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Word count: 1293. ... Read more

Book Description
This article covers James, William (1842-1910): American philosopher and psychologist who was the principal figure in the establishment and development of functionalism.

The article is excerpted fromGale Encyclopedia of Psychology. This single-volume, accessible resource covers the entire spectrum of psychology, including: notable people, theories and terms; landmark case studies and experiments; applications of psychology in advertising, medicine and sports; and career information. More than 650 articles -- 65% of those are entirely new or updated since the last edition. Each article ranges from 25 to 1,500 words, covering the topics researchers want to know about, including:
Abnormal psychology
Bipolar disorder
Dyslexia
Sigmund Freud
Insomnia
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
Unconscious motivation
And hundreds more

In addition to more that 175 photographs, charts and graphs, students will also find a new glossary of over 350 terms, an updated organizations list and an updated and expanded index.

Published/Released: October 2000 ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. Comparison of anthm10 & 10aDownload Description
In this present hour I wish to illustrate the pragmatic method by one more application. I wish to turn its light upon the ancient problem of 'the one and the many.' I suspect that in but few of you has this problem occasioned sleepless nights, and I should not be astonished if some of you told me it had never vexed you. I myself have come, by long brooding over it, to consider it the most central of all philosophic problems, central because so pregnant. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Pragmatism A new name for old ways of thinking
This series of lectures by James illustrates well the fundamental attributes of pragmatism. As such it is an important book for any philosopher to read. A pity then that that the publication is so poorly published and typeset. It is clear that this book was set using a common word processor and that the user was not even able to control the size of type from one paragraph to the next. The inclusion of capitalisations in text is very distracting and interrupts the flow of the reader, which is further made difficult by the use left aligned text as though this was little more than a typed out draft for a letter. Even common typesetting practices such as allowing sufficient linespacing are absent. Such an important historical work deserves better than the treatment given this imprint.

James's Pragmatism
In 1906 and 1907, William James delivered a series of eight lectures at the Lowell Institute, Boston, and at Columbia University, New York City which he published as "Pragmatism: A New Way for Some Old Ways of Thinking".This short book, which James further described as "popular" lectures on philosophy constituted James's fullest statement of his thought up to that time.It remains a provocative, valuable, and important work, a classic of American thought.

I want to mention some important considerations in James's overall approach in this book. First, I was struck, in reading "Pragmatism", by the importance James attaches to the philosophical quest.He begins his opening lecture, "The Present Dilemma in Philosophy" with the observation that an individual's philosophy is the most important thing about that person because it gives his or her sense of "what life honestly and deeply means."James makes high and traditional claims for the importance of philosophical investigation -- claims which not been followed by a number of subsequent professional philosophers.

Second, James wrote his book for a lay audience of educated individuals whom he called "amateur philosophers".People in this class, for James, were not technically trained academic philosophers but rather were those who had a sense of both the claims of religion and spirituality and the claims of empirical science.These amateurs, James continued, wanted, in our modern terminology to "have it all"; and they were inclined to overlook conflicts or inconsistencies between types of beliefs that they wished simultaneously to hold.Many of James philosophical successors did not follow James in writing for amateurs.They wrote instead for other philosophers.

Third, James saw his role as a philosopher in mediating between the claims of Darwinian and physical science and religion.In a memorable phrase, he divided philosophers and philosophical tendencies into two broad types: "tender-minded" and "tough minded".The tender-minded thinkers of his day, the focus of much criticism in "Pragmatism" were the absolute idealists, American and British successors to Hegel.The tough-minded thinkers were empiricists, wedded to factual investigation and to materialism.Tough minded thinkers wanted nothing to do with metaphysical or religious abstractions.James conceived of pragmatism as a way to accept what was valuable in both tender-minded and tough-minded thinkers.

