Types of Thinking by John Dewey

Author:John Dewey [Dewey, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2013-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

II

The problem which has been the source of the most disputation in the history of philosophy is the origin of knowledge. Some people hold that knowledge derives from experience; but many others contend that even though experience is important, the universal principles upon which truth is based cannot be derived from it, but must, of necessity, come from some other source.

Everybody agrees that certain knowledge comes from experience—such facts that sugar is sweet, that snow is white, or that fire can burn. But they will not agree that abstract knowledge, such as the axioms and laws of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, or such things as the law of conservation of matter in physics and chemistry, or the concept of cause-and-effect in philosophy, or the moral laws of ethics, can be derived from experience. Their point is that such laws and principles are necessarily true, totally apart from experience. They point out that while the truth of such propositions as “2+2=4” and “the sum of the three angles in a triangle is equal to two right angles” can be verified through experience, they are not derived from it.

People who argue in this vein arrive at the conclusion that our knowledge of such universal laws and principles is innate. The empiricists were hard put to refute this conclusion until Herbert Spencer made use of the theory of evolution to show that universal truth can also be derived from experience. Spencer admitted that no one individual could arrive at absolute truth through the experience of one lifetime. But he held that as man evolved from lower animals, and made the transition through savagery to civilization, the totality of human experience through the ages has resulted in certain truths being so universal and so commonplace that man has come to regard them as absolute, and his knowledge of them as innate. Even with the change of environment certain laws and principles continue to have validity, and they are appropriately labelled “universal.” Their truth, after repeated revision and restatement, becomes all but absolute, and we can utilize them to explain the regular natural phenomena within the framework of time and space. They are still, however, the products of man’s total experience through the ages.

I mention Spencer at this juncture because somewhere in his Principles of Psychology James refers to this contribution. While James takes Spencer’s argument as his point of departure, he develops the idea further. Spencer’s concept is important in itself; but, far more important is the application which James makes in his philosophy. James differs from his predecessors in that on the one hand he goes far beyond the concept of empiricism which takes knowledge to be completely passive and external, while on the other hand, although he recognizes that truth comes from within, he repudiates the concept of idealism which asserts the existence of a higher, particular, and transcendental sphere from which man derives his laws and principles.

James holds that general principles originate neither in the particular nor from without, but incidentally.

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