Man, whatever else he may be, is primarily a practical being, whose mind is given him to aid in adapting him to this world's life
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that humans are practical beings, using their intellect primarily to navigate and adapt to life in the world.
William James highlights the essence of humanity by stating that, regardless of our various roles or identities, our practicality defines us. Our minds serve the crucial purpose of helping us adapt to lifeβs challenges, suggesting that our intellectual capabilities are fundamentally tools to enhance our survival and effectiveness in the world.
In practice
In a philosophical discussion about the purpose of the mind in a classroom setting.
Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs' legs (especially if the frogs are decapitated) and that, on the other hand, any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings (with heads on their shoulders) must be benighted and superstitious.
The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.
All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable causes of future experience, factors to which the environment and the lessons it has so far taught us must learn to bend.
The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. Our civilization is founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.
It is astonishing how many mental operations we can explain when we have once grasped the principles of association
As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.
All service ranks the same with God,- With God, whose puppets, best and worst, Are we: there is no last nor first.
Death is a mystery, and burial is a secret.
Writing is a political instrument.
The laws of chess do not permit a free choice: you have to move whether you like it or not.
[In the aftermath of death] Small talk feels too small, big talk too enormous.
This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings.
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