Thus, in the body of his lectures, James developed pragmatism as a method and a theory of truth.Pragmatism is an instrumental philosophy which holds, James states at one point, that "ideas (which themselves are but parts of our experience) become true just in so far as they help us to get into satisfactory relation with other parts of our experience."(Note the reference to "ideas" in this definition which may tie James unduly to some previous methods of thinking that he would otherwise reject.)Philosophy is not a subject for intellectualist abstractions but rather a tool to help people understand themselves and their needs in specific situations, consistently with their needs in other situations. Pragmatism, for James, is a forward-looking philosophy which tests ideas by their consequences, both in matters of science and in matters of religious belief.Thus, for James pragmatism is a philosophy which mediates between science and religion.Unlike some of his fellow pragmatists, the religious life was important to James.

James applies his basic approach to pragmatism to address traditional philosophical questions, including the nature of substance, personal identity and free-will.His discussions are still worth reading.For me, the strongest section of the book was the Lecture IV in which James contrasts philosophical monism and pluralism.This chapter helped me to both to understand and to question the fascination that claims to the unity of the world or of experience have exerted and continue to exert on many thinkers.This chapter is an excellent exposition of philosophical pluralism -- the view that there are many things and that they may only be imperfectly and incompletely connected.The lectures on "Pragmatism and Common Sense" and on "Pragmatism and Humanism" are contemporary and important in that they suggest the absence of fixed categories and the legitimacy of alternative means of describing experience for different purposes.

James writes so beautifully that he sometimes lacks the technical precision that might make his ideas clearer.He frequently uses loose metaphors that, while intruiging, serve to obfuscate rather than clarify his position.This is particularly the case in lecture VI, "Pragmatism's Conception of Truth" in which James expounds upon his claim that the truth of an idea is the use we can make of it.As James himself points out, his position was subject to a great deal of criticism, much of which may be misdirected.But James does not entirely help himself in expounding his position on this difficult question.

In the final chapter of his work, James explains his philosophical stance as a meliorist -- one who looks towards the future and tries to work to make his life and the world a better place.He finds that, for him, some form of religious theism is essential for this endeavor.While rejecting transcendental idealism and the absolute, James accepts the existence of a God, if not the all-powerful, all-knowing, unitary God of traditional Jewish-Christian theology.The method of knowing an idea by its use and consequence finds a place, for James, in both matters of the spirit and matters of science.Thus, James claims that pragmatic thought is able to honor both the claims of spirit and the claims of science.James modified his pragmatism in subsequent works and ultimately may have adopted a position closer to the idealism he criticizes in "Pragmatism".

With many modifications and qualifications, much of James's strategy for mediating between science and religion remains important and has been developed by subsequent thinkers.He articulated an important mission for philosophy and made it a subject and a quest which could continue to inspire and to help people with their lives. James is a challenging thinker that deserves to be read.He still has a great deal to teach.

Robin Friedman

From the Publisher
"The word 'pragmatism' is used everywhere today, from business to sports to politics.Although the word hadn't yet entered everyday language when William James published Pragmatism in 1907, the philosopher believed its doctrine had virtually become common sense in twentieth-century America.For James, pragmatism was a specific philosophical alternative to essentialism and foundationalism and argued that ideas are meaningful only insofar as they have practical consequences in concrete human experience; however today pragmatism has come to denote merely a general willingness to compromise principles, even to the point of selfishness or irresponsibility.Written in an engaging and accessible style, Pragmatism is a valuable corrective to modern uses of the word, since the voice that speaks in its pages embodies precisely the opposite values from the pejorative senses the word has acquired."

