On pragmatic principles we cannot reject any
hypothesis if consequences useful to life flow
from it.  Universal conceptions, as things to
take account of, may be as real for pragmatism as
particular sensations are.  They have, indeed, no
meaning and no reality if they have no use.  But if
they have any use they have that amount of meaning.
And the meaning will be true if the use squares well
with life's other uses.

       -- William James, "Pragmatism"