The Pragmatic Revolt in Politics
| Published date | 01 October 1930 |
| Date | 01 October 1930 |
| Author | W. Y. Elliott. (Macmillan). |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1930.tb02001.x |
Reviews
The
Pragmatic
Revolt
in
Politics
By
W.
Y.
ELLIOTT.
(Macmillnn).
16s.
net.
MR.
ELLIOTT’S
book
is
a very well-considered .review of recent
political
theory
along
with
the effects which such theory may plausibly
be
held to have had
on
the actual work and methods
of
government
in
modem states.
Mr.
Elliott
wisely gives
his
book
a substantial unity
by viewing present-day tendencies in political theory and practice in
the light
of
a philosophical doctrine which he holds has mainly deter-
mined their character, namely, that of pragmatism. But while
the
advantages,
from
the point of view of literary structure,
of
such a
scheme are obvious,
no
less obvious
is
the danger which quickly
threatens such
a
scheme, that of tending artificially to represent
the
great variety of modem political thinking as arising from too single
and uniform a source; and of course, at the very outset, Mr. Elliott
wisely admits that to
try
to present the doctrine
of
Marxist
Com-
munism as resulting from a relativistic theory of knowledge
is
wholly
to falsify the facts. Accordingly a discussion of Mantist doctrine finds
no
place
in
Mr.
Elliott’s
book.
He
is
exclusively concerned with
political doctrine and practice which may fairly
be
thought to result
from the revolt
in
philosophy against what is called Hegelian or
Neo-
Hegelian intellectualism. The revolt against Hegelian
“
intel-
lectualism
”
was initiated, while yet Bradley and Bosanquet were at
the height of their powers, from America, and by William
James.
It
is
signiscant enough that it should come from the new world
of
America fresh from a superb and swift mastery of a new continent.
In
addition, we
can
be
sure that
no.
doctrine that issued from
the
rich and amazing personality
of
William James is without the germ
of
deep and fecundating
truth.
That there is
such
a truth under-
lying
pragmatism can.hardly
be
doubted, but whether
it
is
one which
’so-called
“
intellectualism
”
forgot to the degree William James
imagined
is
much more open to doubt.
The
truth
is
that terms
like
intellectualism
”
and anti-
intellectualism
”
need
to
be
very carefully handled;
and
it
is
very
much
open
to
question whether the so-called
I‘
anti-intellectualists
”
are
not
more misleading
in
its
use than those they criticise. For
if
we take Bradley as the greatest representative
in
the English-speak-
472
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