An American philosophy
It has been said that Pragmatism is the only philosophical school America has given the world. James is its great popularizer along perhaps with Dewey. Pragmatism in James is a ' theory of truth' which cancels common - sense correspondance theory of truth, and says that truth is the ' cash - value' of a proposition. The results of an idea or proposition in the marketplace are according to James ' its truth'. This sounds odd and in fact is certainly not what we ordinarily mean when we speak about the truth. It does make a certain sense however in trying to order the decisions of our life, and may help us in judging those beliefs we wish to hold on to.
My own sense is that this theory is pretty thin stuff, and the greater James is in the psychology of the ' Varieties of Religious Experience'
Again it seems to me that Pragmatism adds a certain element to the conception of Truth we should have, but it misses out on other crucial dimensions. There after all are truths which are painful, and truths which we do not want to know, and truths which it does not help us to know, and truths which we must grudgingly admit, and truths which do not promise to help us at all but may hurt us very much.

Essential to Understanding Contemporary Philosophies
I rate this work 5 stars because of its immense influence on today's common ways of thinking and its importance in understanding the rise of science and capitalism in America.

James challenges philosophers of all ilks to give us a net value to their systems; that is, how do they affect human life or make the world we know better or worse for us?James insists that no philosophy finally matters unless it impacts life in concrete terms.To lock down his philosophy he fashions a new model of truth, stating that whatever is beneficial is true.

There are huge problems here, e.g., the rise of the subjective.James doesn't specify to whom truth should be beneficial (humanity in general? Subjective selves?), so his theory leads to strange quandaries.It would be "true" for a sound-minded criminal on trial to plead insanity, and it would also be "true" for the prosecutor to charge guilt and sanity.Obviously, confusing "useful" and "true" is a category obfuscation.As well, morality would suffer on this view.If lying is useful then regarding lies as truths is fully permissible by James's line of thought.

Nevertheless, the book is important to read because so much of today's world is run in terms of the useful rather than the ideal or intrinsically good.That is why art is marginalized, morality compromised, and capital generating systems glorified.We need James's Pragmatism to understand ourselves today. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This eighth volume of a projected twelve continues the series of William James's correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues, which was begun in volume 4 of the Correspondence.The eight volume contains some 530 letters, with an additional 620 letters calendared, thus giving a complete accounting of James's known correspondence from 1895 to June 1899 inclusive.During this period, James struggles against various temptations, never completely successfully, to devote all of his attention to philosophy, the first and great love of his life.To this end, he published The Will to Believe with a promise to set out more formally his system of radical empiricism.The volume helps document the reception of the book and the controversy to which the title essay gave rise, a controversy the main issues of which have once again returned to the forefront of philosophical discussion and places James in the middle of postmodernist discussion.His 1898 tour of California where he delivered his lecture on "Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results," the start of the pragmatism controversy, also belongs to the period of the present volume.Among the distractions from philosophy are his 1896 Lowell Institute lectures on exceptional mental states and the Gifford lectures on varieties of religious experience, on which he began work in the late 1890s.His new philosophical correspondents are the Polish nationalist and messianist Wincenty Lutoslawski and Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller, the future strategist of the pragmatism controversy.

James becomes a public philosopher, whose views were sought on the problems of the day.To James's great dismay, the United States was becoming an imperial power: the Venezuela crisis and the Spanish-American War sometimes rousing James into outrage.France was being torn apart by the Dreyfus affair with James expressing strong sympathies for Dreyfus and the intellectuals.The race question was coming to the forefront, with Booker T. Washington entering the list of correspondents.His family continued to take up much of his attention.As his children grew older, they became the recipients of numerous didactic, affectionate, and playful letters from a father often at a distance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the Most Lovable Letter Writers Ever to Take Up a Pen
Although this is the fourth volume of the new edition of WJ's correspondence, in a way it is really the first, and would be a good place for a reader desiring a more intimate acquaintance with William James andhis world to start.Volumes 1-3 were devoted to the letters to and fromhis equally famous novelist brother -- an appealing idea and one probablycalculated to increase interest and sales, but perhaps questionable on morefundamental grounds.Be that as it may, as a reading experience Volume 4can scarcely be recommended too highly.William James is probably one ofthe most lovable letter writers ever to set pen to paper.In these lettersevery sentence comes alive and breathes.

