James's pragmatic maxim and the “elasticity” of meaning

Abstract

However, James’s maxim has been subject to a number of confl icting interpretations, 3 and the following will argue that some of these interpretive di culties stem from the fact that (1) James seriously understates the di erences between his own views and those presented by Peirce in “How to Make Our Ideas Clear”, and (2) James’s understanding of the maxim typically ties meaning to truth, but since James (or at least the James of Pragmatism ) takes “truth” talk to stretch from “temporary” to “absolute” truth, a similar ‘elasticity’ can be found in his conception of meaning. However, this ‘elasticity’ is found in our everyday talk of meaning as well, and James manages to capture it in a more cohesive way than more contemporary accounts that often try to do so by positing two completely distinct types of meaning or content.