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BELIEVE IN LIFE
WILLIAM DU BOIS (1868–1963)
IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
EthicsAPPROACH
PragmatismBEFORE
4th century BCE Aristotle
explores the ancient Greek
ethical concept of eudaimonia
or “human flourishing”.1845 Publication of Narrative
of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, an American Slave
boosts support for the abolition
of slavery in the United States.Late 19th and early 20th
century Pragmatists, such as
Charles Sanders Peirce and
William James, argue that we
should judge the value of ideas
in terms of their usefulness.AFTER
1950s and 1960s Martin
Luther King Jr., leader of the
African-American Civil Rights
movement, adopts a policy of
non-violent direct action to
address social segregation.I
n 1957, close to the end of
his long life, the American
academic, political radical,
and civil rights activist, William
Du Bois, wrote what has become
known as his last message to the
world. Knowing that he did not
have much longer to live, he penned
a short passage to be read at his
funeral. In this message, Du Bois
expresses his hope that any good
he has done will survive long
enough to justify his life, and that
those things he has left undone, or
has done badly, may be taken up by
others to be bettered or completed.“Always,” Du Bois writes, “human
beings will live and progress to a
greater, broader, and fuller life.”
This is a statement of belief rather
than a statement of fact. It is as if
Du Bois is saying that we must
believe in the possibility of a fuller
life, or in the possibility of progress,
to be able to progress at all. In this
idea, Du Bois shows the influence
of the American philosophical
movement known as Pragmatism,
which claims that what matters is
not just our thoughts and beliefs,
but also the practical implications
of these thoughts and beliefs....believe
in life.We aspire to
a broader and
fullerlife.To attain this
we need to believe
in the possibility
of progress.If we lose this belief,
we suffer a form
of death: existence
withoutgrowth.So we must...