Note 48 — Chapter II · PRAGMATISM AND THE PRAGMATIST MOVEMENT

M. Abel Rey, author of a work on the Theory of Physical Science in the hands of Contemporary Scientists (La Théorie de la physique chez les physiciens contemporains). In this book (I have not had the time to examine it carefully) M. Rey examines the theories and methods of Newton, and also of modern thinkers like Mach and Ostwald, reaching the conclusion that the philosophy with which physical science is most compatible is a “modified form of Positivism,” which bears a striking resemblance to “Pragmatism” and the “philosophy of experience.” The English reader will find many useful references to Rey in the pages of Father Leslie J. Walker’s Theories of Knowledge, in the “Stoneyhurst Philosophical Series.”