Page:Philosophical Review Volume 18.djvu/71

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57
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF PHILOSOPHY.
[Vol. XVIII.

how profoundly Continental thinkers have been stirred by the pragmatic issues. Here was manifested the same depth of conviction, on the one side or the other, which has grown familiar among ourselves in recent years, and manifested also the same eagerness to defend one or other of the contrasted views. Familiar again were the arguments brought forward by the advocates of the doctrine, or by its ardent critics. Schiller's discussion of truth resembled a restatement, as it was probably intended to be, of positions familiar from his writings. The contentions of his opponents added little to the criticisms which of late have crowded the pages of the reviews and journals. Professor Jerusalem, Vienna, advanced a view relatively novel when he defended pragmatism by reducing it to a method for determining what problems merit investigation, and to this alone. But if the limitation stand, it is difficult to see why the method should be also praised as an instrument for solving the problems selected for study. Professor Pikler, Budapest, came near to propounding a question which deserves to be pressed, whether pragmatism is logically entitled to any theory of truth, either negative or positive, unless its scope is restricted to phenomena. The point was approached, however, or suggested, rather than distinctly made, so that the work of criticism along this line remains to be accomplished. It may be that some new positions escaped the notice of the writer of this report. In general, the intensity of the debate in form was paralleled by the wontedness of its content.

It was unfortunate that a number of American scholars who were enrolled as members of the Congress were prevented from coming to Heidelberg. In addition to those mentioned elsewhere the (probably imperfect) lists of the Tageblatt showed the following in attendance: Professors Bolton (Nebraska), Doan (Meadville Seminary), Dulles (Auburn Seminary), Kirschmann (Toronto), Major (Ohio State); Doctors Carus (Chicago), Franklin (Baltimore), Rogers (Harvard), Rousmaniere (Mt. Holyoke), Rowland (Mt. Holyoke); Miss Curtis (Worcester), Miss Henderson (Cambridge), Miss Meday (New York); Messrs. Sigsbee and Toll, students of philosophy at Heidelberg and Freiburg. Papers