View source for William James

{{Short description|American philosopher and psychologist (1842–1910)}}
{{About|the philosopher and psychologist|other people with the same name}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox philosopher
 | region           = [[Western philosophy]]
 | era              = [[19th-century philosophy|19th-]]/[[20th-century philosophy]]
 | image            = William James b1842c.jpg
 | caption          = James in 1903
 | alt              = A black and white photograph of James
 | name             = William James
 | birth_date       = {{Birth date|1842|1|11}}
 | birth_place      = [[New York City]], U.S.
 | death_date       = {{Death date and age|1910|8|26|1842|1|11}}
 | death_place      = [[Tamworth, New Hampshire]], U.S.
 | relatives        = [[Henry James Sr.]] (father)<br />[[Henry James]] (brother)<br />[[Alice James]] (sister)
 | alma_mater       = [[Harvard University]]
 | institutions     = Harvard University
 | school_tradition = {{hlist | [[Pragmatism]] | [[functional psychology]] | [[radical empiricism]]}}
 | main_interests   = {{hlist | [[Pragmatism]] | [[psychology]] | [[philosophy of religion]] | [[epistemology]] | [[meaning (linguistics)|meaning]]}}
 | notable_ideas    = {{hlist | [[Will to believe doctrine]] | [[crisis of self-surrender]] | [[pragmatic theory of truth]] | [[radical empiricism]] | [[James–Lange theory]] of emotion | [[psychologist's fallacy]] | [[ten percent of the brain myth|brain usage theory]] | [[soft determinism]] | dilemma of determinism | [[stream of consciousness]] | [[#James' theory of the self|James's theory of the self]] | the term ''[[multiverse]]''}}
 | notable_students = {{hlist | [[Mary Whiton Calkins]] | [[Morris Raphael Cohen]] | [[W. E. B. Du Bois]] | [[G. Stanley Hall]] | [[Edwin Holt]] |  [[Learned Hand]] | [[Horace Kallen]] | [[Walter Lippmann]] | [[Alain Locke]] | [[C. I. Lewis]] | [[Ralph Barton Perry]] | [[Theodore Roosevelt]] | [[George Santayana]] | [[Edwin Diller Starbuck]] | [[Boris Sidis]] | [[Gertrude Stein]]}}
}}

'''William James''' (January 11, 1842&nbsp;– August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a [[psychology]] course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th century, one of the most influential philosophers and is often dubbed the "father of American psychology."<ref>T. L. Brink (2008). ''Psychology: A Student Friendly Approach''. [http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/TLBrink_PSYCH01.pdf "Unit One: The Definition and History of Psychology"]. p. 10.</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=June 1, 1992 |title=William James: Writings 1878–1899 |url=http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=65 |access-date=September 21, 2013 |publisher=[[The Library of America]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=February 1, 1987 |title=William James: Writings 1902–1910 |url=http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=66 |access-date=September 21, 2013 |publisher=The Library of America}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Dr. Megan E. Bradley |title=William James |url=http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/williamjames.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141124184737/http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/williamjames.html |archive-date=November 24, 2014 |access-date=September 21, 2013 |work=PSYography |publisher=Faculty.frostburg.edu}}</ref>

Born into a wealthy family, James was the son of the [[Swedenborgian]] theologian [[Henry James Sr.]] and the brother of both the prominent novelist [[Henry James]] and the diarist [[Alice James]]. James trained as a physician and taught anatomy at Harvard, but never practised medicine. Instead, he pursued his interests in psychology and then philosophy. He wrote widely on many topics, including [[epistemology]], education, [[metaphysics]], [[psychology]], religion, and [[mysticism]]. Among his most influential books are ''[[The Principles of Psychology]]'', a groundbreaking text in the field of psychology; ''[[Essays in Radical Empiricism]]'', an important text in philosophy; and ''[[The Varieties of Religious Experience]]'', an investigation of different forms of [[religious experience]], including theories on [[mind-cure]].<ref name=James>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |date=2009 |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |publisher=The Library of America |pages=74–120 |isbn=978-1-59853-062-9}}</ref>
 
Along with [[Charles Sanders Peirce]], James established the philosophical school known as [[pragmatism]], and is also cited as one of the founders of [[functional psychology]]. A ''[[Review of General Psychology]]'' analysis, published in 2002, ranked James as the 14th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Haggbloom |first1=Steven J. |last2=Warnick |first2=Renee |last3=Warnick |first3=Jason E. |last4=Jones |first4=Vinessa K. |last5=Yarbrough |first5=Gary L. |last6=Russell |first6=Tenea M. |last7=Borecky |first7=Chris M. |last8=McGahhey |first8=Reagan |last9=Powell III |first9=John L. |last10=Beavers |first10=Jamie |last11=Monte |first11=Emmanuelle |year=2002 |display-authors=4 |title=The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century |journal=Review of General Psychology |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=139–152 |url=http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug02/eminent.aspx |doi=10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139 |s2cid=145668721}}</ref> A survey published in ''[[American Psychologist]]'' in 1991 ranked James's reputation in second place,<ref>J. H. Korn, R. Davis, S. F. Davis: "Historians' and chairpersons' judgements of eminence among psychologists". ''American Psychologist'', 1991, Volume 46, pp. 789–792.</ref> after [[Wilhelm Wundt]], who is widely regarded as the founder of experimental psychology.<ref name="plato.stanford.edu">[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wilhelm-wundt/ "Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt"] in ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''.</ref><ref>Tom Butler-Bowdon: [https://books.google.com/books?id=wfjB9Blnk8kC ''50 Psychology Classics'']. Nicholas Brealey Publishing 2007. {{ISBN|1857884736}}. p. 2.</ref> James also developed the philosophical perspective known as [[radical empiricism]]. James's work has influenced philosophers and academics such as [[Alan Watts]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.organism.earth/library/document/turning-the-head-or-turning-on | title=Turning the Head, or Turning on }}</ref> [[W.&nbsp;E.&nbsp;B. Du Bois]], [[Edmund Husserl]], [[Bertrand Russell]], [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]], [[Hilary Putnam]], and [[Richard Rorty]].<ref name=SEP>{{cite encyclopedia |title=William James |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |publisher=[[Center for the Study of Language and Information]] (CSLI), [[Stanford University]] |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/ |access-date=September 21, 2013}}</ref>

== Early life ==
[[File:Houghton MS Am 1092 (1185) - William James in Brazil, 1865.jpg|thumb|upright|right|William James in Brazil, 1865]]

William James was born at the [[Astor House]] in New York City on January 11, 1842. He was the son of [[Henry James Sr.]], an independently wealthy [[Swedenborgian]] theologian well-acquainted with the literary and intellectual elites of his day. The intellectual brilliance of the James family milieu and the remarkable [[Epistolary novel|epistolary]] talents of several of its members have made them a subject of continuing interest to historians, biographers, and critics.

William James received an eclectic transatlantic education, developing fluency in both German and French.  Education in the James household encouraged [[cosmopolitanism]]. The family made two trips to Europe while James was still a child, setting a pattern that resulted in thirteen more European journeys during his life. James wished to pursue painting; his early artistic bent led to an apprenticeship in the studio of [[William Morris Hunt]] in [[Newport, Rhode Island]], but his father urged him to become a physician instead. Since this did not align with James's interests, he stated that he wanted to specialize in [[physiology]]. Once he figured this was also not what he wanted to do, he announced he was going to specialize in the nervous system and psychology. James then switched in 1861 to scientific studies at the [[Lawrence Scientific School]] of [[Harvard College]].

In his early adulthood, James suffered from a variety of physical ailments, including those of the eyes, back, stomach, and skin. He was also [[tone deafness|tone deaf]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Sacks |first=Oliver |year=2008 |title=Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |page=xiii |isbn=978-1-4000-3353-9}}</ref>
He was subject to a variety of psychological symptoms which were diagnosed at the time as [[neurasthenia]], and which included periods of depression during which he contemplated suicide for months on end. 

Two younger brothers, Garth Wilkinson ([[Wilkie James|Wilkie]]) and Robertson (Bob), fought in the American [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. James himself was an advocate of peace. He suggested that instead of youth serving in the military, they serve the public in a term of service "to get the childishness knocked out of them." He took up medical studies at [[Harvard Medical School]] in 1864. He took a break in the spring of 1865 to join naturalist [[Louis Agassiz]] on a [[Thayer Expedition|scientific expedition]] up the [[Amazon River]], but aborted his trip after eight months, as he suffered bouts of severe [[seasickness]] and mild [[smallpox]]. His studies were interrupted once again due to illness in April 1867. He traveled to Germany in search of a cure and remained there until November 1868; at that time he was 26 years old. During this period, he began to publish; reviews of his works appeared in literary periodicals such as the ''[[North American Review]]''.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

James finally earned his [[Medical Doctor|MD]] degree in June 1869 but he never practiced medicine. What he called his "soul-sickness" would only be resolved in 1872, after an extended period of philosophical searching. He married Alice Gibbens in 1878. In 1882 he joined the [[Theosophical Society]].<ref>Antony Lysy, "William James, Theosophist", ''The Quest'' Volume 88, number 6, November–December 2000.</ref>

James's time in Germany proved intellectually fertile, helping him find that his true interests lay not in medicine but in philosophy and psychology. Later, in 1902 he would write: "I originally studied medicine in order to be a physiologist, but I drifted into psychology and philosophy from a sort of fatality. I never had any philosophic instruction, the first lecture on psychology I ever heard being the first I ever gave".<ref>[[Ralph Barton Perry]], ''The Thought and Character of William James'', vol. 1, (1935), 1996 edition: {{ISBN|0-8265-1279-8}}, p. 228.</ref>

== Career == 
He interacted with a wide array of writers and scholars throughout his life, including his godfather [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], his godson [[William James Sidis]], as well as [[Charles Sanders Peirce]], [[Bertrand Russell]], [[Josiah Royce]], [[Ernst Mach]], [[John Dewey]], [[Macedonio Fernández]], [[Walter Lippmann]], [[Mark Twain]], [[Horatio Alger]], [[G. Stanley Hall]], [[Henri Bergson]], [[Carl Jung]], [[Jane Addams]], and [[Sigmund Freud]].

