Abstract

Boodin's theory of knowledge was but a moment in an unfolding metaphysical system. Although Truth and Reality began with a plea for the toleration of different metaphysical interpretations, on the ground that each system is the result of the peculiar perspective afforded by the temperament of the particular philosopher, Boodin nevertheless promised in the "preface" to publish a metaphysics, entitled A Realistic Universe. This book was a bold philosophical adventure, because it claimed nothing less than the application of pragmatic method to the task of constructing a metaphysical system. By this Boodin meant "... that we must judge the nature of reality, in its various grades and complexities, by the consequences to the realization of human purposes, instead of by a priori assumptions". "The only key we have to reality is what reality must be taken as in the progressive realization of the purposes of human nature". The synoptic vision afforded by metaphysics, inextricably linked to a conception of reality as that with which human purposes must cope, is moreover grounded in the procedures and results of the empirical sciences. "Whenever philosophy has been vital," Boodin wrote in the "Introduction" to the first edition of A Realistic Universe, "it has always followed close upon the heels of science and human interest."