Yet it is of urgent practical necessity that we should have such propositions and beliefs. All those we conjure1 out of our mental apparatus2 and the world of fact dissolve and disappear again under scrutiny3. It is clear we must resort to some other method for these necessities.
Now I make my beliefs as I want them. I do not attempt to distil4 them out of fact as physicists5 distil their laws. I make them thus and not thus exactly as an artist makes a picture so and not so. I believe that is how we all make our beliefs, but that many people do not see this clearly and confuse their beliefs with perceived and proven fact.
I draw my beliefs exactly as an artist draws lines to make a picture, to express my impression of the world and my purpose.
The artist cannot defend his expression as a scientific man defends his, and demonstrate that they are true upon any assumptions whatsoever6. Any loud fool may stand in front of a picture and call it inaccurate7, untrustworthy, unbeautiful. That last, the most vital issue of all, is the one least assured. Loud fools always do do that sort of thing. Take quite ignorant people before almost any beautiful work of art and they will laugh at it as absurd. If one sits on a popular evening in that long room at South Kensington which contains Raphael’s cartoons, one remarks that perhaps a third of those who stray through and look at all those fine efforts, titter. If one searches in the magazines of a little while ago, one finds in the angry and resentful reception of the Pre–Raphaelites another instance of the absolutely indefensible nature of many of the most beautiful propositions. And as a still more striking and remarkable8 case, take the onslaught made by Ruskin upon the works of Whistler. You will remember that a libel action ensued and that these pictures were gravely reasoned about by barristers and surveyed by jurymen to assess their merits . . .
In the end it is the indefensible truth that lasts; it lasts because it works and serves. People come to it and remain and attract other understanding and enquiring9 people.
Now when I say I make my beliefs and that I cannot prove them to you and convince you of them, that does not mean that I make them wantonly and regardless of fact, that I throw them off as a child scribbles10 on a slate11. Mr. Ruskin, if I remember rightly, accused Whistler of throwing a pot of paint in the face of the public,— that was the essence of his libel. The artistic12 method in this field of beliefs, as in the field of visual renderings13, is one of great freedom and initiative and great poverty of test, but of no wantonness; the conditions of rightness are none the less imperative14 because they are mysterious and indefinable. I adopt certain beliefs because I feel the need for them, because I feel an often quite unanalyzable rightness in them; because the alternative of a chaotic15 life distresses16 me. My belief in them rests upon the fact that they WORK for me and satisfy my desire for harmony and beauty. They are arbitrary assumptions, if you will, that I see fit to impose upon my universe.
But though they are arbitrary, they are not necessarily individual. Just so far as we all have a common likeness17, just so far can we be brought under the same imperatives18 to think and believe.
And though they are arbitrary, each day they stand wear and tear, and each new person they satisfy, is another day and another voice towards showing they do correspond to something that is so far fact and real.
This is Pragmatism as I conceive it; the abandonment of infinite assumptions, the extension of the experimental spirit to all human interests.
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![收听单词发音](/template/default/tingnovel/images/play.gif)
1
conjure
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v.恳求,祈求;变魔术,变戏法 | |
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2
apparatus
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n.装置,器械;器具,设备 | |
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3
scrutiny
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n.详细检查,仔细观察 | |
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4
distil
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vt.蒸馏;提取…的精华,精选出 | |
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5
physicists
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物理学家( physicist的名词复数 ) | |
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6
whatsoever
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adv.(用于否定句中以加强语气)任何;pron.无论什么 | |
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7
inaccurate
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adj.错误的,不正确的,不准确的 | |
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8
remarkable
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adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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9
enquiring
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a.爱打听的,显得好奇的 | |
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10
scribbles
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n.潦草的书写( scribble的名词复数 );乱画;草草地写;匆匆记下v.潦草的书写( scribble的第三人称单数 );乱画;草草地写;匆匆记下 | |
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11
slate
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n.板岩,石板,石片,石板色,候选人名单;adj.暗蓝灰色的,含板岩的;vt.用石板覆盖,痛打,提名,预订 | |
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12
artistic
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adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的 | |
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13
renderings
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n.(戏剧或乐曲的)演奏( rendering的名词复数 );扮演;表演;翻译作品 | |
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14
imperative
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n.命令,需要;规则;祈使语气;adj.强制的;紧急的 | |
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15
chaotic
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adj.混沌的,一片混乱的,一团糟的 | |
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16
distresses
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n.悲痛( distress的名词复数 );痛苦;贫困;危险 | |
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17
likeness
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n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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18
imperatives
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n.必要的事( imperative的名词复数 );祈使语气;必须履行的责任 | |
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