The sad truth: Optimism, pessimism, and pragmatism

Ratio 16 (2):189–197 (2003)
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Abstract

Pragmatists recommend optimism as a successful strategy, and recent psychological research has confirmed its value. But optimism comes at a price: optimists are less accurate in their assessments and expectations than are pessimists. Thus optimism ‘proves itself to be good in the way of belief’, and by pragmatic standards should count as true; but that makes the accuracy costs of optimism invisible . The problem prevents pragmatists from offering a Darwinian explanation of why pessimism survives, and also blocks any pragmatist account of the well‐documented and highly successful exploratory behavior of many animal species

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References found in this work

Realism with a human face.Hilary Putnam - 1990 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Edited by James Conant.
The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy.William James - 1979 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt, Fredson Bowers & Ignas K. Skrupskelis.
Pragmatism.William James - 1922 - New York [etc.]: Longmans, Green and co.. Edited by William James & Doris Olin.

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