James spent almost all of his academic career at Harvard. He was appointed instructor in [[physiology]] for the spring 1873 term, instructor in [[anatomy]] and physiology in 1873, assistant professor of psychology in 1876, assistant [[Harvard University Department of Philosophy|professor of philosophy]] in 1881, full professor in 1885, endowed chair in psychology in 1889, return to philosophy in 1897, and emeritus professor of philosophy in 1907.

James studied medicine, physiology, and biology, and began to teach in those subjects, but was drawn to the scientific study of the human mind at a time when psychology was constituting itself as a science.  James's acquaintance with the work of figures like [[Hermann Helmholtz]] in Germany and [[Pierre Janet]] in France facilitated his introduction of courses in scientific psychology at [[Harvard University]].  He taught his first [[experimental psychology]] course at Harvard in the 1875–1876 academic year.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Duane P. Schultz |author2=Sydney Ellen Schultz |date=March 22, 2007 |title=A History of Modern Psychology |publisher=Cengage Learning |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ge36EniJWwQC&pg=PA185 |pages=185– |isbn=978-0-495-09799-0}}</ref>

During his Harvard years, James joined in philosophical discussions and debates with [[Charles Sanders Peirce|Charles Peirce]], [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.|Oliver Wendell Holmes]], and [[Chauncey Wright]] that evolved into a lively group informally known as [[The Metaphysical Club]] in 1872. [[Louis Menand]] (2001) suggested that this Club provided a foundation for American intellectual thought for decades to come.  James joined the [[American Anti-Imperialist League|Anti-Imperialist League]] in 1898, in opposition to the United States annexation of the Philippines.

[[File:WilliamJames JosiahRoyce ca1910 Harvard.png|thumb|William James and [[Josiah Royce]], near James's country home in Chocorua, New Hampshire in September 1903. James's daughter Peggy took the picture. On hearing the camera click, James cried out: "Royce, you're being photographed! Look out! I say ''Damn the Absolute!"'']]

Among James's students at Harvard University were [[Boris Sidis]], [[Theodore Roosevelt]], [[George Santayana]], [[W. E. B. Du Bois]], [[G. Stanley Hall]], [[Ralph Barton Perry]], [[Gertrude Stein]], [[Horace Kallen]], [[Morris Raphael Cohen]], [[Walter Lippmann]], [[Alain Locke]], [[C. I. Lewis]], and [[Mary Whiton Calkins]]. Antiquarian bookseller [[Gabriel Wells]] tutored under him at Harvard in the late 1890s.<ref>{{cite web |last=Schmidt |first=Barbara |title=A History of and Guide to Uniform Editions of Mark Twain's Works |publisher=twainquotes.com |url=http://www.twainquotes.com/UniformEds/UniformEdsCh29.html |access-date=October 1, 2014}}</ref>

His students enjoyed his brilliance and his manner of teaching was free of personal arrogance. They remembered him for his kindness and humble attitude.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thorndike |first=Edward |year=1910 |title=Communications and discussions: William James |journal=Journal of Educational Psychology |volume=1 |issue=8 |pages=473–474 |doi=10.1037/h0075718}}</ref>

Following his January 1907 retirement from Harvard, James continued to write and lecture, publishing ''Pragmatism'', ''A Pluralistic Universe'', and ''The Meaning of Truth''.  James was increasingly afflicted with cardiac pain during his last years.  It worsened in 1909 while he worked on a philosophy text (unfinished but posthumously published as ''Some Problems in Philosophy'').  

James sailed to Europe in the spring of 1910 to take experimental treatments for his heart ailment that proved unsuccessful, and returned home on August 18. His heart failed on August 26, 1910, at his home in [[Chocorua, New Hampshire]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Capps |first=Donald |year=2015 |title=The Religious Life: The Insights of William James |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MxLsCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 |via=Google Books |isbn=978-1-4982-1994-5}}</ref>
He was buried in the family plot in Cambridge Cemetery, [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].

He was one of the strongest proponents of the school of [[Functional psychology|functionalism]] in psychology and of [[pragmatism]] in philosophy.  He was a founder of the [[American Society for Psychical Research]], as well as a champion of alternative approaches to healing. In 1884 and 1885 he became president of the British Society for Psychical Research for which he wrote in ''[[Mind (journal)|Mind]]'' and in the ''[[Psychological Review]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sommer |first=Andreas |date=April 1, 2012 |title=Psychical research and the origins of American psychology |journal=Hist Hum Sci |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=23–44 |doi=10.1177/0952695112439376 |pmc=3552602 |pmid=23355763}}</ref>

In an empirical study by Haggbloom ''et al.'' using six criteria such as citations and recognition, James was found to be the 14th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Haggbloom, S. J. |year=2002 |display-authors=etal |title=The 100 Most Eminent Psychologists of the 20th Century |journal=Review of General Psychology |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=139–152 |url=http://htpprints.yorku.ca/archive/00000064/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060429015400/http://htpprints.yorku.ca/archive/00000064/ |archive-date=April 29, 2006 |doi=10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139 |s2cid=145668721}}. Haggbloom ''et al.'' combined three quantitative variables: citations in professional journals, citations in textbooks, and nominations in a survey given to members of the [[Association for Psychological Science]], with three qualitative variables (converted to quantitative scores): [[National Academy of Sciences]] (NAS) membership, American Psychological Association (APA) President or recipient of the APA Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, and surname used as an eponym. Then the list was rank ordered.</ref>

== Family ==
William James was the son of Henry James (Senior) of Albany, and Mary Robertson Walsh. He had four siblings: [[Henry James|Henry]] (the novelist), Garth Wilkinson, Robertson, and [[Alice James|Alice]].<ref name=AMB>{{Cite AMB1920|wstitle=James, William}}</ref>
William became engaged to Alice Howe Gibbens on May 10, 1878; they were married on July 10. They had 5 children: [[Henry James (biographer)|Henry]] (May 18, 1879 – 1947), William (June 17, 1882 – 1961), Herman (1884, died in infancy), Margaret (March 1887 – 1950) and Alexander (December 22, 1890 – 1946).

Most of William James's ancestors arrived in America from Scotland or Ireland in the 18th century. Many of them settled in eastern New York or New Jersey. All of James's ancestors were Protestant, well educated, and of character. Within their communities, they worked as farmers, merchants, and traders who were all heavily involved with their church. The last ancestor to arrive in America was William James's paternal grandfather also named William James. He came to America from [[Ballyjamesduff]], County Cavan, Ireland in 1789 when he was 18 years old. There is suspicion that he fled to America because his family tried to force him into the ministry. After traveling to America with no money left, he found a job at a store as a clerk. After continuously working, he was able to own the store himself. As he traveled west to find more job opportunities, he was involved in various jobs such as the salt industry and the Erie Canal project. After being a significant worker in the Erie Canal project and helping Albany become a major center of trade, he then became the first vice-president of the Albany Savings Bank. William James (grandfather) went from being a poor Irish immigrant to one of the richest men in New York. After his death, his son Henry James inherited his fortune and lived in Europe and the United States searching for the meaning of life.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

Of James' five children, two—Margaret and Alexander—are known to have had children. Descendants of Alexander are still living.

== Writings ==
William James wrote voluminously throughout his life. A non-exhaustive bibliography of his writings, compiled by [[John J. McDermott (philosopher)|John McDermott]], is 47 pages long.<ref>John J. McDermott, ''The Writings of William James: A Comprehensive Edition'', University of Chicago Press, 1977 revised edition, {{ISBN|0-226-39188-4}}, pp. 812–858.</ref>

He gained widespread recognition with his monumental ''[[The Principles of Psychology]]'' (1890), totaling twelve hundred pages in two volumes, which took twelve years to complete.  ''Psychology: The Briefer Course'', was an 1892 abridgement designed as a less rigorous introduction to the field. These works criticised both the English [[associationist]] school and the [[Hegel]]ianism of his day as competing dogmatisms of little explanatory value, and sought to re-conceive the human mind as inherently purposive and selective.

[[President Jimmy Carter's Moral Equivalent of War Speech]], on April 17, 1977, equating the United States' [[1970s energy crisis]], oil crisis, and the changes and sacrifices Carter's proposed plans would require with the "moral equivalent of war", may have borrowed its title and much of its theme from James's classic essay "The Moral Equivalent of War" derived from his last speech, delivered at Stanford University in 1906, and published in 1910, in which "James considered one of the classic problems of politics: how to sustain political unity and civic virtue in the absence of war or a credible threat", and which "sounds a rallying cry for service in the interests of the individual and the nation".<ref>[http://www.constitution.org/wj/meow_intro.htm William James' The Moral Equivalent of War Introduction by John Roland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216220326/https://www.constitution.org/wj/meow_intro.htm |date=December 16, 2019 }}. Constitution.org. Retrieved on August 28, 2011.</ref><ref>[http://www.constitution.org/wj/meow.htm William James' The Moral Equivalent of War&nbsp;– 1906] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526203149/https://www.constitution.org/wj/meow.htm |date=May 26, 2020 }}. Constitution.org. Retrieved on August 28, 2011.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Harrison Ross Steeves |author2=Frank Humphrey Ristine |year=1913 |title=Representative essays in modern thought: a basis for composition |publisher=American Book Company |pages=[https://archive.org/details/representativee01steegoog/page/n537 519]– |url=https://archive.org/details/representativee01steegoog |via=[[Internet Archive]] |access-date=August 28, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Moral Equivalent of War |journal=McClure's Magazine |date=August 1910 |pages=463–468 |last1=James |first1=William }}</ref>

In simple terms, his philosophy and writings can be understood as an emphasis on "fruits over roots," a reflection of his pragmatist tendency to focus on the practical consequences of ideas rather than become mired in unproductive metaphysical arguments or fruitless attempts to ground truth in abstract ways. Ever the empiricist, James believes we are better off evaluating the fruitfulness of ideas by testing them in the common ground of lived experience.<ref>Howard, Jeffrey (June 24, 2020). "The Power of One Idea,"[https://erraticus.co/2020/06/24/john-kaag-sick-souls-healthy-minds-william-james-pragmatism/] ''Erraticus''. Retrieved March 8, 2023.</ref>

James was remembered as one of America's representative thinkers, psychologist, and philosopher. William James was also an influential writer on religion, psychical research, and self-help.