James possessed to a high degreequalities of attention, powers of observation, and an adorable desire torender experience vividly.It is a cliche to say that "a world comesalive" in pages like these, but that is the feeling I have when, forexample, I read a letter written from Dresden to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.on May 15, 1868: "Wendell of my entrails!At the momentous pointwhere the last sheet ends I was interrupted by the buxom maid calling me totea and through various causes have not got back till now.As I sit by theopen window waiting for my bkfst. and look out on the line of Droschkiesdrawn up on the side of the dohna Platz, and see the coachmen, red faced,red collared, & blue coated with varnished hats, sitting in a varietyof indolent attitudes upon their boxes, one of them looking in upon me andprobably wondering what the devil I am, When I see the big sky with amonstrous white cloud battening and bulging up from behind the houses intothe blue, with a uniform coppery film drawn over cloud & blue whichmakes one anticipate a soaking day, when I see the houses opposite withtheir balconies & windows filled with flowers & greenery -- ha! onthe topmost balcony of one stands a maiden, black jaketted, redpetticoated, fair and slim under the striped awning leaning her elbow onthe rail and her peach like chin upon her rosy finger tips -- Of whomthinkest thou, maiden, up there aloft? here, *here!* beats that human heartfor wh. in the drunkenness of the morning hour thy being vaguely longs,& tremulously, but recklessly and wickedly posits elsewhere, over thosedistant housetops which thou regardest..."

This jocular yet earnestmood is perhaps the most pervasive one in these letters.Yet we also getglimpses into the deep and suicidal depressions he fought during his earlyyears.Several of the letters in this volume blossom into fascinating six-or seven-page ruminations on some of the deepest questions of philosophyand religion, for these are the years in which James, "swamped in anempirical philosophy," won through to a view of the world that foundroom for consciousness, will, and spirit.It is in his letters to (andfrom) Holmes, the physician Henry Bowditch, and his bosom friend Tom Wardthat we feel most intensely James's mind and heart grappling with the ideashe cares most deeply about.

But James is not always mulling over deepprinciples.At eighteen years of age he briefly considered becoming apainter, and began studies to that end, so it is in his character to befully alive to surface details of the scene about him.A commentary oncultural and political matters full of interesting judgments runs thoughthese letters.Readers will also come to feel they know well every memberof the James family.WJ's letters to his sister Alice are especiallyremarkable.

Though my initial reaction to the policy of extremelyrestrained annotation practiced by the editorial team was one offrustration, in the end I came to appreciate the free hand it gives us toreread letters more carefully and to feel ourselves into the wonderful andmysterious crannies of the inner life of a great human being.To this end,I recommend deferring the introduction by Giles Gunn until after they haveconcluded the letters.Professor Gunn (of UC Santa Barbara) hasinteresting and pertinent things to say -- especially about James'srelation to his father, the Swedenborgian theologian Henry James, Sr., onwhose work Gunn has written -- but there is nothing there that cannot waituntil readers have first immersed themselves in the primary texts.

Thevolumes of this series are beautiful in their craftsmanship, and it is anaesthetic as well as intellectual delight to manipulate and peruse them. This volume would make an excellent gift for a bright high school senior orcollege freshman, since the problems of youth and of finding a vocationhold a special place here -- for anyone struggling with a chronic ordebilitating illness (James is plagued with back and eye problems throughmost of these years) -- or indeed, for anyone who reads! ... Read more

Book Description
William James (1842-1910) was both a philosopher and a psychologist, nowadays most closely associated with the pragmatic theory of truth.The essays in this Companion deal with the full range of his thought, including technical philosophical issues, religious speculation, moral philosophy and political controversies of his time. New readers and nonspecialists will find this the most convenient and accessible guide to James currently available. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of James. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Terrific, in-depth study
I highly recommend this book, for anyone who has read and admired something of James' work and who wants to know what some of the brightest minds of our own time have to say about it.

