Meaning of “And here, too, one learns that the world,…”

James presents pragmatism as a method that makes theories answer to practical consequences and experience instead of allowing abstract formulations to remain rigid and self-sufficient.

The Old Man claims that opinions can change, but attributes the change to new evidence, conversation, study, and other influences entering from outside the individual.

The Old Man argues that entrenched assumptions change through encounters, teaching, experience, and other influences rather than simply disappearing by private command.

Washington rejects an overly narrow definition of schooling and asks whether education can improve the practical conditions and responsibilities of life.

James resists treating every possible intellectual mistake as catastrophic, because an excessive fear of error can itself prevent inquiry, experience and the possibility of gaining truth.

Some understanding arrives only through experience: ideas about character, consequence, relationship, and judgment become clearer when they have been lived rather than merely described.