== Epistemology ==
[[File:William James - John La Farge.jpg|thumb|Portrait of William James by [[John La Farge]], {{Circa|1859}}]]
James defined [[truth|true]] beliefs as those that prove useful to the believer. His [[pragmatic theory of truth]] was a synthesis of [[correspondence theory of truth]] and [[coherence theory of truth]], with an added dimension. Truth is verifiable to the extent that thoughts and statements correspond with actual things, as well as the extent to which they "hang together", or cohere, as pieces of a puzzle might fit together; these are in turn verified by the observed results of the application of an idea to actual practice.<ref name="PragTruth">James, William. 1907. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060715031834/http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~lward/James/James_1907/James_1907_06.html Pragmatism's Conception of Truth]" (lecture 6). pp. 76–91 in ''Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking''. New York: [[Longman]] Green and Co. Archived from the [http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~lward/James/James_1907/James_1907_06.html original] July 15, 2006.</ref><ref>"[[Pragmatic theory of truth|Pragmatic Theory of Truth]]." pp. 427–428 in ''[[Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'' 6. London: [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]]. 1969.</ref>{{Blockquote|text=The most ancient parts of truth&nbsp;… also once were plastic. They also were called true for human reasons. They also mediated between still earlier truths and what in those days were novel observations. Purely objective truth, truth in whose establishment the function of giving human satisfaction in marrying previous parts of experience with newer parts played no role whatsoever, is nowhere to be found. The reasons why we call things true is the reason why they are true, for "to be true" means only to perform this marriage-function.|author=|title="[[Pragmatic theory of truth|Pragmatism's Conception of Truth]]," ''Pragmatism'' (1907), p. 83.|source=}}

James held a world view in line with [[pragmatism]], declaring that the value of any truth was utterly dependent upon its use to the person who held it. Additional tenets of James's pragmatism include the view that the world is a mosaic of diverse experiences that can only be properly interpreted and understood through an application of "[[radical empiricism]]". ''Radical empiricism'', not related to the everyday [[Empiricism|scientific empiricism]], asserts that the world and experience can never be halted for an entirely objective analysis; the mind of the observer and the act of observation affect any empirical approach to truth. The mind, its experiences, and nature are inseparable. James's emphasis on diversity as the default human condition—over and against duality, especially [[Hegelianism|Hegelian]] dialectical duality—has maintained a strong influence in American culture. James's description of the [[Mind-world relation|mind-world]] connection, which he described in terms of a "[[stream of consciousness (psychology)|stream of consciousness]]", had a direct and significant impact on [[avant-garde]] and [[modernist]] literature and art, notably in the case of [[James Joyce]].

In "What Pragmatism Means" (1906), James writes that the central point of his own doctrine of truth is, in brief:<ref name=":2">William James. 1907 [1906]. "[https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/James/James_1907/James_1907_02.html What Pragmatism Means]" (lecture 2). pp. 17–32 in ''Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking''. New York: [[Longman]] Green and Co. via The Mead Project, [[Brock University]] (2007). [https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/james.htm Available] via [[Marxists Internet Archive|Marxist Internet Archive]] (2005).</ref>
<blockquote>Truths emerge from facts, but they dip forward into facts again and add to them; which facts again create or reveal new truth (the word is indifferent) and so on indefinitely. The "facts" themselves meanwhile are not true. They simply are. Truth is the function of the beliefs that start and terminate among them.</blockquote>[[Richard Rorty]] made the contested claim that James did not mean to give a theory of truth with this statement and that we should not regard it as such. However, other pragmatism scholars such as [[Susan Haack]] and Howard Mounce do not share Rorty's [[Instrumentalism|instrumentalist]] interpretation of James.<ref>{{cite book |author=H. O. Mounce |year=1997 |title=The two pragmatisms: from Peirce to Rorty |publisher=Psychology Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f5dQRUqk3QUC |isbn=978-0-415-15283-9}}</ref>

In ''The Meaning of Truth'' (1909), James seems to speak of truth in relativistic terms, in reference to critics of pragmatism: "The critic's trouble&nbsp;… seems to come from his taking the word 'true' irrelatively, whereas the pragmatist always means 'true for him who experiences the workings.'"<ref>James, William. 1909. ''The Meaning of Truth''. New York: [[Longman]]s, Green, & Co. p. 177.</ref>
However, James responded to critics accusing him of [[relativism]], [[scepticism]], or [[agnosticism]], and of believing only in relative truths. To the contrary, he supported an [[epistemological realism]] position.{{efn-lr|See his ''Defense of a Pragmatic Notion of Truth'', written to counter criticisms of his ''Pragmatism's Conception of Truth'' (1907) lecture.}}

=== Pragmatism and "cash value" ===
''[[Pragmatism]]'' is a philosophical approach that seeks to both define truth and resolve metaphysical issues. William James demonstrates an application of his method in the form of a simple story:<ref name="auto3">{{Cite book |last=Gunn |first=Giles |year=2000 |title=William James: Pragmatism and Other Writings |publisher=Penguin Group |pages=24–40}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> <blockquote>A live squirrel supposed to be clinging on one side of a tree-trunk; while over against the tree's opposite side a human being was imagined to stand. This human witness tries to get sight of the squirrel by moving rapidly round the tree, but no matter how fast he goes, the squirrel moves as fast in the opposite direction, and always keeps the tree between himself and the man, so that never a glimpse of him is caught.&nbsp;The resultant metaphysical problem now is this: ''Does the man go round the squirrel or not?''</blockquote>James solves the issue by making a distinction between ''practical'' meaning. That is, the distinction between meanings of "round". ''Round'' in the sense that the man occupies the space north, east, south, and west of the squirrel; and ''round'' in the sense that the man occupies the space facing the squirrel's belly, back and sides. Depending on what the debaters meant by "going round", the answer would be clear. From this example James derives the definition of the ''pragmatic method'': to settle metaphysical disputes, one must simply make a distinction of practical consequences between notions, then, the answer is either clear, or the "dispute is idle".<ref name="auto3" />

Both James and his colleague, [[Charles Sanders Peirce]], coined the term "[[cash value]]":<ref>{{Cite web |last=Burch |first=Robert |date=June 22, 2001 |title=Charles Sanders Peirce |website=Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107072647/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/ |access-date=December 9, 2019 |archive-date=January 7, 2020}}</ref>
<blockquote>When he said that the whole meaning of a (clear) conception consists in the entire set of its practical consequences, he had in mind that a meaningful conception must have some sort of experiential "cash value," must somehow be capable of being related to some sort of collection of possible empirical observations under specifiable conditions.</blockquote>A statement's truthfulness is verifiable through its correspondence to reality, and its observable effects of putting the idea to practice. For example, James extends his Pragmatism to the hypothesis of God: "On pragmatic principles, if the hypothesis of God works satisfactorily in the widest sense of the word, it is true.&nbsp;… The problem is to build it out and determine it so that it will combine satisfactorily with all the other working truths."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gunn |first=Giles |year=2000 |title=William James: Pragmatism and Other Writings |publisher=Penguin Group |pages=119–132}}</ref>
From this, we also know that "new" truths must also correspond to already existent truths as well.

From the introduction by [[Bruce Kuklick]] (1981, p. xiv) to James's ''Pragmatism'':

<blockquote>James went on to apply the pragmatic method to the epistemological problem of truth. He would seek the meaning of "true" by examining how the idea functioned in our lives. A belief was true, he said, if it worked for all of us, and guided us expeditiously through our semihospitable world. James was anxious to uncover what true beliefs amounted to in human life, what their "cash value" was, and what consequences they led to. A belief was not a mental entity which somehow mysteriously corresponded to an external reality if the belief were true. Beliefs were ways of acting with reference to a precarious environment, and to say they were true was to say they were efficacious in this environment. In this sense the pragmatic theory of truth applied Darwinian ideas in philosophy; it made survival the test of intellectual as well as [[fitness (biology)|biological fitness]].</blockquote>

James's book of lectures on pragmatism is arguably the most influential book of [[American philosophy]]. The lectures inside depict his position on the subject. In his sixth lecture, he begins by defining truth as "agreement with reality".<ref name="PragTruth" /> With this, James warns that there will be disagreements between pragmatics and intellectualists over the concepts of "agreement" and "reality", the last reasoning before thoughts settle and become autonomous for us. However, he contrasts this by supporting a more practical interpretation that: a true idea or belief is one that we can blend with our thinking so that it can be justified through experiences.<ref name="IEP">{{cite web |last=Pomerleau |first=Wayne |title=William James (1842–1910) |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=IEP |url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/james-o/ |access-date=April 28, 2018}}</ref>{{blockquote|If theological ideas prove to have a value for concrete life, they will be true, for pragmatism, in the sense of being good for so much. For how much more they are true, will depend entirely on their relations to the other truths that also have to be acknowledged.|''Pragmatism'' (1907), p. 29}}

Whereby the agreement of truths with "reality" results in useful outcomes, "the 'reality' with which truths must agree has three dimensions":<ref name="IEP" /><ref name="SEP" />

# "matters of fact";
# "relations of ideas"; and
# "the entire set of other truths to which we are committed".

According to James's pragmatic approach to belief, knowledge is commonly viewed as a justified and true belief. James will accept a view if its conception of truth is analyzed and justified through interpretation, pragmatically. As a matter of fact, James's whole philosophy is of productive beliefs.

Belief in anything involves conceiving of how it is real, but disbelief is the result when we dismiss something because it contradicts another thing we think of as real. In his "Sentiment of Rationality", saying that crucial beliefs are not known is to doubt their truth, even if it seems possible. James names four "postulates of rationality" as valuable but unknowable: God, immorality, freedom, and moral duty.<ref name="IEP" /><ref>James, William. 1897 [1882] "The Sentiment of Rationality." ''The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy''. New York: [[Longman]]s, Green & Co.</ref>

In contrast, the weak side to pragmatism is that the best justification for a claim is whether it works. However, a claim that does not have outcomes cannot be justified, or unjustified, because it will not make a difference.

