Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life

by John Kaag

From the celebrated author of American Philosophy: A Love Story and Hiking with Nietzsche, a compelling introduction to the life-affirming philosophy of William James

In 1895, William James, the father of American philosophy, delivered a lecture entitled "Is Life Worth Living?" It was no theoretical question for James, who had contemplated suicide during an existential crisis as a young man a quarter century earlier. Indeed, as John Kaag writes, "James's entire philosophy, from beginning to end, was geared to save a life, his life"--and that's why it just might be able to save yours, too. Sick Souls, Healthy Minds is a compelling introduction to James's life and thought that shows why the founder of pragmatism and empirical psychology--and an inspiration for Alcoholics Anonymous--can still speak so directly and profoundly to anyone struggling to make a life worth living.

Kaag tells how James's experiences as one of what he called the "sick-souled," those who think that life might be meaningless, drove him to articulate an ideal of "healthy-mindedness"--an attitude toward life that is open, active, and hopeful, but also realistic about its risks. In fact, all of James's pragmatism, resting on the idea that truth should be judged by its practical consequences for our lives, is a response to, and possible antidote for, crises of meaning that threaten to undo many of us at one time or another. Along the way, Kaag also movingly describes how his own life has been endlessly enriched by James.

Eloquent, inspiring, and filled with insight, Sick Souls, Healthy Minds may be the smartest and most important self-help book you'll ever read.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Psychology, Self Help, Biography, History, Mental Health

210 pages, Hardcover

Published March 3, 2020

About the author

John Kaag is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and author of American Philosophy: A Love Story. It is a story of lost library, a lost American intellectual tradition and a lost person--and their simultaneous recovery.

Kaag is a dispirited young philosopher at sea in his marriage and his career when he stumbles upon West Wind, a ruin of an estate in the hinterlands of New Hampshire that belonged to the eminent Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking. Hocking was one of the last true giants of American philosophy and a direct intellectual descendent of William James, the father of American philosophy and psychology, with whom Kaag feels a deep kinship. It is James’s question “Is life worth living?” that guides this remarkable book.

The books Kaag discovers in the Hocking library are crawling with insects and full of mold. But he resolves to restore them, as he immediately recognizes their importance. Not only does the library at West Wind contain handwritten notes from Whitman and inscriptions from Frost, but there are startlingly rare first editions of Hobbes, Descartes, and Kant. As Kaag begins to catalog and read through these priceless volumes, he embarks on a thrilling journey that leads him to the life-affirming tenets of American philosophy―self-reliance, pragmatism, and transcendence―and to a brilliant young Kantian who joins him in the restoration of the Hocking books.

Part intellectual history, part memoir, American Philosophy is ultimately about love, freedom, and the role that wisdom can play in turning one’s life around.

John lives with his daughter, Becca, and partner, Carol, outside of Boston.

Reviews

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 3 out of 5]

جان های بیمار ، ذهن های سرحال کتابی ایست از جان کاگ ، نویسنده انگلیسی . او کوشیده به بررسی زندگی و فلسفه ویلیام جیمز، به ویژه دیدگاه او در مورد جان بیمار و ذهن سرحال، و چگونگی کاربرد این ایده‌ها در زندگی معاصر بپردازد .
مفهوم جان بیمار و ذهن سرحال از دیدگاه جان کاگ:
جان بیمار احتمالا به حالت روحی اشاره دارد که در آن فرد احساس پوچی، بدبینی، تردید ، اضطراب و بی‌معنایی در زندگی دارد. این حالت می‌تواند ناشی از تجربیات تلخ، فشارهای زندگی، یا حتی تمایل ذاتی به تفکر عمیق و پرسشگری باشد. جیمز خود در دوران جوانی با این وضعیت روبرو بود و کاگ با استفاده از زندگی جیمز کوشیده نشان ‌دهد که این احساسات، هرچند دردناک، می‌توانند زمینه‌ساز رشد و تحول شوند.
ذهن سرحال هم به نگرشی فعال، امیدوار، عمل‌گرا و پذیرنده نسبت به زندگی اشاره دارد. فردی با ذهن سرحال احتمالا قادر است با چالش‌ها روبرو شود، معنا و هدف در زندگی بیابد و از لحظات مثبت لذت ببرد، حتی در مواجهه با سختی‌ها. این حالت روحی بر انتخاب، اراده و تمرکز بر امکانات موجود تاکید دارد.
کاگ کوشیده تا با از ترکیبی از تحلیل فلسفی، شرح زندگی ویلیام جیمز ، خاطرات شخصی خود و با زبانی ساده و صمیمی ، خواننده را با اندیشه‌های جیمز و ارتباط آن‌ها با چالش‌های زندگی امروزه آشنا و همراه کند.
ویلیام جیمز که در دوران جوانی با بحران‌های اگزیستانسیال و احساس پوچی روبرو بوده . او با سوالات اساسی در مورد معنای زندگی، اراده آزاد و ارزش وجود پریشان و آشفته شده بود و حتی به فکر خودکشی هم افتاد. این تجربیات شخصی نقش بسیار مهمی در شکل‌گیری فلسفه او ایفا کردند و در نهایت به او کمک کردند تا از این وضعیت روحی دشوار عبور کند و به یک ذهن سرحال رسید.
حال جیمز چگونه خوب شد ؟
باور به اراده آزاد و انتخاب نگرش را احتمالا باید مهمترین گام در بهبود وضعیت روحی جیمز دانست . باور به اراده آزاد به جیمز احساس عاملیت داد ، یعنی حس اینکه او مسئول زندگی خود هست و می‌تواند بر مسیر آن تاثیر بگذارد. این احساس قدرت و کنترل بر زندگی، نقش مهمی در سلامت روان و احساس رضایت از زندگی جیمز داشت. جیمز این گونه و با اعتقاد به ریشه داشتن انتخاب در خود فرد ، مسئولیت پذیری را عامل مهمی در رشد شخصی، یادگیری از اشتباهات و تلاش برای بهبود دانست . بدون باور به اراده آزاد، مفهوم مسئولیت بی‌معنا خواهد بود، زیرا اعمال انسان صرفاً نتیجه عوامل خارج از کنترل تلقی می‌شوند .
با پذیرش انتخاب و نتایج متفاوت آن ، جیمز انگیزه بیشتری برای تلاش و پیگیری اهداف خود پیدا کرد و سرانجام با یافتن معنا و هدف زندگی ، حال جیمز خوب شد !
جان های بیمار ، ذهن های سرحال در میان کتاب هایی با موضوع مشابه در جای پایینی قرار می گیرد . ترجمه نسبتا ضعیف و نه چندان روان آقای نصرالله زاده ، همچنین عدم رعایت علائم نگارشی ، خواندن کتاب را کمی آزار دهنده و درک اندیشه های جیمز را سخت کرده.