A warning, though, this isnot a "popularization," a dilution, an "introduction toJames," or the Cliff Notes version!You have to have read the realthing to appreciate the commentary.To put it differently, if you knowsome Jamesian texts, you will appreciate the way this book puts them into aCON-text.

I especially recommend chapter seven, by T.L.S. Sprigge, called"James, aboutness, and his British critics."Sprigge shows whatis wrong with some common criticisms of Jamesian pragmatism, criticismsfirst posed by the two British critics mentioned in the chapter title, G.E.Moore and Bertrand Russell. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent, fascinating study
Psychologically informed, but with no psychobabble -- respectful of James, and of other members of that famous family -- but not uncritical.This is a terrific biography, which deserves many readers. ... Read more

Book Description
Demonstrates convincingly the extent to which James's psychological and philosophical perspectives also continue to be a rich resource for those specifically interested in the study of mysticism. A critically-sophisticated, yet gripping, immersion into the inner worlds of one of America's foremost thinkers.

Exploring Unseen Worlds is a critically sophisticated, yet gripping immersion into the inner worlds of one of America's foremost thinkers. It demonstrates convincingly the extent to which James's psychological and philosophical perspectives continue to be a rich resource for those specifically interested in the study of mysticism. The book focuses on James's enduring fascination with mysticism and not only unearths James's lesser-known works on mysticism, but also probes into the tacit mystical dimensions of James's personal life and uncovers the mystical implications of his decades long interest in psychical research. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Harry Potter #3 Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban
A great book that realy got me reading. ... Read more

Book Description
No philosopher's writing is more charming that James's. Few philosophers have been subjected to such intense psychological speculation as James. Fewer still have had so many non-philosophical stages to their careers. For all of these reasons, professional philosophers are wary of his philosophy, which is typically dismissed as fragmented or merely popular. Wesley Cooper opposes this traditional view, arguing instead that there is a systematic philosophy to be found in James's writings. His doctrine of pure experience is the binding thread that links his earlier psychological theorizing to his later epistemological, religious, and pragmatic concerns.

To make this case as compelling as possible, Cooper provides a two-level approach to James's philosophical system: the metaphysical level of pure experience and the empirical level of science and everyday life. Making sense of James is partly a matter of seeing that, on a given occasion, he is writing at one level or the other. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Epistemological, religious, and pragmatic matters
The Unity Of William James's Thought by Wesley Cooper (Professor of Philosophy, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada) is a uniquely presented survey and an engaging examination of the philosophical works of eclectic personality and pioneering philosophy of William James. Professor Cooper rejects the commonly held view that James' philosophy was fragmented, countering that there is indeed a logical system and doctrine to be found in James' writings and legacy. Epistemological, religious, and pragmatic matters are analyzed and discussed in this scholarly and persuasively argued treatise. The Unity Of William James's Thought is a welcome and scholarly contribution to History of Philosophy supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections. ... Read more

Book Description
This accessible introduction to the philosophy of William James reveals a significant division between a Promethean type of pragmatism and passive mysticism which Richard Gale integrates.While James' "pragmatist" persona conceives of truth and meaning as a means to control nature and make it do our bidding, his "mystic" persona eschews the use of concepts to penetrate the inner conscious core of all being, including nature at large. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Simply a MUST for all WJ Enthusiasts!
This delightful book, for which Oliver took the time to paginate references to the more generally accessible Library of America two-volume set of WJ's work, reaches out to a broad audience in the early 21st century. He touches on a number of interesting topics, including computers and Internet usage, TV shows like Beavis and Butthead and Star Trek, Richard Rorty's readings of WJ, work by Daniel Dennett, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and why George Santayana once called WJ a "barbarian." ... Read more