{{blockquote|"There can be no difference that doesn't make a difference."|''Pragmatism'' (1907), p. 45|title=|source=}}

When James moves on to then state that pragmatism's goal is ultimately "to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences", he does not clarify what he means by "practical consequences."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=James |first=William |date=2000 |title=Pragmatism and other writings |orig-year=1842–1910 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-043735-5 |oclc=943305535}}</ref>
On the other hand, his friend, colleague, and another key founder in establishing pragmatist beliefs, [[Charles Sanders Peirce|Charles S. Peirce]], dives deeper in defining these consequences. For Peirce, "the consequences we are concerned with are ''general'' and ''intelligible''."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Legg |first=Catherine |date=March 14, 2019 |title=Pragmatism |website=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/ |access-date=November 12, 2019}}</ref>
He further explains this in his 1878 paper "How to Make Ideas Clear," when he introduces a maxim that allows one to interpret consequences as grades of clarity and conception.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Atkin |first=Albert |title=Charles Sanders Peirce: Pragmatism |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/peircepr/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710194332/https://www.iep.utm.edu/PeircePr/ |access-date=December 8, 2019 |archive-date=July 10, 2019}}</ref>
Describing how everything is derived from perception, Peirce uses the example of the [[Transubstantiation|doctrine of transubstantiation]] to show exactly how he defines practical consequences. [[Protestants]] interpret the bread and wine of the [[Eucharist]] is flesh and blood in only a subjective sense, while [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] would label them as actual, and divinely mystical properties of flesh via the "body, blood, soul, and divinity", even with the physical properties remaining as bread and wine in appearance. But to everyone, there can be no knowledge of the wine and bread of the Eucharist unless it is established that either wine and bread possesses certain properties or that anything that is interpreted as the blood and body of Christ is the blood and body of Christ. With this Peirce declares that "our action has exclusive reference to what affects the senses", and that we can mean nothing by transubstantiation than "what has certain effects, direct or indirect, upon our senses."<ref>Peirce, Charles S. 1878. "'How to Make Our Ideas Clear." ''[[Popular Science]] Monthly''. — (excerpt). pp. 212–218 in ''An Anthology of Nineteenth-Century American Science Writing'', edited by C. R. Resetarits. Anthem Press. 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-85728-651-2}}. {{doi|10.7135/upo9780857286512.037}}</ref>
In this sense, James's pragmatic influencer Peirce establishes that what counts as a practical consequence or effect is what can affect one's senses and what is comprehensible and fathomable in the natural world.

"Yet James never worked out his understanding of 'practical consequences' as fully as Peirce did", nor does he limit these consequences to the senses as Peirce does.<ref name=":1" /> This raises the question: what does it mean to be practical? Whether James means the greatest number of positive consequences (in light of [[utilitarianism]]), a consequence that considers other perspectives (such as his compromise of the tender and tough ways of thinking),<ref>{{Cite web |last=James |first=William |date=May 1, 2002 |title=Pragmatism |website=The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pragmatism |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5116/5116-h/5116-h.htm |access-date=November 12, 2019}}</ref>
or a completely different take altogether, it is unclear what consequences truly fit the pragmatic standard. The closest James comes to explaining this idea is by telling his audience to weigh the difference it would "practically make to anyone" if one opinion over the other were true, and although he attempts to clarify this, he never specifies the method by which one would weigh the difference between one opinion over the other.<ref name=":0" /> Thus, the flaw in his argument appears in that it is difficult to fathom how he would determine these practical consequences, which he continually refers to throughout his work, to be measured or interpreted. He has said that an opinion is correct that works for us humans in practice.

=== Will to believe doctrine ===
{{Main|The Will to Believe}}

In William James's 1896 lecture titled "The Will to Believe", James defends the right to violate the principle of [[evidentialism]] in order to justify hypothesis venturing. This idea foresaw 20th century objections to evidentialism and sought to ground justified belief in an unwavering principle that would prove more beneficial. Through his philosophy of [[pragmatism]] William James justifies religious beliefs by using the results of his hypothetical venturing as evidence to support the hypothesis's truth.  Therefore, this doctrine allows one to assume belief in a god and prove its existence by what the belief brings to one's life.

This was criticised by advocates of [[sceptic]]ism rationality, like [[Bertrand Russell]] in [[Free Thought and Official Propaganda]] and [[Alfred Henry Lloyd]] with [[The Will to Doubt]]. Both argued that one must always adhere to [[fallibilism]], recognising of all human knowledge that "None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error", and that the only means of progressing ever-closer to the truth is to never assume certainty, but always examine all sides and try to reach a conclusion objectively.

== Free will ==
In his search for truth and assorted principles of psychology, William James developed his two-stage model of free will. In his model, he tries to explain how it is people come to the making of a decision and what factors are involved in it. He firstly defines our basic ability to choose as free will. Then he specifies our two factors as chance and choice. "James's two-stage model effectively separates chance (the in-deterministic free element) from choice (an arguably determinate decision that follows causally from one's character, values, and especially feelings and desires at the moment of decision)."<ref name="Bob Doyle 2011">Doyle, Bob. 2011. ''Free Will: the Scandal in Philosophy''. I-Phi Press. The Information Philosopher.</ref>

James argues that the question of free will revolves around "chance." The idea of chance is that some events are possibilities, things that could happen but are not guaranteed. ''Chance'' is a neutral term (it is, in this case, neither inherently positive nor "intrinsically irrational and preposterous," connotations it usually has); the only information it gives about the events to which it applies is that they are disconnected from other things – they are "not controlled, secured, or necessitated by other things" before they happen.<ref name="auto2">{{Project Gutenburg|26659|title=The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy|bullet=none|chapter=The Will to Believe|chapter-url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26659/26659-h/26659-h.htm#P1 |publisher=[[Longmans, Green & Co.]]|location=New York|author=James, William. 2009 [1887]}}, produced by A. Haines.<br /></ref>
Chance is made possible regarding our actions because our amount of effort is subject to change. If the amount of effort we put into something is predetermined, our actions are predetermined.<ref name="auto">{{Project Gutenburg|57634|title=The Principles of Psychology|bullet=none|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|location=New York|author=James, William. 2018 [1918]|others=vol. 2}}, produced by C. Graham and M. D'Hooghe.</ref>

Free will in relation to effort also balances "''ideals'' and ''propensities''—the things you see as best versus the things that are easiest to do". Without effort, "the propensity is stronger than the ideal." To act according to your ideals, you must resist the things that are easiest, and this can only be done with effort.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite journal |last=Viney |first=Donald Wayne |year=1986 |title=William James on Free Will and Determinism |journal=The Journal of Mind and Behavior |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=555–565 |jstor=43853234}}</ref>
James states that the free will question is therefore simple: "it relates solely to the amount of effort of attention or consent which we can at any time put forth."<ref name="auto" />

''Chance'' is the "free element", that part of the model we have no control over. James says that in the sequence of the model, chance comes before choice. In the moment of decision we are given the chance to make a decision and then the choice is what we do (or do not do) regarding the decision.

When it comes to choice, James says we make a choice based on different experiences. It comes from our own past experiences, the observations of others, or:<ref name="Bob Doyle 2011" /> <blockquote>A supply of ideas of the various movements that are&nbsp;… left in the memory by experiences of their involuntary performance is thus the first prerequisite of the voluntary life.</blockquote>What James describes is that once you've made a decision in the past, the experience is stockpiled into your memory where it can be referenced the next time a decision must be made and will be drawn from as a positive solution. However, in his development of the design, James also struggled with being able to prove that free will is actually free or predetermined.

People can make judgements of regret, moral approval and moral disapproval, and if those are absent, then that means our will is predetermined.  An example of this is "James says the problem is a very 'personal' one and that he cannot personally conceive of the universe as a place where murder must happen."<ref name="Kenneth A. Shouler 2008">Shouler, Kenneth A. 2008. ''The Everything Guide to Understanding Philosophy: the Basic Concepts of the Greatest Thinkers of All Time – Made Easy!''. [[Adams Media]].</ref>
Essentially, if there were no regrets or judgments then all the bad stuff would not be considered bad, only as predetermined because there are no options of 'good' and 'bad'. "The free will option is pragmatically truer because it better accommodates the judgments of regret and morality."<ref name="Kenneth A. Shouler 2008" /> Overall, James uses this line of reasoning to prove that our will is indeed free: because of our morality codes, and the conceivable alternate universes where a decision has been regarded different from what we chose.

In "The Will to Believe", James simply asserted that his will was free. As his first act of freedom, he said, he chose to believe his will was free. He was encouraged to do this by reading [[Charles Renouvier]], whose work convinced James to convert from [[monism]] to [[pluralism (philosophy)|pluralism]]. In his diary entry of April 30, 1870, James wrote:<ref>[[Ralph Barton Perry|Perry, Ralph Barton]]. ''The Thought and Character of William James'' 1. p. 323.— ''Letters of William James'' 1. p. 147.</ref>

<blockquote>I think that yesterday was a crisis in my life. I finished the first part of Renouvier's second Essais and see no reason why his definition of free will—"the sustaining of a thought because I choose to when I might have other thoughts"—need be the definition of an illusion. At any rate, I will assume for the present—until next year—that it is no illusion. My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.</blockquote>

In 1884, James set the terms for all future discussions of [[determinism]] and [[compatibilism]] in the [[free will]] debates with his lecture to [[Harvard Divinity School]] students published as "The Dilemma of Determinism".<ref name=":3">{{Project Gutenburg|26659|title=The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy|bullet=none|chapter=The Dilemma of Determinism|chapter-url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26659/26659-h/26659-h.htm#P145 |publisher=[[Longmans, Green & Co.]]|location=New York|author=James, William. 2009 [c. 1884]}}, produced by A. Haines.</ref>
In this talk he defined the common terms ''hard determinism'' and ''soft determinism'' (now more commonly called ''[[compatibilism]]'').<ref name=":3" />

<blockquote>Old-fashioned determinism was what we may call hard determinism. It did not shrink from such words as fatality, bondage of the will, necessitation, and the like. Nowadays, we have a soft determinism which abhors harsh words, and, repudiating fatality, necessity, and even predetermination, says that its real name is freedom; for freedom is only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.<ref name="will149">James, William. 1956 [1884]. "The Dilemma of Determinism." In ''The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy''. New York: [[Dover Publications|Dover]].</ref>{{Rp|149}}</blockquote>

James called compatibilism a "quagmire of evasion,"<ref name="will149" />{{Rp|149}} just as the ideas of [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[David Hume]]—that free will was simply freedom from external coercion—were called a "wretched subterfuge" by [[Immanuel Kant]].

