practical meaning of all opinions may be illustrated by a simile that,
as I think, well brings out the sense in which, as I hold, pragmatism
itself is a true doctrine. Any sincere opinion announces a plan of
action whereby we are, in some way, to adjust ourselves for some
purpose to a real object. That is, an opinion lays down, in some form,
a rule for some sort of conduct. This rule is of course valid only for
one who has some specific interest in the object in question. For you
can guide action only by appealing to the will of the one whom you
guide. This is the pragmatist's view of the nature of all assertions
and opinions. And so far, as you already know, I agree with the
pragmatist. This account is correct.

This being so, we can, for the sake of a simile, compare any definite
opinion to the counsel that a coach may give to a player whom he is
directing. The player wants to "play the game." He therefore accepts
its rules, and has his interests in what the pragmatists call "the
concrete situation." The player, at any point in his training or in
his activities as a player, may also accept the coach's guidance, and
put himself under the coach's directions. If, hereupon, the player
acts in accordance with what the coach ordains, the coach's directions
have "workings." Their "workings" are in so far the deeds of the
player. These deeds, if the issues of the game are sharply defined,
are what we may call hits or misses. That is, each one of them either
is {153} what, for the purposes of the game and the player, it ought
to be, or else it is not what it ought to be. And each act of the
player is a hit or a miss in a perfectly objective sense, as a real
deed belonging to a world whose relations are determined by the rules
and events of the game and by the purposes of the whole body of
players.

Applying the simile to the case of assertions, we may say: An
assertion is an act whereby our deeds are provided with a sort of
coaching. Life itself is our game. Opinions coach the active will as
to how to do its deed. If the opinion is definite enough, and if the
active will obeys the coach, the opinion has "workings." These
workings are our intelligent deeds, which translate our opinions into
new life. If our purposes are definite enough, and if the issues of
life are for us sharply defined, these deeds are, with reference to
our purposes, either hits or misses, either successful or unsuccessful
acts, either steps toward winni