back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 18981

[from 'Pragmatism - eight lectures' by William James, in 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 2. Substance / e. Substance critique ]

Full Idea

'Substance' appears now only as another name for the fact that phenomena as they come are actually grouped and given in coherent forms.

Gist of Idea

'Substance' is just a word for groupings and structures in experience

Source

William James (Pragmatism - eight lectures [1907], Lec 4)

Book Reference

James,William: 'Pragmatism - eight lectures' [Dover 1995], p.57


A Reaction

This is the strongly empirical strain in James's empiricism. This sounds like a David Lewis comment on the Humean mosaic of experience. We Aristotelians at least believe that the groups run much deeper than the surface of experience.