The Squirrel and the Tree

I tell this trivial anecdote about the squirrel because it is a peculiarly simple example of what I wish now to speak of as the pragmatic method. The pragmatic method is primarily a method of settling metaphysical disputes that otherwise might be interminable. Is the world one or many? -fated or free?-material or spiritual?-here are notions either of which may or may not hold good of the world; and disputes- over such notions are unending. The pragmatic method in such cases is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences-. What difference would it practically make to anyone if this notion rather than that notion were true? If no practical difference whatever can be traced, then the alternatives mean practically the same thing, and all dispute is idle. Whenever a dispute is serious, we ought to be able to show some practical difference that must follow from the one side or the other's being right.
- William James, Pragmatism

Are some disputes merely verbal?

During the Vietnam conflict a reporter asked the then--Secretary- of- State Henry Kissinger, how long he believed the war would last.

"We are not at war in Vietnam," Kissinger replied.

The reporter was stunned. "How can you say we're not at war? Nearly 50,000 American men have been killed."

"We are not at war until Congress declares war," Kissinger replied.

The misunderstanding here can be cleared up by defining the word "war." If you accept the reporter's definition, we were certainly at war. If you accept Kissinger's, we weren't.

William James told the story of a group of hunters in the forest. One of the men sees a squirrel on a tree, and the squirrel sees him. The squirrel scrambles to the opposite side of the tree from the man. The man circles the tree, and the squirrel cautiously stays on the opposite side of the tree from him, and around and around they go, The other hunters disagree. One says the man goes around the tree and the squirrel, and another objects that the man goes around the tree, but not the squirrel. They turn to James to get the opinion of a philosopher. "It's all a matter of defining your terms," James answers. "If by 'going around' you mean 'going east, south, west, north, east, etc.,' then the man certainly goes around the squirrel. But if by 'going around' you mean 'going from side to back to side to belly to side, etc.' then the man does not go around the squirrel."

James realized that many disputes are purely verbal and can be cleared up by defining your terms. Now that you have the idea, how would you handle these old chestnuts: If a tree falls in the forest and there's nobody to hear, is there a sound? And which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Bibliography

Earle, William James- "William James," Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 4, p. 240-249.

James, William. The Writings of William James, New York: Modern Library, 1967.

Konvitz, Milton P. and Gail Kennedy, Editors: The American Pragmatists, New York, Meridian Books, 1960.