[sAmAnE · Rating 3 out of 5]

نویسنده سعی کرده از خاطرات و تفکرات فردی به نام ویلیام جیمز برای نوشتن این کتاب استفاده کنه، تجربیات و نظریات او و دریافتش از زندگی را در این کتاب به نگارش آورده و به دیگران نیز آن‌ها را توصیه می‌کند. جیمز فردی است که به پراگماتیسم و فلسفه عمل‌گرایی معتقده؛ او عقیده داره که این فلسفه میتونه افراد را در زندگی شاداب‌تر و بی‌باک‌تر کند و اینکه ترس از زندگی را کاهش می‌دهد.
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از کتاب: او خواهان ساختن و پرداختن فلسفه‌ای بود که ضمن صادق بودن تمام و کمال نسبت به واقعیات پرگره و غالبا متناقض زندگی، به آن میلی نیز که بسیاری از ما برای تعالی جستن از این واقعیات داریم وفادار باشیم.
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اوایل کتاب خیلی برام خسته‌کننده بود ولی به تدریج بهتر میشه؛ این کتاب به علاقه مندان به فلسفه پیشنهاد شده.

[Haniye_Mirkamali · Rating 3 out of 5]

اول از همه بگم که این کتاب رو به علاقه‌مندان فلسفه توصیه میکنم.

پُرگویی‌های نویسنده در مورد تجربیات خودش در این کتاب، موجب می‌شد که یجاهایی واقعا کسل‌کننده پیش بره. من دوسداشتم از اول تا اخر فقط از فلسفه‌ی جیمز بخونم.
قسمت‌هایی از کتاب که فلسفه‌ی عمل‌گرایی جیمز رو توصیف کرده بود واقع برام لذت بخش بود.
در کل توقعم خیلی بالاتر بود
ولی متاسفانه کتاب سریع پیش نمیرفت و خسته‌کننده بود.

اتمام..
۲۶ مرداد ۱۴۰۰
ساعت ۱۹:۵۶

[Marc Lamot · Rating 2 out of 5]

My far too long “to read” list has long included “books on American pragmatism”. So, I didn’t hesitate when I saw this beautifully published book in my bookstore. William James (1842-1910) is nothing less than the father of that philosophical movement, and so I hoped to score a nice introduction here. Unfortunately, John Kaag may have intended this as an introduction, in practice it has become more of a self-help book. In hindsight, I could have suspected that, based on the subtitle.
Kaag, himself a specialist in pragmatic philosophy, zooms in on James’ personal life, especially the man’s many existential struggles, and he also connects them with his own struggles, including suicidal thoughts. You may find this courageous or repellent, but it distracted me from my question of what James and pragmatism stand for. “Truth is what works”, is the classic summary of that philosophy. And, of course, I already knew that this is a rather simplistic summary. Kaag only gets around to providing some explanation on this towards the end of his book. But what about everything that precedes it? I don't know. Perhaps it is commendable to present the winding path of a genius (James, that is, Kaag does his best to attribute a more average level to himself) to demonstrate that you can indeed cut through fundamental existential knots by thinking calmly and especially by reasoning hands-on, and thus reach the light from the darkness. Again, I don't know. I - who am rather optimistic by nature - had little use for this. So, I will have to take another look at the rest of my "to read" list.

[Ryan Boissonneault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is life worth living? If you are a “sick soul” (using William James’s terminology) the best you can hope to say is, “maybe.” Sick souls are predisposed to focusing on the negative aspects of life and suffer with a temperament that leads to bouts of depression and existential dread. This was certainly the case with James (he contemplated suicide more than once) and, apparently, also with John Kaag.

