money inflow while they have expanding money outpouring. Long haul rent or business rents add to the issue of the private ventures by not giving them authoritative adaptability when consenting to their rent arrangement. Fundamental content: What has been changed? Organizations themselves are in consistent change on the planet, when organizations change every one of the capacities that are identified with them change too, for example, workplaces, work, and markets. Monetary variables: I will say underneath the most vital elements that have change organizations and thus changed the interest for workplaces: The world economy depends like never before on little firms: nations like UK, US and whatever remains of Europe have set up activities keeping in mind the end goal to advance development and enterprise; this implies the world economy depends progressively on little firms that can possibly develop into medium and huge estimated firms or reduce. An outcome of having numerous little firms is that these little firms can't submit themselves to long haul rent contracts. Data innovation: the spread of data innovation has made interchanges between various parts of the business less demanding, gatherings could be held by utilizing phone conferencing offices and life video accounts. Outcomes: the result of data innovation on organizations is that various workplaces of the organization don't need to be near each other, numerous organizations are finding their home office in remote regions where they can spare enormous entireties of cash on paying less lease. Colossal managing an account business lines, for example, Barclay Card are situated outside London in Northampton. Web: the Internet did change the method for working together as well as made new organizations on the web: numerous organizations needn't bother with a physical place any longer to work. Outcome: the result of the Internet on office request is profound; the Internet has made the request on office considerably less. Adaptable work: the high points and low points of the current business cycles are more outrageous than any time in recent memory, a lull in the monetary movement could cause the expulsion of countless representatives, while a financial blast requires a huge number of workers, organizations require adaptable workplaces with a specific end goal to change the measure of the workplace at the earliest opportunity, organizations may need to twofold their space in 2 months or cut a large portion of their space in under a month. Outcome: the aftereffect of the fluctuation in the monetary cycles required business property suppliers to have the capacity to address their customers' issues by changing the space of the workplace. Constriction in administrative work: toward the start of the most recent century there was a huge administrative work, every one of the organizations that were working in this field had workplaces and utilized excessively numerous individuals which required space, the PC and the web had made administrative organizations unviable and constrained an excessive number of organizations to close, this had caused a compression in the required space for administrative work. All the above components have helped in the drop in the interest for workplaces in the enormous urban communities, for example, London and New York. There is a reasonable awkwardness in the property advertises in numerous capital urban areas and particularly in London. The issue assurance: Private properties are getting extremely costly and numerous individuals are getting them keeping in mind the end goal to make capital picks up on them while the incomes from business workplaces are getting less appealing. Office providers are consuming enormous room so as to construct workplaces that are left vacant or mostly utilized. There are numerous empty office spaces in London. The explanations behind this issue is the way that office providers did not focus on the progressions to organizations needs in the UK. Office providers are as yet giving rigid workplaces to set up vast and medium organizations and not for independent companies and business people. Proposed arrangements: There are long haul and here and now answers for the issue of office oversupply. We will show beneath the significance of every last one of them in meeting the changing business needs. We can't make a difference long haul arrangements straight away due to the idea of the property advertise. Property building is a long haul process; we can't change the entire on going building work out of the blue; that is the reason we have to separate between long haul and here and now arrangements. Here and now arrangements: Presenting long haul swelling connected leases: with respect to the structures that have been manufactured and don't meet the present market needs, Property Suppliers could offer numerous organizations which have stable piece of the overall industry to sign a long haul rent by connecting the rent rate to the expansion rate. Connecting these rent rates to swelling is essential in subsidence times where the costs of the organizations' items go down while the money out stream remains consistent for quite a while. These sort of swelling connected items could empower likewise numerous extensive organizations to agree to accept greater structures in the event that they required more staff. Gives authoritative adaptability to medium size organizations: give oversaw workplaces: examine demonstrates that 70% of organizations have no less than one exhaust work area everywhere throughout the year, the normal cost of this void work area is £18,000 every year including focal warming, this has made the requirement for versatile structures, Spencer, J (no date given), these adaptable workplaces are intended to give medium term (3-5 years) or even here and now office space arrangements without the financing and the operational dangers related with long haul customary necessities, oversaw workplaces give telephones and Internet to all workplaces, the building has little workplaces and huge workplaces, this would give little organizations the chances to move into a greater office when they extend, this sort of office is advantageous for little organizations which could reject or enlist staff within a reasonable time-frame. Subletting: property suppliers could give their inhabitant the privilege to sublet the property if their business has contracted or on the off chance that they extended and they have to move to a greater building. Giving Unbundled workplaces to independent companies and business people: as we have talked about above, workplaces are utilized for a wide range of things, for example, holding gatherings, having physical nearness and working from the workplace: private ventures and business people may require just to enlist a few components of the customary office, for example, meeting rooms and utilizing the address for sending and accepting mail, this has left the entryway open to present virtual workplaces which are adaptable unbundled items (workplaces), virtual office give adaptability and diminish lease rates by 40% and 60%, Grand,C (no date given).>
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