''Indeterminism'' is "the belief in freedom [which] holds that there is some degree of possibility that is not necessitated by the rest of reality."<ref>Pomerleau, Wayne P. "William James (1842–1910)." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, [http://www.iep.utm.edu/james-o/#H6 "William James" Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Article].</ref>
The word "some" in this definition is crucial in James's argument because it leaves room for a higher power, as it does not require that all events be random. Specifically, indeterminism does not say that no events are guaranteed or connected to previous events; instead, it says that some events are not guaranteed – some events are up to chance.<ref name="auto1" /> In James's model of free will, choice is deterministic, determined by the person making it, and it "follows casually from one's character, values, and especially feelings and desires at the moment of decision."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Doyle |first=Bob |year=2010 |title=Jamesian Free Will, the Two-Stage Model of William James |journal=William James Studies |volume=5 |pages=1–28 |jstor=26203733}}</ref>
Chance, on the other hand, is indeterministic, and pertains to possibilities that could happen but are not guaranteed.<ref name="auto2" /> James described [[chance (philosophy)|chance]] as neither hard nor soft determinism, but "[[indeterminism]]":<ref name="will149" />{{Rp|153}}

<blockquote>The stronghold of the determinist argument is the antipathy to the idea of chance&nbsp;... This notion of alternative possibility, this admission that any one of several things may come to pass is, after all, only a roundabout name for chance.</blockquote>

James asked the students to consider his choice for walking home from Lowell Lecture Hall after his talk:<ref name="will149" />{{Rp|155}}

<blockquote>What is meant by saying that my choice of which way to walk home after the lecture is ambiguous and matter of chance?&nbsp;... It means that both Divinity Avenue and Oxford Street are called but only one, and that one either one, shall be chosen.</blockquote>

With this simple example, James laid out a two-stage decision process with chance in a present time of random alternatives, leading to a choice of one possibility that transforms an ambiguous future into a simple unalterable past. James's two-stage model separates chance (undetermined alternative possibilities) from [[choice]] (the free action of the individual, on which randomness has no effect). Subsequent thinkers using this model include [[Henri Poincaré]], [[Arthur Holly Compton]], and [[Karl Popper]].

== Philosophy of religion ==
[[File:WJ-Variety-Religious-Exp.png|thumb|right|Excerpt]]

James did important work in [[philosophy of religion]].  In his [[Gifford Lectures]] at the [[University of Edinburgh]] he provided a wide-ranging account of ''[[The Varieties of Religious Experience]]'' (1902) and interpreted them according to his pragmatic leanings. Some of the important claims he makes in this regard:
* Religious genius (experience) should be the primary topic in the study of religion, rather than religious institutions—since institutions are merely the social descendant of genius.
* The intense, even pathological varieties of experience (religious or otherwise) should be sought by psychologists, because they represent the closest thing to a microscope of the mind—that is, they show us in drastically enlarged form the normal processes of things.
* In order to usefully interpret the realm of common, shared experience and history, we must each make certain "[[overbelief|over-beliefs]]" in things which, while they cannot be proven on the basis of experience, help us to live fuller and better lives.
* A variety of characteristics can be seen within a single individual. There are subconscious elements that compose the scattered fragments of a personality. This is the reflection of a greater dissociation which is the separation between science and religion.
* Religious Mysticism is only one half of mysticism, the other half is composed of the insane and both of these are co-located in the "great subliminal or transmarginal region".<ref>{{Cite book |last=James |first=William |year=1985 |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |publisher=Penguin Classics |location=New York |page=426}}</ref>

James investigated [[mysticism|mystical]] experiences throughout his life, leading him to experiment with [[chloral hydrate]] (1870), [[Alkyl nitrites|amyl nitrite]] (1875), [[nitrous oxide]] (1882), and [[peyote]] (1896).{{citation needed|date=September 2015}} James claimed that it was only when he was under the influence of nitrous oxide that he was able to understand [[Hegel]].<ref>William James, [https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ehn/release/nitrous.html "Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide"]</ref>
He concluded that while the revelations of the mystic hold true, they hold true only for the mystic; for others, they are certainly ideas to be considered, but can hold no claim to truth without personal experience of such. ''American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia'' classes him as one of several figures who "took a more [[Pantheism|pantheist]] or [[Pandeism|pandeist]] approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world."<ref>{{Cite book |author=[[John Lachs]] and [[Robert Talisse]] |year=2007 |title=American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia |url=https://archive.org/details/americanphil_xxxx_2008_000_9069252 |url-access=registration |via=[[Internet Archive]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanphil_xxxx_2008_000_9069252/page/n335 310] |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-93926-3}}</ref>

James was an advocate of [[theistic finitism]], which he used to explain the [[problem of evil]].<ref name="Barnard">Barnard, George William. (1997). ''Exploring Unseen Worlds: William James and the Philosophy of Mysticism''. State University of New York Press. p. 251. {{ISBN|0-7914-3223-8}} "James's theology answer to the problem of evil is strikingly simple, but theologically daring: God is ''not'' all-powerful, all-knowing, or all-pervasive, but rather, is finite."</ref><ref>Weidenbaum, Jonathan. (2013) ''William James’s Argument for a Finite Theism''. In Diller J., Kasher A. (eds) ''Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities''. Springer. pp. 323–331. {{ISBN|978-94-007-5218-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Stepanenko, Walter Scott|year=2018|title=Jamesian Finite Theism and the Problems of Suffering|journal=European Journal for Philosophy of Religion|url=https://philosophy-of-religion.eu/index.php/ejpr/article/view/1966|volume=10|issue=4|pages=1–25|doi=10.24204/ejpr.v10i4.1966|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== Mysticism ==
William James devoted much of his career to the psychological investigation of mysticism. A significant influence on this undertaking was his own mystical experience under the influence of nitrous oxide. Inspired by a report by Benjamin Paul Blood in 1874,<ref>{{cite book |last=Blood |first=Benjamin Paul |date=1874 |title=The anaesthetic revelation and the gist of philosophy |publisher=Books on Demand|oclc= 11479610}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=James |first1=William |title=Review of 'The Anaesthetic Revelation and the Gist of Philosophy' |journal=Atlantic Monthly |date=Nov 1874 |volume=33 |issue=205 |pages=627–628}}</ref> James experimented with inhaled nitrous oxide, upon which he experienced a "tremendously exciting sense of an intense metaphysical illumination" in which "every opposition ... vanished in a higher unity" and "the ego and its objects ... are one."<ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |date=1896 |title=On some Hegelisms. In W. James, ''The will to believe and other essays in popular philosophy'' |publisher=Longmans, Green, & Co. |pages=297–298}}</ref> For so ardent an anti-Hegelian, this was a particularly novel and confusing experience for James. He was powerfully affected by the event and struggled greatly to interpret it. His journey of self discovery instigated by the experience is largely what inspired his later in-depth investigations of mysticism.

William James provided a description of mystical experience in his famous collection of lectures published in 1902 as ''The Varieties of Religious Experience''.<ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |date=1902 |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |publisher=The Library of America |pages=379–429|isbn=978-1-59853-062-9}}</ref> He posits four criteria as "sufficient to mark out a group of states of consciousness" which may be called the "mystical group."

These criteria are as follows:
* Ineffability – no adequate report of the contents of the experience can be given by words. This was the "handiest" of descriptors for James, and illustrates the necessity of direct, first-hand experience to actually understand a mystical state of consciousness. 
* Noetic quality – "...mystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of knowledge." Mystical consciousness generates a feeling of insight into truths inaccessible to ordinary reasoning. These intuitions or insights are often felt as authoritative both during and after they are experienced, but are necessarily confined by the first criterion of ineffability, and are thus inexpressible in words.<ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |date=1902 |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |publisher=The Library of America |pages=380–381|isbn=978-1-59853-062-9}}</ref> 
* Transiency – the mystical state is unable to be sustained for long periods of time. They are, however, recognisable upon re-experience, and can be further developed over multiple occasions. 
* Passivity – a feeling of suspension of control of one's personal will, occasionally as if grasped by a superior power.

For James, the first two attributes, ineffability and the noetic quality, "will entitle any state to be called mystical, in the sense in which I use the word." The qualities of transiency and passivity are "less sharply marked, but are usually found."<ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |date=1902 |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |publisher=The Library of America |pages=380–382 |isbn=978-1-59853-062-9}}</ref> He uses a number of historical examples to illustrate the presence of these attributes in geographically and temporally disparate instances, concluding that the mystical experience "''is on the whole pantheistic and optimistic, or at least the opposite of pessimistic. It is anti-naturalistic, and harmonizes best with twice-bornness and so-called other-worldly states of mind''" (original italics).<ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |date=1902 |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |publisher=The Library of America |pages=422 |isbn=978-1-59853-062-9}}</ref>

In line with his pragmatism, he asserted that the epistemological authority of mystical consciousness for the individual who experiences it is may be rightfully justified, but that others are under no obligation to accept that authority uncritically. Importantly, however, the mere existence of mystical states necessarily indicates an incompleteness in the epistemological authority of the non-mystical.<ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |date=1902 |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |publisher=The Library of America |pages=427–429 |isbn=978-1-59853-062-9}}</ref> He would continue to advocate for the acceptance of mystical states as a fruitful subject of psychological research and source of knowledge. In his book ''The Pluralistic Universe'' (1909), he would expand upon his notion of "radical empiricism" in arguing for the possible association of empiricism and religion in the study of human spirituality <ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |date=1977 |title=The Pluralistic Universe |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn= 9780674673915}}</ref> In viewing mysticism from a psychological perspective, he acknowledged that the limits of our being extend far beyond what is ordinarily accessible by our sense perception, and that our finite beings are affected by unconscious forces. "But that which produces effects within another reality must be termed a reality itself, so I feel as if we had no philosophic excuse for calling the unseen or mystical world unreal."<ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |date=1902 |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |publisher=The Library of America |page=516 |isbn=978-1-59853-062-9}}</ref>

James viewed mysticism as the most foundational aspect of religion. While he grants that religious experience reveals the possibility of union with something greater than oneself, he clarifies that mysticism (and philosophy) identify that something as an "all inclusive soul of the world" that he does not deem wholly necessary for a practical and fulfilling religious life. As always, James is averse to any dogmatic or absolutist doctrines, within religion and without, and thus values mysticism as a unique method of personal acquaintance with a larger reality.<ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |date=1902 |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |publisher=The Library of America |pages=525–527 |isbn=978-1-59853-062-9}}</ref>

== Instincts ==
{{See also|Instinct}}
Like [[Sigmund Freud]], James was influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.<ref name="Buss 1" /> At the core of James's theory of psychology, as defined in ''[[The Principles of Psychology]]'' (1890), was a system of "instincts". James wrote that humans had many instincts, even more than other animals.<ref name="Buss 1" /> These instincts, he said, could be overridden by experience and by each other, as many of the instincts were actually in conflict with each other.<ref name="Buss 1">Buss, David M. 2008. "Chapter 1." pp. 2–35 in ''Evolutionary psychology: the new science of the mind''. [[Pearson Education|Pearson]].</ref>

== Theory of emotion ==
James is one of the two namesakes of the [[James–Lange theory]] of [[emotion]], which he formulated independently of [[Carl Lange (physician)|Carl Lange]] in the 1880s. The theory holds that emotion is the mind's perception of physiological conditions that result from some stimulus.  In James's oft-cited example, it is not that we see a bear, fear it, and run; we see a bear and run; consequently, we fear the bear.  Our mind's [[perception]] of the higher adrenaline level, heartbeat, etc. is the emotion.