But this makes Kaag the ideal author for this book, as he provides a more personal account of James’s philosophy than you are likely to find in the more academic treatments. For James, Kaag, and others, philosophy is not a trivial exercise or a “language game”; rather, it’s a matter of life or death.

Kaag shows how James’s pragmatism can help people reaffirm their will to live by providing a philosophical system of hope and action based on the foundational belief in free will. The reader will learn why they should believe in free will, how to overcome negative emotions, and how to use mental habits and behaviors to create positive self-fulfilling prophecies. At the least, this will provide some useful pointers, and, at best, may end up making someone's life a lot more bearable.

Whether one finds this book inspiring or not will largely depend on their temperament and also on their thoughts on pragmatism in general. Pragmatism, of course, is not without its problems; the idea that one’s beliefs are true because they produce what that person deems to be useful consequences does not, in general, hold up to critical scrutiny. On the other hand, in regard to complex topics like free will, where the evidence is inconclusive, consequences might in fact become relevant where empirical evidence fails.

Wherever you stand on the issue, there is no question that Kaag has given pragmatism—and James’s philosophy more specifically—its most charitable and useful interpretation.

[Amir Sahbaee · Rating 3 out of 5]

امتیاز دقیق‌تر:۳.۵
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اولین بار کتاب رو از مصطفی ملکیان در یکی از سخنرانی‌هاش شنیدم.توصیه کرد جان‌های بیمار سراغ این کتاب برن.
کتاب رو خریدم و فکر کردم بذارمش برای وقتی که حالم خوب نیست تا بیماری جان رو باهاش درمان کنم و گزینه‌ی خودکشی رو از روی میز بردارم:))
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جان کاگ سعی می‌کنه نشون بده که ویلیام جیمز هم از "جان‌های بیمار" بوده و بعد مسیر فلسفی جیمز (درواقع هم مسیر اندیشه و فکر جیمز و هم مسیر زندگی جیمز به عنوان یک انسان)رو بررسی میکنه تا شاید ما هم بتونیم به واسطه‌ی اون و با درس گرفتن ازش،راهمون رو پیدا کنیم.
همزمان نویسنده گریزهایی به زندگی خودش میزنه تا کاربردهایی از این اندیشه رو در زندگی شخصیش نشون بده.
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ویلیام جیمز رو به عنوان پدر روانشناسی آمریکایی میشناسیم.کسی که کارهای بزرگی در فلسفه و روانشناسی انجام داده.یکی از مهمترین کارش نگارش کتاب"اصول روانشناسی" بوده که این کتاب زیاد بهش می‌پردازه.اما چیزهایی وجود داره که شاید نمیدونستیم .مثلا بزرگ شدن جیمز که تحت تاثیر ارثی که به پدرش میرسه خیلی پربار بوده.سرشار از سفر و انتخاب‌.پدرش هنری جیمز تلاش میکرده که جیمز گزینه‌های زیادی برای اینده‌ش داشته باشه و خودش رو محدود نکنه.جیمز نقاش خوبی هم بوده(البته نه اونقدر خوب که این حرفه رو برای زندگی انتخاب کنه)
از اینکه زندگی ویلیام غم های بزرگی داشته.اونقدر که اون نقاشی معروف رو میکشه و جمله‌ی شکسپیر رو بالاش می‌نویسه:"اینجا من و اندوه نشسته‌ایم".
اینکه چطور راهش رو انتخاب میکنه.پزشکی خوندنش و تدریسش در دانشگاه چه شرایطی داشته و...
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ویلیام جیمز با جبرگرایی مشکل داشته‌.جبرگرایی که انسان و انتخاب هاش رو ناچیز میدونه و بی‌تاثیر بر جهان خارج.همین میشه که به اراده‌ی معطوف به باور رو میاره و درموردش اندیشه و سخنرانی می‌کنه.
جیمز به این نتیجه‌ی مهم میرسه که "خواستن" خودش باعث خلق واقعیت میشه.اما بعد دردسر بزرگی داره برای اینکه نسبی گرایی رو از خودش و یافته‌هاش دور بکنه.
که توضیح بده که هرچند خواستن،واقعیت رو خلق میکنه اما حقیقتی هم وجود داره که احتمالا بهترین قاضی براش "حس" های ما باشن.
صحبت های بسیار خوبی درباره‌ی عادت می‌کنه.اینکه چطور همزمان این "عادت" میتونه باعث دوام آوردن ما و همچنین باعث کم شدن لذت‌های ما بشن.
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کتاب اگر به کتاب فلسفی علاقه داشته باشید خوندنیه.نسخه‌ی فلسفی و درست حسابی‌تر این کتاب‌های خودیاریه.
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در نهایت هم حرف کتاب اینه که همونطور که ویلیام جیمز گفته،زندگی فقط "شاید" ارزش زیستن داشته باشه.هیچ قطعیتی براش در‌کار نیست.اما همیشه میشه روی اون "شاید" حساب کرد
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یه مشکل�� که کتاب داشت این بود که زندگی جیمز رو کامل کامل روایت نکرد.اگر ما با جیمز جلو میرفتیم خیلی جذاب‌تر بود.اینکه کودکی فلان شد،فلان سال اینجوری آشنا شد ازدواج کرد،فلان سال فلان حرف رو اینجوری نوشت...
البته سعی کرده بود اینکارو بکنه اما یه جاهایی انگار ویلیام جیمز و زندگیش میرفت کنار و ما فقط درگیر آراء جیمز میشدیم.حتی اگر درباره‌ی زندگی خودش هم اینکارو میکرد به‌نظرم جذاب‌تر بود‌.
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مترجم خیلی خوب و جذاب بود نثرش.کاملا هم به یک نثر فلسفی میومد زبانی که انتخاب کرده بود.سخن نهاییش هم خوب و خلاصه و جذاب بود.
اما ۲تا مشکل داشت به نظرم:
اول اینکه بعضی کلمه‌هایی که استفاده کرده بود دیگه زیادی کم‌کاربرد بود.نمیدونم چه دلیلی داره کلمه‌ای که احتمالا ۷۰درصد خواننده‌هات متوجهش نمیشن رو انتخاب کنی.
دوم اینکه طبق معمول کتاب پاورقی نداشت.واقعا نمیفهمم چطور متن غیرداستانی رو بدون پاورقی چاپ میکنن‌.وقتی شما میگی "ایستار" من چطور متوجه بشم که چی رو ترجمه کردی ایستار و اصلا یعنی چی؟اونم وقتی کلمه‌ی ترجمه شده پرکاربرد نیست.یا مثلا "سلیم الذهن" یا "رازورزی"
نمیدونم چرا براشون سخته کلمه‌هارو یه بار پاورقی کنن بفهمیم منظور چیه بعد حالا هرجور میخوان ترجمه کنن.
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اونقدی که فک میکردم حالمو خوب نکرد

