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Page 1 Ms 318 PRAGMATISM [3]
Mr. Editor
The philosophical journals, the world over, are just now brimming over, as you know, with pragmatism and antipragmatism. The number of [Bernards/rewards] that reaches me this morning has an admirable piece on the subject by a writer of genius and of literary skill, Giovanni Papini. Yesterday brought news of discussions along the same line in New Zealand. Often, however, one hears glib utterances that betray complete misunderstanding of this new ingredient of the thought of our time, so that I gladly accept your invitation to explain what pragmatism really is, how it comes into being, and whither it is tending. Any philosphoical doctrine that should be completely new could hardly fail to prove completely false; but the the rivulets of the head of the river of pragmatism are easily traced back to almost any desired antiquity.