This way of thinking about emotion has great consequences for the philosophy of [[aesthetics]] as well as to the philosophy and practice of education.<ref name="reconstructing" /> Here is a passage from his work, ''[[The Principles of Psychology]]'', that spells out those consequences:

{{blockquote|[W]e must immediately insist that aesthetic emotion, pure and simple, the pleasure given us by certain lines and masses, and combinations of colours and sounds, is an absolutely sensational experience, an optical or auricular feeling that is primary, and not due to the repercussion backwards of other sensations elsewhere consecutively aroused. To this simple primary and immediate [[pleasure]] in certain pure sensations and harmonious combinations of them, there may, it is true, be added secondary pleasures; and in the practical enjoyment of works of art by the masses of mankind these secondary pleasures play a great part. The more classic one's taste is, however, the less relatively important are the secondary pleasures felt to be, in comparison with those of the primary sensation as it comes in. [[Classicism]] and [[romanticism]] have their battles over this point.}}

The theory of emotion was also independently developed in Italy by the anthropologist [[Giuseppe Sergi]].<ref>[[Giuseppe Sergi|Sergi, Giuseppe]]. 1858. ''L'origine dei fenomeni psichici e loro significazione biologica''. Milano: Fratelli Dumolard. {{ISBN|1271529408}}.</ref><ref>[[Giuseppe Sergi|Sergi, Giuseppe]]. 1894. "Storia Naturale dei Sentimenti." ''Principi di Psicologie: Dolore e Piacere''. Milano: Fratelli Dumolard. {{ISBN|1147667462}}.</ref>

=== William James' bear ===
From [[Joseph LeDoux]]'s description of William James' ''Emotion'':<ref>[[Joseph E. LeDoux|LeDoux, Joseph E.]] 1996. ''The Emotional Brain: the Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life''. {{ISBN|0-684-83659-9}}. p. 43.</ref>
<blockquote>
Why do we run away if we notice that we are in danger? Because we are afraid of what will happen if we don't. This obvious answer to a seemingly trivial question has been the central concern of a century-old debate about the nature of our emotions.</blockquote>It all began in 1884 when William James published an article titled "What Is an Emotion?"<ref>James, William. 1884. "[http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/emotion.htm What is an Emotion?]" ''[[Mind (journal)|Mind]]'' 9:188–205.</ref>
The article appeared in a philosophy journal called ''[[Mind (journal)|Mind]]'', as there were no psychology journals yet. It was important, not because it definitively answered the question it raised, but because of the way in which James phrased his response. He conceived of an emotion in terms of a sequence of events that starts with the occurrence of an arousing stimulus (the [[sympathetic nervous system]] or the [[parasympathetic nervous system]]); and ends with a passionate feeling, a conscious emotional experience. A major goal of emotion research is still to elucidate this stimulus-to-feeling sequence—to figure out what processes come between the stimulus and the feeling.

James set out to answer his question by asking another: do we run from a bear because we are afraid or are we afraid because we run? He proposed that the obvious answer, that we run because we are afraid, was ''wrong'', and instead argued that we are afraid because we run:

<blockquote>Our natural way of thinking about&nbsp;… emotions is that the mental perception of some fact excites the mental affection called emotion, and that this latter state of mind gives rise to the bodily expression. My theory, on the contrary, is that the bodily changes follow directly the perception of the exciting fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur IS the emotion (called 'feeling' by [[Damasio#Looking for Spinoza|Damasio]]).</blockquote>

The essence of James's proposal was simple. It was premised on the fact that emotions are often accompanied by bodily responses (racing heart, tight stomach, sweaty palms, tense muscles, and so on; [[sympathetic nervous system]]) and that we can sense what is going on inside our body much the same as we can sense what is going on in the outside world. According to James, emotions feel different from other states of mind because they have these bodily responses that give rise to internal sensations, and different emotions feel different from one another because they are accompanied by different bodily responses and sensations. For example, when we see James's bear, we run away. During this act of escape, the body goes through a physiological upheaval: blood pressure rises, heart rate increases, pupils dilate, palms sweat, muscles contract in certain ways (evolutionary, innate defense mechanisms). Other kinds of emotional situations will result in different bodily upheavals. In each case, the physiological responses return to the brain in the form of bodily sensations, and the unique pattern of sensory feedback gives each emotion its unique quality. Fear feels different from anger or love because it has a different physiological signature (the [[parasympathetic nervous system]] for love). The mental aspect of emotion, the feeling, is a slave to its physiology, not vice versa: we do not tremble because we are afraid or cry because we feel sad; we are afraid because we tremble and are sad because we cry.

== Philosophy of history ==
One of the long-standing schisms in the [[philosophy of history]] concerns the role of individuals in social change.

One faction sees individuals (as seen in [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]]' ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'' and [[Thomas Carlyle]]'s ''[[The French Revolution, A History]]'') as the motive power of history, and the broader society as the page on which they write their acts. The other sees society as moving according to [[holistic]] principles or laws, and sees individuals as its more-or-less willing pawns.  In 1880, James waded into this controversy with "Great Men, Great Thoughts, and the Environment", an essay published in the ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]''. He took Carlyle's side, but without Carlyle's one-sided emphasis on the political/military sphere, upon heroes as the founders or overthrowers of states and empires.

A philosopher, according to James, must accept [[genius]]es as a given entity the same way as a biologist accepts as an entity Darwin's "spontaneous variations". The role of an individual will depend on the degree of its [[conformity]] with the social environment, epoch, moment, etc.<ref>Grinin L. E. 2010. "[http://www.socionauki.ru/journal/articles/129622/ The Role of an Individual in History: A Reconsideration]." ''[[Social Evolution & History]]'' 9(2):95–136. p. 103.</ref>

James introduces a notion of receptivities of the moment. The societal mutations from generation to [[generation]] are determined (directly or indirectly) mainly by the acts or examples of individuals whose genius was so adapted to the receptivities of the moment or whose accidental position of authority was so critical that they became ferments, initiators of movements, setters of precedent or fashion, centers of corruption, or destroyers of other persons, whose gifts, had they had free play, would have led society in another direction.<ref>William James. 2007 [1880]. "[https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/James/James_1880.html Great Men, Great Thoughts and the Environment]." ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'' 46:441–459.</ref>

== View on social Darwinism ==

While James accepted Darwin's theories of biological evolution, he regarded [[social Darwinism]] as propagated by philosophers such as [[Herbert Spencer]] as a sham. He was highly skeptical of applying Darwin's formula of natural selection to human societies in a way that put the Anglo-Saxons on top of the chain. James' rejection of social Darwinism was a minority opinion at Harvard in the 1870s and 1880s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Evan |title=The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 |year= 2010 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-316-08798-8 |pages=77–78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Yw4AQAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>

== View on spiritualism and associationism ==
[[File:Houghton MS Am 1092 (1185) - William James.jpg|thumb|James in a séance with a spiritualist medium]]
James studied closely the schools of thought known as [[associationism]] and [[Spiritualism (philosophy)|spiritualism]]. The view of an associationist is that each experience that one has leads to another, creating a chain of events. The association does not tie together two ideas, but rather physical objects.<ref name="James, 1892">James, William. 1985 [1892]. ''Psychology (Briefer Course)''. [[University of Notre Dame Press]]. {{ISBN|0-268-01557-0}}.</ref>
This association occurs on an atomic level. Small physical changes occur in the brain which eventually form complex ideas or associations. Thoughts are formed as these complex ideas work together and lead to new experiences. [[Isaac Newton]] and [[David Hartley (philosopher)|David Hartley]] both were precursors to this school of thought, proposing such ideas as "physical vibrations in the brain, spinal cord, and nerves are the basis of all sensations, all ideas, and all motions&nbsp;…"<ref name=":4">[[Robert D. Richardson|Richardson, Robert D.]] 2006. ''William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism''. [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin]]. {{ISBN|0-618-43325-2}}.</ref>
James disagreed with associationism in that he believed it to be too simple. He referred to associationism as "psychology without a soul"<ref name="j1890">James, William. 1890. ''The Principles of Psychology''.</ref>
because there is nothing from within creating ideas; they just arise by associating objects with one another.

On the other hand, a spiritualist believes that mental events are attributed to the soul. Whereas in associationism, ideas and behaviors are separate, in spiritualism, they are connected. Spiritualism encompasses the term [[innatism]], which suggests that ideas cause behavior. Ideas of past behavior influence the way a person will act in the future; these ideas are all tied together by the soul. Therefore, an inner soul causes one to have a thought, which leads them to perform a behavior, and memory of past behaviors determine how one will act in the future.<ref name=j1890 />

James had a strong opinion about these schools of thought. He was, by nature, a [[Pragmatism#A list of pragmatists|pragmatist]] and thus took the view that one should use whatever parts of theories make the most sense and can be proven.<ref name=":4" /> Therefore, he recommended breaking apart spiritualism and associationism and using the parts of them that make the most sense. James believed that each person has a soul, which exists in a spiritual universe, and leads a person to perform the behaviors they do in the physical world.<ref name=":4" /> James was influenced by [[Emanuel Swedenborg]], who first introduced him to this idea. James stated that, although it does appear that humans use associations to move from one event to the next, this cannot be done without this soul tying everything together. For, after an association has been made, it is the person who decides which part of it to focus on, and therefore determines in which direction following associations will lead.<ref name="James, 1892" /> Associationism is too simple in that it does not account for decision-making of future behaviors, and memory of what worked well and what did not. Spiritualism, however, does not demonstrate actual physical representations for how associations occur. James combined the views of spiritualism and associationism to create his own way of thinking. James discussed tender-minded thinkers as religious, optimistic, dogmatic, and monistic. Tough-minded thinkers were irreligious, pessimistic, pluralists, and sceptical. Healthy-minded individuals were seen as natural believers by having faith in God and universal order. People who focused on human miseries and suffering were noted as sick souls.