[Razieh mehdizadeh · Rating 1 out of 5]

درمورد ترجمه آیم اسپیچلس

[Stephanie C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I happen to love William James, the father of American Psychology, but I had no idea that he battled debilitating depression nearly his whole life which I find wholly intriguing. While I am still struggling to figure out the connection between the title, though, alongside the author’s hopscotch over James’ life - perhaps to apply to the author’s own family struggles (his own therapy mayhaps?), I like the tidbits of biography that the author offered up from James’ mammoth Principles of Psychology volume.

I can see how James struggled with suicide when he was immersed in nihilistic thinking that life had no meaning, or with positive thinking that nothing mattered besides concrete science. Yet through his suicidal ideation came one of the most influential philosophical psychologists of all time, and he found ways of battling through depression with changed thinking and action. Ever heard of “fake it ‘til you make it” or rather, smile, and you’ll be happier? Slump your shoulders and your mood slumps with them. He figured out that mood followed action, not necessarily the other way around. Still, the involved philosophical discussions, along with the mind-numbing passages on the definition of consciousness, were a bit much.

I would only recommend this to fellow James fans like myself, and perhaps if you also like philosophy, but even I struggled to get through this without pausing to take a brain break.

[Thai D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kaag tries hard to make James exciting. It didn't work. For a book on the father of Pragmatism, the book essentially said nothing at all. In the end, I felt more curious about the author's divorce than James' philosophy - and that's not a good sign for a philosophy book.

[Laleh · Rating 3 out of 5]

"زندگی ارزش زیستن دارد_شاید"
محتوای فصول به شرح زیر بود:
مقدمه: جان رنجوری و نفرت از زندگی
فصل۱:یاس و نومیدی و جبرگرایی
فصل۲:موضوعاتی مانند رنج،غم،آزادی،عشق،خواست و اراده
فصل۳:چگونه عادت ها مانع شناخت "من واقعی" می‌شوند؟عواطف،احساسات،و قدرت اراده چگونه عمل میکنند؟
فصل۴:اگاهی،جریان سیال اگاهی،زندگی زیسته،ذهن،تجربه
فصل۵:جایگاه حقیقت و پیامد در مکتب پراگماتیسم،شور،انزوا،حقیقت
فصل۶:کنش(عمل)،امید،ارزش زیستن زندگی،تجربیات دینی و...
کتاب بر پایه تفکرات ویلیام جیمز،فیلسوف و روانشناس پراگماتیسمی بود.جان کاگ برای گذر از تجربیات ناخوشایندش جیمز را انتخاب کرده بود و در کنار خودزندگی نامه‌ی خود با بیان توصیه ها و نظریات جیمز به گذر از این تجربیات پرداخته بود.
در قسمت یادداشت مترجم جمله ای بود که به خوبی چکیده ای از کتاب را شرح میداد:
"حال خوب،و حتی خوشبختی،یک حالت یا وضعیت نیست،بلکه یک عمل یا فعالیت است؛چیزی نیست که بتوان با ژرف‌اندیشی بدان نائل آمد،بلکه برای نیل بدان باید از اراده ازاد خو مدد گرفت و دست به عمل و اقدام زد"

[Andreea Toader · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The art of being wise," James suggested, "was knowing what to overlook".

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this book may sound like a self-help book, but that’s misleading. The book is partially a biography and partially an interpretative look at some of James’ key ideas. At the same time Kaag intersperses his own experiences that are relevant to James’ life and thought. The result is both a clear and interesting account of James’ life and thought. Much more has been written about James, of course, but this is a fine introduction to William James, one of the giants of modern psychology and philosophy.

One of James’ essential ideas is that minds cannot be separated from their bodies and experiences. He disagreed with a prevalent notion in the l9th century that minds are the equivalent of computers, bloodless calculators, set atop bodies, an idea that stems from Descartes dualistic split between mind and body, one that led to his “I think, therefore I am” thought.

