Pragmatismus und radikaler Empirismus

by William James

Essays in Radical Empiricism is a collection of Williams James essays edited and published posthumously by James' colleague and biographer Ralph Barton Perry. It was assembled from a collection of reprinted journal articles published which James had deposited at the Harvard University Library and the Harvard Department of Philosophy for supplemental use by his students. William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher trained as a medical doctor. He wrote influential books on psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and the philosophy of pragmatism. He gained widespread recognition with his monumental Principles of Psychology, totaling twelve hundred pages in two volumes, which took twelve years to complete.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Psychology, Essays, American, Classics, Audiobook

201 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, James was one of the leading thinkers of the late nineteenth century and is believed by many to be one of the most influential philosophers the United States has ever produced, while others have labelled him the "Father of American psychology". Along with Charles Sanders Peirce and John Dewey, he is considered to be one of the greatest figures associated with the philosophical school known as pragmatism, and is also cited as one of the founders of the functional psychology. He also developed the philosophical perspective known as radical empiricism. James' work has influenced intellectuals such as Émile Durkheim, W. E. B. Du Bois, Edmund Husserl, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hilary Putnam, and Richard Rorty.

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 wrote widely on many topics, including epistemology, education, metaphysics, psychology, religion, and mysticism. Among his most influential books are Principles of Psychology, which was a groundbreaking text in the field of psychology, Essays in Radical Empiricism, an important text in philosophy, and The Varieties of Religious Experience, which investigated different forms of religious experience.
William James was born at the Astor House in New York City. He was the son of Henry James Sr., a noted and 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 talents of several of its members have made them a subject of continuing interest to historians, biographers, and critics.

James 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, Jr., Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud.

William James received an eclectic trans-Atlantic education, developing fluency in both German and French. Education in the James household encouraged cosmopolitanism. The family made two trips to Europe while William James was still a child, setting a pattern that resulted in thirteen more European journeys during his life. His early artistic bent led to an apprenticeship in the studio of William Morris Hunt in Newport, Rhode Island, but he switched in 1861 to scientific studies at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University.

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 deaf. 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 (Wilky) and Robertson (Bob), fought in the Civil War. The other three siblings (William, Henry, and Alice James) all suffered from periods of invalidism.

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 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

Reviews

[Juliette]

Je n’ai pas compris grand chose (et pourtant il se répétait beaucoup)

“par exemple, vous pensez que vous êtes simplement en train de boire ce verre, mais vous êtes en réalité en train de déclencher la cirrhose du foie qui mettra fin à vos jours” merci William

[Illiterate]

James argues, more or less correctly, that relations and activity are part of experience, so consciousness is a function not an entity. Bye bye idealism.

[Rory]

William James is an excellent writer and a giant in terms of the development of psychology and philosophy of mind at the end of the 19th century.

However, this collection of essays from 1904-1907 is a poor introduction to his Radical Empiricism.

Unnecessarily drawn out, this collection includes many disparate arguments about the philosophy of mind that are best left forgotten, there are few essays in this collection that provide genuine insights into his philosophy.

The two exceptions are (i) the first essay, 'Does Consciousness Exist' that sits very well with the most modern, materialist accounts of consciousness. (ii) Essay 13 'Controversy About Truth'.

[evaporée]

les deux premiers essais étaient intéressants et assez clairs, après ça je voulais juste le prendre par les épaules et le secouer de toutes mes forces jusqu’à ce que sa tête tombe de ses épaules pour qu’il se taise enfin il y a pas à se répéter comme ça omg

[Ron Steiner]

Super technical, but a nice way of looking at the world in a different light.

[Andrew Noselli]

According to William James, radical empiricism is the name for the most abstract inquiry into the nature of reason, and in this book he demonstrates just how far one can go into establishing the term for the nature of this discourse, without resorting to scientific language. Like C.G. Jung's book on schizophrenia, this book is a landmark for the diagnosis of the problem in terms of its phenomenological aspects; however we have, in the course of the past hundred years, learned that only testable methods based on a quantitative approach to the subject on a scientific basis has been more promising for research and more profitable for subjects undergoing treatment but, it must be said, the more reliable convenience of the current health conditions have only been obtainable through primordial pragmatists such as William James. Three stars.

[Orest Mercator]

Some of the more difficult of James's writings. I think the ideas are heady, but compelling. At bottom, the notion is still the same: we should reckon as explanatorily significant (and worth explaining) only those things which we commonly experience. And in the explanation, we would do quite well to avoid suppositions at odds with our experience (e.g., assuming that knower and known are inherently separate instead of fundamentally unified).

[Marcus Lira]

I like the first chapter quite a lot, in which he presents consciousness as a function, and not as an entity.

[Bill White]

James in essay form can be more humorous than usual. Easy read compared to Kant!

[Antonino Leo]

Peggior libro letto nel 2022. È tutto fatto male.
L’esposizione nel complesso risulta poco chiara ed inutilmente contorta.

Mettendo da parte il fatto che è un libro accademico, per gli addetti ai lavori, che potrebbe anche giustificarne in parte l’astrusità (dello scritto, non dei concetti), per il resto è pieno di errori grammaticali e di punteggiatura, alcune frasi sono ambigue e probabilmente la traduzione è stata fatta con i piedi.

