See the exquisite contrast of the types of mind! The pragmatist clings to facts and concreteness, observes truth at its work in particular cases, and generalises. Truth, for him, becomes a class-name for all sorts of definite working-values in experience. For the rationalist it remains a pure abstraction, to the bare name of which we must defer. When the pragmatist undertakes to show in detail just why we must defer, the rationalist is unable to recognise the concretes from which his own abstraction is taken. He accuses us of denying truth; whereas we have only sought to trace exactly why people follow it and always ought to follow it. Your typical ultra-abstractions fairly shudders at concreteness: other things equal, he positively prefers the pale and spectral. If the two universes were offered, he would always choose the skinny outline rather than the rich thicket of reality. It is so much purer, clearer, nobler. William James
About This Quote

The quote explains the difference between the pragmatist and the rationalist. To be a pragmatist, you must believe that the things that are real are not independent of their context. For example, it is impossible to be a pure abstraction for this is what leads to false beliefs. The rationalists are the ones who believe that all entities are independent of one another.

Therefore, if they can find an object that is independent of all other objects, then they can have pure knowledge of them. However, with concretes, you need to consider their context in order to have true knowledge about them. The rationalists cannot accept this idea because they see concreteness as inferior.

The pragmatists are able to see the fact even though they believe it is inferior because they are focused on specific situations.

Source: Pragmatism And Other Writings

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  1. The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude.

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