What’s particularly good about this book is that Kaag shows how James became interested in the workings of the mind in the first place. James enjoyed a privileged childhood and was financially secure all of his life thanks to inherited wealth. But early on, he became depressed and even considered suicide. Kaag’s comment is that “it is as if only a person has been given everything that one has the chance to realize that everything might never be enough to really matter.” His depression was largely due to being influenced by deterministic thought that all of our actions are predetermined by factors beyond our control – environment and heredity, for example. If this is true, what is the point of living?

James’ attitude began to change with the realization that experience can never be totally known or predicted, but that is still no reason to be pessimistic about human beings being able to take meaningfully positive and helpful actions. The will to believe in a good outcome is a powerful one; a good example is falling in love. Lasting affection is hoped for, but nothing is pre-arranged. Failures are bound to happen , but successes also occur. In James’ own life, he took a chance on being in love, and with luck and work, his marriage seems to have been a solid success.

There were tragedies in James’ life, one being the death of his son from pneumonia at age five. The only way that James seemed able to go on with his life was through his work. Kaag writes, “. . . his struggle with determinism, the excavation of free will, his emphasis on action and habit formation his sensitive study of the stream of consciousness. These were the different vectors of meaning that helped James make it to middle-age.”

James’ experiences and research led him to write perhaps his best known work, VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE which looks at how people try to I satisfy their spiritual needs through non-traditional experiences and practices. If humans are open at the right time and place, (not a state of mind that can be willed into existence ), there can be glimpses of a deeper reality. Ordinarily, practical matters and habits keep us distant from any such awareness, one that Ralph Waldo Emerson, a strong influence on James, called a “transcendental experience.’

I think Kaag’s book shows how James in his life and work, came to a kind of circle, moving from a young man who was close to a dead end of despair , to a mature man who poured his energy into studying the life of the mind, and finally to an old man who came to accept the idea that life ia always open to mystery and novelty.

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sick Souls, Healthy Minds opens with a discussion of suicide, centering both on Kaag's experience with and of it as well as William James's, who contemplated suicide as a young man during an existential crisis. It remains a theme throughout the book, even if the tenor does become slightly more uplifting. The book itself is an interesting biographical mix—both James and Kaag feature prominently, even if it's mostly about James—and the question "why live?" is addressed and at least partly answered through James's—and Kaag's—gradually coming to terms with it. For James, the question of whether life was worth living wasn't merely theoretical; as Kaag writes, "James's entire philosophy, from beginning to end, was geared to save a life, his life." What Kaag nicely shows is how deeply James's philosophy of pragmatism related to his life and to the crises he faced. Kaag, through James, wants to make 'sick souls' understandable to others; and, as one sick soul to another, wants to offer some advice. Not that life is worth living, because, with James, Kaag thinks that whether life is worth living depends on the liver—but more to consider that it could be; that you can, at any time, still make something of it.

I don't think it's a book for everyone, but I do think that it could be meaningful to some people—which is probably more important in the end. I don't consider myself a sick soul, although I can relate to a certain amount of soul sickness. For what it's worth, the most valuable part of the book for me concerned James's insights into the limiting nature of habits and routine and on the value of moving beyond them.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

As soon as I saw the title, I knew I would want to read this, because it is about William James. Then I saw that Powell's books was in trouble, so I went online and ordered a copy, thereby convincing myself I was helping a bookstore stay in business and indulging my desire to read this right away. I'm glad I did, because I learned more about James, but I'm sorry to say this book was not the pleasure that Sarah Bakewell's book about Montaigne was, for example. This book was a bit too much about the author's own struggles and apparently was written mostly in hopes of keeping people (the author included) from committing suicide, without sugar-coating life and the choice to stay in it. That's admirable enough, but I guess I was looking for something else. I gave it four stars because it was good enough to keep me reading, and because makes me want to read more of James, and more about him, so that means it must have been inspiring in some way. I now see that the title should have tipped me off to what this book would be like, but I'm glad i read it anyway. Thanks to the author for reminding us of the continuing relevance of William James!

[Tan Zi Han · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book was full of gems. True to James's philosophy of pragmatism, I found this book very practical. I'll share a few points.

James writes that our human mind is embodied and our mental thoughts are inseparable from our bodily lived experiences. Not uncontroversial if you think about it. However, the corollary is that when we change our minds, we also change our bodies. Personally I've found this useful when manipulating the causal relationship backwards. When we make healthy decisions in relation to our bodies, it has a healthy knock-on effect on our minds.

A lot of James's work revolves around determinism and free will. Of particular interest to me is how this relates to love. To James, both free will and love are radical, life-altering, working hypotheses, verified or disproved in experience. Both require a type of initial belief of blind faith that might later be confirmed by time and experience. He goes on to say that this even entails a self-deception - a willingness to act as if you have all the facts about someone when you don't. Without being able to articulate it this well, this is something I've wholeheartedly believed in. I don't know if one will have ever have all the necessary facts to take any action but to not act is to surrender to disengagement and paralysis.