Difficile dire quanto il testo sia stato reso astruso dall’autore e quanto dall’editore, sicuramente entrambi hanno fatto la loro parte.

Ciononostante ho dato tre stelle perché in effetti i concetti ci sono, quello che si comprende risulta interessante, personalmente non illuminante, però il contributo intellettuale lo si trova…(sotto matasse di giri di parole e grovigli di pensieri filosofici diversi)

È stato uno dei rarissimi libri che ho acquistato “a scatola chiusa” , non so perché e non ricordo neanche come sono arrivato a scoprire il libro. Forse mi aveva affascinato il titolo “empirismo radicale”. Lezione imparata…

Parte interessante:
“È solo in quanto alterate i miei oggetti, che posso indovinare la vostra esistenza. Se i vostri oggetti non si fondono coi miei, se non sono identicamente dove sono i miei, bisogna provare che si trovano effettivamente da qualche altra parte… praticamente le nostre menti si incontrano in un mondo di oggetti che hanno in comune, e che esisterebbero ancora se uno o diverse menti fossero distrutte.”

[Mark Dawes]

Just reading the lecture on the “compounding of consciousness” one of the simpler ideas in the book. With the simple example of hydrogen joining oxygen to form water and reflecting on the properties of the individual components, Williams proves the notion that 1+1 can equal 3. Net the essences of each when added together form something new and different while still encompassing the original ingredients and their characters. This was all I needed. And water is not the sum of hydrogen and oxygen.

[Ezra]

ohmygod ok first off great writer great name great guy did you know he was a cowboy and also enjoyed the occasional lsd trip second off amazing in terms of philosophical argumentation, convincing as a hammer, last article felt out of place but totally would read again love u wj

[atito]

hm. certainly a Whole Lot but a lot that is good

[Grace Annunziato]

Really enjoyed the first few essays, then it started to drag. I think you can get most of the content in this book from reading the first 2 essays. Worth reading for those alone , though.

[madelyn]

He's just a goose. American Philosophy Fall 2022

[Yusuf Hacking]

Was very good, very clear. Seems to be getting at something groundbreaking.

[Molsa Roja(s)]

Complicadíssima lectura! Probablement sigui perquè desconec la tradició empirista en general, però m'ha semblat un recull força difícil. Diria que el gruix teòric es concentra a les primeres setanta pàgines, i els articles posteriors tornen sobre les mateixes idees. El que he entès bàsicament és que James intenta desmuntar el paradigma de coneixement instal•lat en l'oposició subjecte - objecte, atacant d'arrel el mateix concepte de consciència. En aquest punt, i tenint en compte l'actualitat dels estudis animals i les últimes lectures sobre consciència animal que he fet, m'ha semblat molt interessant: la consciència porta segles sent discutida, i diria que cada escriptor en té la seva pròpia idea. Però la consciència -o la falta de- à la William James va més enllà d'aquest pseudo apparatus interior abstracte, i emplaça el coneixement en les relacions que es formen entre experiències pures, cadascuna formada per matèries que li són pròpies, conformant aquestes relacions l'establiment d'una dualitat coneixedor - conegut que trascendeix l'habitual. També lidia amb l'oposició experiència interna / externa, en quant l'externa es pot definir com a realitat física energètica (on el foc crema una branca) i l'interna com a la mateixa realitat però inocua, amb una relació diferent amb les idees amb què s'associa (al pensament, la calor del foc que crema la branca no existeix); així, aquesta oposició experiencial queda anul•lada i només tindrem en compte com actua amb les seves idees associades.

[Nanto]

Bukan gaya bukan iseng, cuma karena dulu pernah gak bisa jawab soal ujian, "coba jelaskan pendapat anda mengenai radical Baconian dalam studi HI?"

Gubrak!!!

Pertanyaan yang gue gak pernah inget muncul diperkuliahan. Ato guenya yang bolos yah? Yang ada cuma garuk-garuk kepala dan memutuskan skip the question...

Iseng itu ternyata, hola kita berjumpa lagi, cuma kini melalui wajah mBah James yang pemikirannya menjadi akar dalam pragmatisme yang berkembang di Amerika sana itu. Beda sama radical Baconian gak papalah. Yang penting bisa ngejawab soal ujian yang pernah di-skip itu.

[Vladimir]

Somewhat more difficult to read than Pragmatism or Principles of Psychology. (Note to publishers: do not hesitate to translate all the Latin and German quotes.) Most of what he talks about here has been dealt with in other works, and if you are specifically interested in radical empiricism, start with A Pluralistic Universe. In this book I can only recommend essays on consciousness and pure experience. If you are new to James in general, it may be wise to start somewhere else.

[David Gross]

The good parts of this I'd seen elsewhere. The rest is a lot of miscellany, including many examples of James's replies to the criticisms of other philosophers. Without the presence of the antagonists, though, these often read like overhearing one side of a telephone conversation. Oh yeah, and one of the essays is in French. So, all in all, not the favorite W.J. I've read by any means.

[Caeparius]

j'ai kiffé le concept