V. THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH AND ERROR
VI. THE FAILURE OF FORMAL LOGIC
VII. THE BANKRUPTCY OF INTELLECTUALISM
Mr. Murray's youthful modesty insists that his study of Pragmatism needsa sponsor; this is not at all my own opinion, but I may take theopportunity of pointing out how singularly qualified he is to give agood account of it.
In the first place he is young, and youth is an almost indispensablequalification for the appreciation of novelty; for the mind works moreand more stiffly as it grows older, and becomes less and less capable ofabsorbing what is new. Hence, if our 'great authorities' lived for ever,they would become complete Struldbrugs. This is the justification ofdeath from the standpoint of social progress. And as there is no subjectin which Struldbruggery is more rampant than in philosophy, a youthfuland nimble mind is here particularly needed. It has given Mr. Murray aneye also to the varieties of Pragmatism and to their connections.
Secondly, Mr. Murray has (like myself) enjoyed the advantage of aseverely intellectualistic training in the classical philosophy ofOxford University, and in its premier college, Balliol. The aim of thistraining is to instil into the best minds the country produces anadamantine conviction that philosophy has made no progress sinceAristotle. It costs about £50,000 a year, but on the whole it issingularly successful. Its effect upon capable minds possessed of commonsense is to produce that contempt for pure intellect which distinguishesthe British nation from all others, and ensures the practical success ofadministrators selected by an examination so gloriously irrelevant totheir future duties that, since the lamentable demise of the Chinesesystem, it may boast to be the most antiquated in the world. In minds,however, which are more prone to theorizing, but at the same timeclear-headed, this training produces a keenness of insight into thedefects of intellectualism and a perception of the intellectualnecessity of Pragmatism which can probably be reached in no other way.Mr. Murray, therefore, is quite right in emphasizing, above all,