The last point I've bookmarked is something I keep coming back to. This is John Kaag fulfilling his titular proposition - how James might save my life. James understands our consciousness as a stream of consciousness - a rushing current of thoughts that flow and eddy in a continuous manner. This has profound implications as to how we think and experience things. If we accept this proposition of our consciousness as an unceasing flow of thoughts propelled by time and experience, then we must also accept that any state of mind is temporary. "No state once gone can recur and be identical with what it was before". This, to me, is a comforting thought. No matter how terrible one might feel at one moment, the quality and intensity of that feeling will change in the next moment and the next. It is this concept that really underpins and illuminates what might be trite maxims like "this too shall pass" or "time heals all". In these times, I cling on to this notion dearly.

[Fatemeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

و اما این کتاب سخت خوان و دیر فهم! نمی‌دونم شاید برای منی که فلسفه تخصصی نخوندم دیرفهم بود اما یک مشکل اساسی رو من در کل کتابهای این چنینی می بینم و اون هم ترجمه است! جملات گاهی طوری نوشته شده‌اند که می‌تونستم اصل جمله رو مجسم کنم که چطور کلمه به کلمه ترجمه شده! جمله بندی های سخت، کلمات سخت‌تر، طوری که گاهی نویسنده معادل انگلیسی رو هم داخل پرانتز قرار داده!... به هر حال متن کتاب یک طور خودنوشت تحلیلی درباره زندگی و آرا ویلیام جیمز هست، برام قسمت های زندگینامه جیمز بسیار جذاب بود ولی واقعا ترجمه سخت کتاب باعث شد خواندنش خیلی طول بکشه و شیرینی کار رو بگیره!

[Bita Karami · Rating 3 out of 5]

آیا زندگی ارزش زیستن دارد ؟

[Tintarella · Rating 2 out of 5]

یک متفکر سخت‌اندیش مانند فیلسوف تجربه‌گرای بریتانیایی، دیوید هیوم، در ارتباط با افق‌های معرفت انسانی، سخت مشکوک است، آن هم شکی مُصرانه و ریشه‌ای. فرد سخت‌اندیش می‌گوید: «دنبال حقیقت هستید؟ بسیار خوب، بخت یارتان باشد! شما هیچ‌گاه به ذره‌ای از یقین دست نخواهید یافت. شواهد تجربی مدام در حال تغییرند و از همین رو همواره علیه شما هستند.» این برای جیمز بیش از حد سخت و محکم بود. از سوی دیگر، فیلسوف نرم‌اندیش، که متفکران دستگاه‌سازی مانندگوتفرید لایبنیتس مظهر آن هستند، قائل به آن است که نوعی نیروی فراانسانی یا نظام کیهانی حافظ و ضامن حقیقت است. پاسخ آنان چنین است: «دنبال حقیقت هستید؟ بخت یارتان است. خداوند به قدرت تدبیرش پیشاپیش مشکلتان را حل کرده است. مهیای آن باشید.» ابن هم برای جیمز آن قدری که باید سخت و محکم نبود... ما ناگزیریم امروز را با حقیقتی که امروز قادر به اخذ آنیم زندگی کنیم و آماده باشیم که فردا همان را دروغ و خطا بنامیم. (141)
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در پایان عمر حرفه‌ایش، جیمز دائماً متذکر می‌شد که دانشگاه خیلی آهسته در حال تغییر است، و نه در جهت بهتر شدن. زمان، زمانِ بیرون آمدن بود. دانشگاه داشت بیش از حد «گنده» می‌شد. در سال هزار و نهصد و سه، جیمز جستاری نوشت با عنوان «اختاپوس پی اچ دی»، روایتی هجوآمیز اما به نحو پریشان‌کننده‌ای آینده بین از وضع فردای آموزش عالی. در آن‌جا او پیش‌بینی کرد که دانشگاه‌های ما با دستجاتی حرفه‌ای از دپارتمان‌ها مرزکشی و تقسیم‌بندی خواهد شد و وجه مشخصه‌ی آن‌ها تخصصی شدن بیشینه و گزاف‌شان خواهد بود، وضعیتی که فقط یک فرهنگ دستجاتی قادر است آن را ایجاد کند. آموزگاران -گونه‌ای انسانی که ممکن است هنوز پرسش‌هایی معنادار درباره‌ی معنی زندگی در سر بپرورند- با پروفسورها و اساتید جایگزین خواهند شد، افرادی که تخصص و هنرشان حرف‌زدن استادانه به یک زبان زرگریِ هرچه اثیری‌تر خواهد بود. و جام‌های مِهرنشان جای‌شان را به مقالاتی خواهند داد که هم‌ترازانِ دانشگاهیِ استاد مربوط در بررسی و مرور آثار او خواهند نوشت. (170)

[nazanin · Rating 1 out of 5]

شروع کتاب و اوایلشو دوست داشتم، شاید تا صد صفه اول. روند خوبی داره و در مورد مفهوم آزادی، اراده و عمل‌گرایی میگه، طوری که آدمو چندبار نگه میداره و درونشو تکون میده، بخشای اول با تعریف داستان خودش و زندگی جیمز(فیلسوف امریکایی) درکنار فلسفه به خودشناسی و روانشناسی میپردازه. شاید چون کتاب به موقع صدام کرده بود و تو این روزا و احوالم خوندمش گره ای که در مورد آزادی داشتمو حسابی تاچ کرد و مثل مگنت فکرمو همراه گرفت… اما در ادامه مفاهیم بیشتر گسترده شد و از ذهنم فاصله گرفت، احساس کردم بیست صفه اخرو دستو پا زد که یجوری جمش کنه :/ نفهمیدم چطور جمش کردو دیدم کتاب تموم شده!