James was a founding member and vice president of the [[American Society for Psychical Research]].<ref>Eugene Taylor. (2009). ''The Mystery of Personality: A History of Psychodynamic Theories''. Springer. p. 30. {{ISBN|978-0387981031}}</ref>
The lending of his name made [[Leonora Piper]] a famous medium. In 1885, the year after the death of his young son, James had his first sitting with Piper at the suggestion of his mother-in-law.<ref>[[Deborah Blum]]. (2007). ''Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life''. Penguin Group. p. 98. {{ISBN|978-0-14-303895-5}}.</ref>
He was soon convinced that Piper knew things she could only have discovered by supernatural means. He expressed his belief in Piper by saying, "If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, it is enough if you prove that one crow is white. My white crow is Mrs. Piper."<ref>[[Gardner Murphy]], [[Robert O. Ballou]]. (1960). ''William James on Psychical Research''. Viking Press. p. 41</ref>
However, James did not believe that Piper was in contact with spirits. After evaluating sixty-nine reports of Piper's mediumship he considered the hypothesis of [[telepathy]] as well as Piper obtaining information about her sitters by natural means such as her memory recalling information. According to James the "spirit-control" hypothesis of her mediumship was incoherent, irrelevant and in cases demonstrably false.<ref>Francesca Bordogna. (2008). ''William James at the Boundaries: Philosophy, Science, and the Geography of Knowledge''. University of Chicago Press. p. 127. {{ISBN|978-0226066523}}</ref>

James held séances with Piper and was impressed by some of the details he was given; however, according to [[Massimo Polidoro]] a maid in the household of James was friendly with a maid in Piper's house and this may have been a source of information that Piper used for private details about James.<ref>[[Massimo Polidoro]]. (2001). ''Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle''. Prometheus Books. p. 36. {{ISBN|978-1573928960}}</ref>
Bibliographers [[Frederick Burkhardt]] and [[Fredson Bowers]] who compiled the works of James wrote "It is thus possible that Mrs. Piper's knowledge of the James family was acquired from the gossip of servants and that the whole mystery rests on the failure of the people upstairs to realize that servants [downstairs] also have ears."<ref>[[Frederick Burkhardt]] and [[Fredson Bowers]]. (1986). ''Essays in Psychical Research''. Harvard University Press. p. 397 in William James. [http://www.nlx.com/collections/66 ''The Works of William James'']. Edited by Frederick H. Burkhardt, Fredson Bowers, and Ignas K. Skrupskelis. 19 vols. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press. 1975–1988.</ref>

James was convinced that the "future will corroborate" the existence of [[telepathy]].<ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hnfjc6;view=1up;seq=441 About the Shadow World]. ''Everybody's Magazine''. v. 20 (1909).</ref>
Psychologists such as [[James McKeen Cattell]] and [[Edward B. Titchener]] took issue with James's support for [[Parapsychology|psychical research]] and considered his statements unscientific.<ref>Lamont, Peter. (2013). ''Extraordinary Beliefs: A Historical Approach to a Psychological Problem''. Cambridge University Press. pp. 184–188.</ref><ref>Kimble, Gregory A; Wertheimer, Michael; White, Charlotte. (2013). ''Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology''. Psychology Press. p. 23. {{ISBN|0-8058-0620-2}}</ref>
Cattell in a letter to James wrote that the "Society for Psychical Research is doing much to injure psychology".<ref>Goodwin, C. James. (2015). ''A History of Modern Psychology''. Wiley. p. 154. {{ISBN|978-1-118-83375-9}}</ref>

== James' theory of the self<!--'James' theory of the self' and 'James's theory of the self' redirect here; please note [[MOS:'S]]--> ==
'''James' theory of the self'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> divided a person's mental picture of self into two categories: the "Me" and the "I". The "Me" can be thought of as a separate object or individual a person refers to when describing their personal experiences; while the "I" is the self that knows who they are and what they have done in their life.<ref name=IEP /> Both concepts are depicted in the statement; "''I'' know it was ''me'' who ate the cookie."  He called the "Me" part of self the "empirical me" and the "I" part "the pure Ego".<ref name="cooper1992" /> For James, the "I" part of self was the thinking self, which could not be further divided. He linked this part of the self to the soul of a person, or what is now thought of as the mind.<ref name=psychclassics /> Educational theorists have been inspired in various ways by James's theory of self, and have developed various applications to curricular and pedagogical theory and practice.<ref name="reconstructing">{{cite book |last=Ergas |first=Oren |date=2017 |title=Reconstructing 'education' through mindful attention |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |isbn=978-1-137-58781-7}}</ref>

James further divided the "Me" part of self into: a material, a social, and a spiritual self, as below.<ref name=cooper1992>Cooper, W. E. (1992). "William James's theory of the self". ''Monist'' 75(4), 504.</ref>

=== Material self ===
The material self consists of things that belong to a person or entities that a person belongs to. Thus, things like the body, family, clothes, money, and such make up the material self. For James, the core of the material self was the body.<ref name=psychclassics>{{cite web |title=Classics in the History of Psychology (archived copy) |url=http://psychclassics.asu.edu/James/Principles/prin10.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206021129/http://psychclassics.asu.edu/James/Principles/prin10.htm |access-date=December 3, 2013 |archive-date=December 6, 2013}}</ref>
Second to the body, James felt a person's clothes were important to the material self. He believed a person's clothes were one way they expressed who they felt they were; or clothes were a way to show status, thus ⁹⁹ to forming and maintaining one's self-image.<ref name=psychclassics /> Money and family are critical parts of the material self. James felt that if one lost a family member, a part of who they are was lost also. Money figured in one's material self in a similar way. If a person had significant money then lost it, who they were as a person changed as well.<ref name=psychclassics />

=== Social self ===
Our social selves are who we are in a given social situation. For James, people change how they act depending on the social situation that they are in. James believed that people had as many social selves as they did social situations they participated in.<ref name=psychclassics /> For example, a person may act in a different way at work when compared to how that same person may act when they are out with a group of friends. James also believed that in a given social group, an individual's social self may be divided even further.<ref name=psychclassics /> An example of this would be, in the social context of an individual's work environment, the difference in behavior when that individual is interacting with their boss versus their behaviour when interacting with a co-worker.

=== Spiritual self ===
For James, the spiritual self was who we are at our core. It is more concrete or permanent than the other two selves. The spiritual self is our subjective and most intimate self. Aspects of a spiritual self include things like personality, core values, and conscience that do not typically change throughout an individual's lifetime. The spiritual self involves introspection, or looking inward to deeper spiritual, moral, or intellectual questions without the influence of objective thoughts.<ref name=psychclassics /> For James, achieving a high level of understanding of who we are at our core, or understanding our spiritual selves is more rewarding than satisfying the needs of the social and material selves.

=== Pure ego ===
What James refers to as the "I" self. For James, the pure ego is what provides the thread of continuity between our past, present, and future selves. The pure ego's perception of consistent individual identity arises from a continuous stream of consciousness.<ref>{{cite web |title=Introduction to William James |website=www.uky.edu |date=July 31, 2013 |url=http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Pajares/hunt.html}}</ref>
James believed that the pure ego was similar to what we think of as the soul, or the mind. The pure ego was not a substance and therefore could not be examined by science.<ref name=IEP />

== Notable works ==
* ''[[The Principles of Psychology]]'', 2 vols. (1890), [[Dover Publications]] 1950, vol. 1: {{ISBN|0-486-20381-6}}, vol. 2: {{ISBN|0-486-20382-4}}
* ''Psychology (Briefer Course)'' (1892), University of Notre Dame Press 1985: {{ISBN|0-268-01557-0}}, Dover Publications 2001: {{ISBN|0-486-41604-6}}
* ''[https://www.themantle.com/philosophy/life-worth-living-william-james Is Life Worth Living?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114115524/https://www.themantle.com/philosophy/life-worth-living-william-james |date=January 14, 2020 }}'' (1895), the seminal lecture delivered at Harvard on April 15, 1895
* ''[[Will to believe doctrine|The Will to Believe]], and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy'' (1897)
* ''Human Immortality: Two Supposed Objections to the Doctrine'' (the [[Ingersoll Lecture]], 1897)
** ''The Will to Believe, Human Immortality'' (1956) Dover Publications, {{ISBN|0-486-20291-7}}
* ''Talks to Teachers on Psychology: and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals'' (1899), Dover Publications 2001: {{ISBN|0-486-41964-9}}, IndyPublish.com 2005: {{ISBN|1-4219-5806-6}}
* ''[[The Varieties of Religious Experience]]: A Study in Human Nature'' (1902), {{ISBN|0-14-039034-0}}
* ''Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking'' (1907), Hackett Publishing 1981: {{ISBN|0-915145-05-7}}, Dover 1995: {{ISBN|0-486-28270-8}}
* ''A Pluralistic Universe'' (1909), [[Hibbert Lectures]], University of Nebraska Press 1996: {{ISBN|0-8032-7591-9}}
* ''The Meaning of Truth: A Sequel to "Pragmatism"'' (1909), Prometheus Books, 1997: {{ISBN|1-57392-138-6}}
* ''Some Problems of Philosophy: A Beginning of an Introduction to Philosophy'' (1911), University of Nebraska Press 1996: {{ISBN|0-8032-7587-0}}
* ''Memories and Studies'' (1911), Reprint Services Corp: 1992: {{ISBN|0-7812-3481-6}}
* ''[[Essays in Radical Empiricism]]'' (1912), Dover Publications 2003, {{ISBN|0-486-43094-4}}
** critical edition, Frederick Burkhardt and Fredson Bowers, editors. Harvard University Press 1976: {{ISBN|0-674-26717-6}} (includes commentary, notes, enumerated emendations, appendices with English translation of "La Notion de Conscience")
* ''Letters of William James'', 2 vols. (1920)
* ''Collected Essays and Reviews'' (1920)
* Ralph Barton Perry, ''The Thought and Character of William James'', 2 vols. (1935), Vanderbilt University Press 1996 reprint: {{ISBN|0-8265-1279-8}} (contains some 500 letters by William James not found in the earlier edition of the ''Letters of William James'')
* ''William James on Psychical Research'' (1960)
* ''The Correspondence of William James'', 12 vols. (1992–2004) University of Virginia Press, {{ISBN|0-8139-2318-2}}
* [https://gutenberg.org/files/26659/26659-h/26659-h.htm#P145 "The Dilemma of Determinism"]
* ''William James on Habit, Will, Truth, and the Meaning of Life'', James Sloan Allen, ed. Frederic C. Beil, Publisher, {{ISBN|978-1-929490-45-5}}