Amazon.com
William and Henry James are well known for their master works ofpsychology and fiction respectively, but the celebrated brothers amassed an impressivecollection of letters to one another as well. Through their copious correspondence,readers are privy to the private thoughts of these intellectual heavyweights. Sure, theirletters expound on philosophical, political, social, and cultural subjects with imaginationand wit, but more often they focus on the quotidian: health, news of friends and family,mutual praise, advice, complaints, and good-natured ribbing. What makes these 216epistles remarkable is the quality of writing and the keen observations made by thebrothers James during their wide and frequent travels across America and Europe. Theletters contained in William and Henry James: Selected Letters span more than50 years and are infused with the history and events of their era. This volume illuminateseach man's distinct personality and reveals the relationship the two crafted out of equalparts of criticism and support. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A humanistic look at a human-in-full!
William James was as incongruent as his philosophy; and I don't mean this sardonically. He was a lover both of art and science; both of the unity of the whole and the plurality of parts; both of the rationalistic and the sentimental parts of life. It is always suprising to me not that he could be all these things, but how well he balanced them all. Whenever one trait would come to the forefront, James almost instinctively checked it with an equal and opposite impulse.

This book gives us a front-row seat to watch James's balancing act up close! By my estimates, a little over half of this book's text is letters either from or to James (by frinecs such as Perice, Holmes, Dewey, Bergson, and his brother Henry). The author does a good job weaving these letters together with biographical infromation; with this mixture, he does two things. He puts James's life in the context of his philosophy (philosophies?) and puts his philosophy(-ies)in the context of his life. The best part, to me, was the author's ability to discouse on each book James wrote integrating its philosophy with the events of James's world at the time.

As with most biographies, this one does have a tendency (too much so in my opiinion) to psychologize in ways that, to me, seem stretching. The last two chapters, for instance, on James's "Morbid Traits" and his "Benign Traits" are like a psychological summary of James, often identifying traits James posessed as ones that are hinted at in his works (particularly the Varieties of Religous Experience). While sections like these can be interesting, they can also (as these two are) become overkill. I read the rest of the book (which psychologizes but keeps it to a minimum) and skimmed these two chapters.

Otherwise, this s a great biography. Not so intellectual as to be inaccessable to general readers, but not to watered down that we don't both learn new things about James and the philosophic landscape on every page. To put it strangely, to me, James is like a great jazz ballad - the more you come into contact with its intricacies, the more you grow to cherish it. And, I suppose that James is like jazz - emphasizing the individuality of the parts rather than a pre-determined whole. And like a good jazz tune, James's philosophy was never finished - always open ended.

So go read the book already.

The Original, Definitive Text on William James
Perry's text is the original, definitive expression of William James'philosophy, outside of the writings of James -- a founder father of thephilosophical genre of pragmatism, contemporary American social thought andmodern psychology -- himself. Despite the multitude of books written on andabout James and his ideas since, no serious student of William James shouldbe without or ignore this one.It is the Genesis-text, as it were, ofJamesean studies.

Perry organizes and effectively analyzes the wholearray of James' diverse writings (including reprints of some tremendous andnow otherwise difficult to find selections), enabling any reader to obtaina comprehensive and detailed understanding of James' philosophy.At thesame time, Perry infects his analysis with a solid and enduringillustration of James's personality, without ever becoming either trite ormerely philosophical biography.

Perry's own skills as a writer areevident in such passages as the following, which is a most memorabledescription of the breadth and depth of Jame's character:"[James]called himself empiricist, pluralist, pragmatist, individualist, butwhenever he did so he began at once to hanker after the fleshpots ofrationalism, monism, intellectualism, socialist.He liked body in hisphilosophizing, and he hated to leave out anything that had either flavoror nutritive value.He was much more afraid of thinness than he was ofinconsistency."

In one or two places, the serious James scholarmight have a difference of opinion with Perry's analysis, whetherhistorical or philosophical, but all philosophy texts are susceptible tosuch criticism, and Perry's is less susceptible than most.Indeed, it willbe by treating Perry's text as a sound starting place that theinexperienced or unfamiliar reader might become such an adept analyst andcapable of interpreting James' life, character and thought so well.