[Jeffrey Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's encouraging to see a revival of pragmatism happening.

This is a fantastic introduction to pragmatism and William James for those less-initiated in philosophy. Kaag provides a compelling look inside the motivations of one of America's greatest thinkers. It is a popular philosophy book that really brings to the surface the soulful wrestle William James faced in his attempt to save the dearest of our human values from a narrow and naive empiricism.

Just a few random highlights and personal musings from Sick Souls, Healthy Minds:

-”He rejected ‘bigness’ in all its forms—institutions and ideas that had grown too big for their britches, that were bloated, that reflected the arrogance or hubris of their makers. James witnessed the growth of big government and big business with something akin to horror . . . . ‘Bigness’ ignored the sometimes humble, but always vitally important, potentialities of human individuals. Big institutions tended to treat individuals as mere parts, and not particularly important ones. Big ideas tended to understand people and experiences as types or tokens of a single unifying category, regardless of the many ways in which they might not perfectly fit.”

-”You want a system that will combine . . . the scientific loyalty to facts and willingness to take account of them, the spirit of adaptation and accommodation, in short, but also the old confidence in human values and the resultant spontaneity, whether of the religious or of the romantic type.”

-”James knows that ‘looking on the bright side’ is often not objectively warranted: life is harsh and cruel in all of the ways that the sick soul suspects. It is, however, practically warranted, deeply useful as what he called a ‘lived hypothesis.’ Acting as if the world is a welcoming and tender place occasionally has the effect of making it more so.”

-James knew our dearest beliefs couldn’t be verified or falsified in any comprehensive way. Especially not in a narrow empirical manner that asserts only that which can be measured and observed—particularly in a controlled, decontextualized laboratory setting—is worthy to be considered true. These reductivistic empiricists work with the notion that truth is an object “out there” that can be obtained or uncovered. Alternatively, James argued, “Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events.” An idea has the qualities of truth in as much as it is useful in helping us resolve the problems we face. In other words, the principle of gravity is true by matter of its practical consequences. I am confident that gravity is true because when I live life as if it were true, I am able to accomplish many amazing things. I stay alive because I understand that stepping off a tall building will result in me falling toward a terrifying death. I can also be assured that gravity is true because of the many technologies based on its being true that enable us to flourish more as human beings (safe air travel and construction of reliable buildings, to name a couple).

-In 1870, James found himself reborn, enlivened by the insights of Charles Renouvier regarding free will and determinism. He recounts in his diary: “I think that yesterday was a crisis in my life. I finished 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.” This planted the seed for what would eventually become his famous dictum, his Ebenezer to hurl at determinism. In a 1907 letter to H.G. Wells, he writes: “My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.” His Renouvier epiphany provided him with an “absolute beginning,” as he wrote to his father in 1873. “It is the difference between life and death.” This awakening fueled his campaign over the next few decades as he sought to remake philosophy (and eventually ground psychology in lived experience.)

-”Instead, an idea succeeds, literally ‘moves forward,’ through many tests, conducted by many different people, over an extended period of time. It is like science in this respect. The success of any specific inference is validated only for the time being in a provisional fashion.” Truth, James suggests, is something we moved toward as many individuals test lived hypotheses. We must accept that just about every idea we hold as true will eventually become false, and that as a “community of inquirers”—a term used by Charles Sanders Peirce, a fellow founder of pragmatism—we only come closer to a completeness of truth as a group. Truth is not purely relatively, whatever an individual wants to believe about existence. It is subjective, verified through lived experience, and provisional, always open to the possibility that a view of the world can later become a falsehood.

[Ata mashreghi · Rating 5 out of 5]

اگر بخواهیم درباره‌ی یک سلول فکر کنیم، باید بدانیم یگانه وقتی که سلول‌ به تعادل و ایستایی کامل می‌رسد—«بالانس کامل»، یا «ترازمندی کامل»، آن‌طور که مرشد‌های معنوی ممکن است بگویند—وقتی است که سلول مرده باشد.
زندگی در حرکت اتفاق می‌افتد، و جیمز، بیشتر از بیشترین، مصمم به زنده‌ماندن بود.

[HaifaAhrari · Rating 3 out of 5]

تمام موضوعی که قرار است در این کتاب بخوانید به نظر توی صفحه ۵۰ به زیبایی آورده شده:

«دریازدگی طولانی‌مدت در بیشتر افراد نوعی حالت انهیدونیای موقت ایجاد می‌کند.در آن وضعیت،تنها واکنش متصور آن است که آدمی از هر امر نیکوی زمینی و آسمانی با انزجار روی بگرداند.»