=== Collections ===
* ''William James: Writings 1878–1899'' (1992). [[Library of America]], 1212 p., {{ISBN|978-0-940450-72-1}}
::Psychology: Briefer Course (rev. and condensed Principles of Psychology), The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, Talks to Teachers and Students, Essays (nine others)
* ''William James: Writings 1902–1910'' (1987). [[Library of America]], 1379 p., {{ISBN|978-0-940450-38-7}}
::The Varieties of Religious Experience, Pragmatism, A Pluralistic Universe, The Meaning of Truth, Some Problems of Philosophy, Essays
* ''The Writings of William James: A Comprehensive Edition'' (1978). University of Chicago Press, 912 pp., {{ISBN|0-226-39188-4}}
::Pragmatism, Essays in Radical Empiricism, and A Pluralistic Universe complete; plus selections from other works
* In 1975, Harvard University Press began publication of a standard edition of ''The Works of William James''.
* ''William James: Essays in Pragmatism'' (1966). [[The Hafner Library of Classics]]
:: Edited with an Introduction by Alburey Castell Professor of Philosophy, University of Minnesota

== See also ==
{{Portal|Biography|Philosophy|Psychology}}
* "[[The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life]]"
* [[Psychology of religion]]
* [[American philosophy]]
* [[List of American philosophers]]
* [[William James Lectures]]
* [[William James Society]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=lower-roman}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{reflist}}

=== Sources ===
* ''Essays Philosophical and Psychological in Honor of William James, by his Colleagues at Columbia University'' (London, 1908)

== Further reading ==
* James Sloan Allen, ed., ''William James on Habit, Will, Truth, and the Meaning of Life'' (2014). Frederic C. Beil, Publisher, {{ISBN|978-1-929490-45-5}}
* Margo Bistis, "Remnant of the Future: William James' Automated Utopia", in Norman M. Klein and Margo Bistis, ''The Imaginary 20th Century'' (Karlsruhe: ZKM, 2016). {{ISBN?}}
* [[Émile Boutroux]], [https://archive.org/details/williamjames00boutiala ''William James''] (New York, 1912)
* [[Werner Bloch]], ''Der Pragmatismus von James und Schiller nebst Exkursen über Weltanschauung und über die Hypothese'' (Leipzig, 1913)
* K. A. Busch, ''William James als Religionsphilosoph'' (Göttingen, 1911)
* [[Jacques Barzun]]. ''A Stroll with William James'' (1983). Harper and Row: {{ISBN|0-226-03869-6}}
* [[Deborah Blum]]. ''Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death'' (2006). [[Penguin Press]], {{ISBN|1-59420-090-4}}
* Wesley Cooper. ''The Unity of William James's Thought'' (2002). Vanderbilt University Press, {{ISBN|0-8265-1387-5}}
* Howard M. Feinstein. ''Becoming William James'' (1984). Cornell University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8014-8642-5}}
* [[Théodore Flournoy]], ''La Philosophie de William James'' (Saint-Blaise, 1911)
* Sergio Franzese, ''The Ethics of Energy. William James's Moral Philosophy in Focus'', Ontos Verlag, 2008 {{ISBN?}}
* Sergio Franzese & Felicitas Krämer (eds.), ''[https://www.academia.edu/6075221/_Jamess_Mystical_Body_in_the_Light_of_the_Transmarginal_Field_of_Consciousness_2007_ Fringes of Religious Experience. Cross-perspectives on William James's Varieties of Religious Experience]'', Frankfurt / Lancaster, ontos verlag, Process Thought XII, 2007 
* Peter Hare, [[Michel Weber]], James K. Swindler, Oana-Maria Pastae, Cerasel Cuteanu (eds.), ''[https://www.academia.edu/280925/International_Perspectives_on_Pragmatism International Perspectives on Pragmatism]'', Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009
* [[James Huneker]], "A Philosophy for Philistines" in ''The Pathos of Distance'' (New York, 1913).
* [[Henry James]], ''A Small Boy and Others'' (1913) and ''Notes of a Son and Brother'' (1914).
* Amy Kittelstrom, ''The Religion of Democracy: Seven Liberals and the American Moral Tradition.'' New York: Penguin, 2015. {{ISBN?}}
* H. V. Knox, ''Philosophy of William James'' (London, 1914).
* [[R. W. B. Lewis]] ''The Jameses: A Family Narrative'' (1991) Farrar, Straus & Giroux. {{ISBN?}}
* [[Louis Menand]]. ''[[The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America]]'' (2001). Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, {{ISBN|0-374-52849-7}}.
* Ménard, ''Analyse et critique des principes de la psychologie de W. James'' (Paris, 1911) analyzes the lives and relationship between James, [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]], [[Charles Sanders Peirce]], and [[John Dewey]].
* Gerald E. Myers. ''William James: His Life and Thought'' (1986). Yale University Press, 2001, paperback: {{ISBN|0-300-08917-1}}. Focuses on his psychology; includes 230 pages of notes.
* [[Giuseppe Sergi]] L'origine dei fenomeni psichici e loro significazione biologica, Milano, Fratelli Dumolard, 1885.
* [[Giuseppe Sergi]] Principi di Psicologie: Dolore e Piacere; Storia Naturale dei Sentimenti, Milano, Fratelli Dumolard, 1894.
* James Pawelski. ''The Dynamic Individualism of William James'' (2007). SUNY press, {{ISBN|0-7914-7239-6}}.
* [[Ralph Barton Perry|R. B. Perry]], ''Present Philosophical Tendencies'' (New York, 1912)
* [[Robert D. Richardson]]. ''William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism'' (2006). Houghton Mifflin, {{ISBN|0-618-43325-2}}
* Robert D. Richardson, ed. ''The Heart of William James'' (2010). Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-674-05561-2}}
* Robert D. Richardson. ''Three Roads Back: How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James Responded to the Greatest Losses of Their Lives'' (2023). {{ISBN|978-0691224305}}
* [[Jane Roberts]]. ''The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher: The View of William James'' (1978. Prentice-Hall. {{ISBN|0-13-018515-9}}.)
* Barbara Ross, chapter "William James: A Prime Mover of the Psychoanalytic Movement in America", in ''Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, and the New England Medical Scene: 1894–1944'' (Science History Publications, New York, 1978) {{ISBN|9780882021690}}
* [[Josiah Royce]], ''William James and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Life'' (New York, 1911)
* J. Michael Tilley, "William James: Living Forward and the Development of Radical Empiricism," In ''Kierkegaard's Influence on Philosophy: Anglophone Philosophy,'' edited by Jon Stewart, 2012, Ashgate Publishing, 87–98.
* [[Linda Simon]]. ''Genuine Reality: A Life of William James'' (1998). Harcourt Brace & Company, {{ISBN|0-226-75859-1}}
* Emma K. Sutton. ''William James, MD: Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician'' (2023). {{ISBN|978-0226828985}}
* [[Michel Weber]]. ''[https://www.academia.edu/392183/Whiteheads_Pancreativism._Jamesian_Applications Whitehead's Pancreativism. Jamesian Applications]''. Ontos Verlag, 2011, {{ISBN|978-386838-103-0}}
* Michel Weber, "[https://www.academia.edu/3268912/_On_Religiousness_and_Religion._Huxley_s_Reading_of_Whitehead_s_Religion_in_the_Making_in_the_Light_of_James_Varieties_of_Religious_Experience_2005_ On Religiousness and Religion. Huxley's Reading of Whitehead's Religion in the Making in the Light of James' Varieties of Religious Experience]", Jerome Meckier and Bernfried Nugel (eds.), ''[[Aldous Huxley]] Annual. A Journal of Twentieth-Century Thought and Beyond'', Volume 5, Münster, LIT Verlag, March 2005, pp.&nbsp;117–132.
* Michel Weber, "[https://www.academia.edu/6075221/_James_s_Mystical_Body_in_the_Light_of_the_Transmarginal_Field_of_Consciousness_2007_ James's Mystical Body in the Light of the Transmarginal Field of Consciousness]", in Sergio Franzese & Felicitas Krämer (eds.), ''Fringes of Religious Experience. Cross-perspectives on William James's Varieties of Religious Experience'', Frankfurt / Lancaster, Ontos Verlag, Process Thought XII, 2007, pp.&nbsp;7–37. {{ISBN?}}
* [[Richard Wiseman]] (2012). ''Rip it Up: The Radically New Approach to Changing Your Life''. London: Macmillan {{ISBN?}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|n=no|mw=no|m=no|v=no|voy=no|species=no|wikt=no|s=Author:William James (1842–1910)|commons=category:William James (psychologist)|d=Q125249|b=no}}
;Digital collections
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-james}}
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/325 Works by William James] at [[Project Gutenberg]]
* {{Internet Archive author|sname=William James|sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author|id=942}}
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: William James]
* [http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/philosophers/james/ William James on Information Philosopher]

;Physical collections
* [http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Pajares/james.html Emory University: William James]&nbsp;– major collection of essays and works online
* [http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/223277 William James correspondence from the Historic Psychiatry Collection, Menninger Archives, Kansas Historical Society]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20171205150720/http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/james/ Harvard University: Life is in the Transitions: William James, 1842–1910]&nbsp;– online exhibition from Houghton Library

;Other links
* [http://wjsociety.org/ William James Society]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0111.html New York Times obituary]
* {{Find a Grave}}

{{William James|state=expanded}}
{{APA Presidents}}
{{Psychology}}
{{Existentialism}}
{{philosophy of religion}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, William}}
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