The Original, Definitive Text on William James
Perry's text is the original, definitive expression of William James'philosophy, outside of the writings of James -- a founder father of thephilosophical genre of pragmatism, contemporary American social thought andmodern psychology -- himself. Despite the multitude of books written on andabout James and his ideas since, no serious student of William James shouldbe without or ignore this one.It is the Genesis-text, as it were, ofJamesean studies.

Perry organizes and effectively analyzes the wholearray of James' diverse writings (including reprints of some tremendous andnow otherwise difficult to find selections), enabling any reader to obtaina comprehensive and detailed understanding of James' philosophy.At thesame time, Perry infects his analysis with a solid and enduringillustration of James's personality, without ever becoming either trite ormerely philosophical biography.

Perry's own skills as a writer areevident in such passages as the following, which is a most memorabledescription of the breadth and depth of Jame's character:"[James]called himself empiricist, pluralist, pragmatist, individualist, butwhenever he did so he began at once to hanker after the fleshpots ofrationalism, monism, intellectualism, socialist.He liked body in hisphilosophizing, and he hated to leave out anything that had either flavoror nutritive value.He was much more afraid of thinness than he was ofinconsistency."

In one or two places, the serious James scholarmight have a difference of opinion with Perry's analysis, whetherhistorical or philosophical, but all philosophy texts are susceptible tosuch criticism, and Perry's is less susceptible than most.Indeed, it willbe by treating Perry's text as a sound starting place that theinexperienced or unfamiliar reader might become such an adept analyst andcapable of interpreting James' life, character and thought so well. ... Read more

Book Description
Recently, the work of philosopher-psychologist William James has undergone something of a renaissance. In this book, William Gavin argues that James's plea for the "reinstatement of the vague" to its proper place in our experience should be regarded as a seminal metaphor for this thought in general. The concept of vagueness applies to areas of human experience not captured by facts that can be scientifically determined nor by ideas that can be formulated in words. In areas as seemingly diverse as psychology, religion, language, and metaphysics, James continually highlights the importance of the ambiguous, the contextual, the pluralistic, or the uncertain over the foundational. Indeed, observes the author, only in a vague, unfinished world can the human self, fragile as it is, have the possibility of making a difference or exercising the will to believe.

Taking James's plea seriously, Gavin looks to the work of other philosophers—including Peirce, Marx, Dewey, and, to a lesser extent, Rorty and Derrida—and shows that a version of James's position is central to their thought. Finally, Gavin provides a pragmatic upshot of James's plea, reaffirming the importance of the vague in two concrete areas: the doctor-patient relationship in medicine and the creating and experiencing of modern art. ... Read more

Book Description
This book offers a new perspective on the philosopher, psychologist, and religious thinker William James. Using biographical materials, manuscripts, and analysis, the author develops the first systematic reading of James' world-view of radical empiricism, which sought to take concrete, immediate experience as the basis for understanding the world. The book offers close readings of key works by James. Lamberth argues that religion and philosophy themselves are intimately related conceptually for James; and concludes by relating James' conceptions to present debates concerning truth, religious experience, and theological understandings of the divine.Download Description
William James is frequently considered one of America's most important philosophers, as well as a foundational thinker for the study of religion. Despite his reputation as the founder of pragmatism, he is rarely considered a serious philosopher or religious thinker. In this new interpretation David Lamberth argues that James's major contribution was to develop a systematic metaphysics of experience integrally related to his developing pluralistic and social religious ideas. Lamberth systematically interprets James's radically empiricist world-view and argues for an early dating (1895) for his commitment to the metaphysics of radical empiricism. He offers a close reading of Varieties of Religious Experience; and concludes by connecting James's ideas about experience, pluralism, and truth to current debates in philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and theology, suggesting James's functional, experiential metaphysics as a conceptual aide in bridging the social and interpretive with the immediate and concrete while avoiding naive realism. ... Read more