واقعیت مملو از یأس و نومیدی است.کافی است به اطرافتان نگاه کنید.اگر فرد به‌دقت نگاه کند، خواهد دید که رنج استثنا نیست؛قاعده است و اتفاقاً افراد جان‌رنجور عموماً کسانی هستند که بسیار دقیق نگاه می‌کنند.آن‌ها چیزی را می‌فهمند که برخی از افراد سلیم‌الذهن‌تر در بین ما دوست دارند آن را نادیده بگیرند،یعنی اینکه زندگی،هم زندگی انسانی و هم غیر آن،به‌واقع مقدر و محتوم به نظر می‌رسد و البته نه به‌صورت بس خوش‌بینانه آن،منعکس در سیمای پانگلوس و باور ساده‌دلانه‌ی او به اینکه جهان فعلی،بهترینِ همه‌ی جهان‌های ممکن است.جیمز توضیح می‌دهد که این تقدیر نگون و قریب‌الوقوع،در پیش تاریخ ما نوشته شده است:«هیچ دندانی در هیچ‌یک از آن جمجمه‌های موزه‌ای نیست که روزانه،در طول سالیان دراز،در گذشته‌های دور،سخت چسبیده به تنی و آن تن خود در جنگِ مغلوبه با قربانی زنده محکوم به فنایی نبوده باشد.این خود پیامد اخلاقی و عمیقاً شخصی ایده بقای اصلح داروین است:ضعیفان نیست و نابود خواهند شد،و سرانجام،زمان کافی که بگذرد،هر موجودی ضعیف می‌شود.

[Aref Ashoori · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب خوبی بود. در یک مقدمه به نام نفرت از زندگی و شش فصل با نام های ۱.جبرگرایی و یآس ۲. آزادی و زندگی ۳. روانشناسی و ذهن سلیم ۴. آگاهی و
استعلا ۵. حقیقت و پیامدها ۶. حیرت و امید، نویسنده به سراغ برخی مفاهیم و ایده های مطرح در روانشناسی و فلسفه ویلیام جیمز رفته؛ و تلاش کرده در متنی (شاید جستارگونه) از تآملات فلسفی-روانشناسانه جیمز برای ما بگه و از تاثیری که میتونن داشته باشند در به‌زیستن ما. بنظر من این دست تلاش ها و این قبیل التفات ها به پیامدها و اثرات عملی یک اندیشه در زندگی لزوما رنگ زرد ندارند و این کتاب شاید نمونه ی موفق یک سلف-هلپ غیر زرد باشه. البته این نمیتونه نظر محکمی باشه چون من هیچ مطالعه دیگه ای در مورد آثار و اندیشه های ویلیام جیمز نداشته ام و نمیدونم واقعا نویسنده این کتاب، به درستی از جیمز استخراج کرده چنین چیزهایی رو یا صرفا یا نتیجه ی تقلیل گرایی و تفسیر به رآی بوده؟ ترجمه کتاب هم بنظرم اصلا بد نبود و شایسته ی تمجیده. پیشنهاد میکنم بخونید.

[Parag Dass · Rating 2 out of 5]

According to William James, truth is not important, neither is an absolute ethics or a coherent metaphysics. Philosophy is about self help. The pragmatic school is much like stoicism in that regard. How to improve your life, live the good life. While definitely worth thinking about, it is remarkably uninteresting to base your life’s work without considering historical, political, or metaphysical theorising. A comforting read, sometimes inspiring, but not my cup of tea.

[Paul Womack · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is somewhat refreshing, and disturbing, to read an assessment of philosophy, and a philosopher, with much vulnerability in the narrative. For what it is worth, even philosophers have lives that go beyond their books...just like the rest of us. This is a good read and has me eager to go back and re-read James.

Re-read November 28, 2021 to November 30, 2021

[Mary Holt-Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I'd hoped for so much more.

[Peter Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sick Souls by John Kaag

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...


This book is an interweaving of three topics: (a) Jamesian philosophy, (b) James' biography, and (c) the author's reaction to William James. The best part of the book is the author's treatment of the third topic. A reader going into this book looking for a systematic treatment of William James' life or the philosophy of pragmatism is going to be disappointed. Kaag's interest in James is ultimately limited to the theme of staving off depression and suicide.

Author John Kaag starts his book with the observation that "William James’s entire philosophy, from beginning to end, was geared to save a life, his life." Shortly therafter, Kaag offers this as the core point of James' philosophy in that regard: "To such a culture, James gently, persistently urges, “Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”

Anyone familiar with James' "Will to Believe" will recognize this as the gist of James' religious philosophy: a person can come to believe by acting and thinking as if they were already a believer. From that perspective, one can then assess the value of the religion adopted. This certainly seems a "pragmatic" and practical approach to problems that are typically insoluble by mere reasoning, and, hence, is why James' philosophy is called "Pragmatism."

Kaag follows James' life from youth to old age. This account provides a good survey of James' biography. It should serve a fledgling Jamesian scholar as a springboard to dive deeper into James' life. By calling this a survey, I don't want to disrespect that depth that Kaag brings to his subject. He provides the reader with quotes and excerpts from James' letters and other writings. However, again, the purpose of the book is to explore the issue of saving one's life from ennue and angst.

The best part of the book is the author's biographical interaction with James. This part can be very affecting. The author describes his own problems with existence, e.g.,. confronting a suicide, the death of his marriage, finding love after the death of his first love, having a child and, then, having his second marriage fail. I became more interested in the author's life than James, which is probably not the impact the book should have had. With respect to those travails, Kaag applies and discusses James' theories of psychology to explain his own conflict and resolution.

This is a good book for those with an interest in William James or psychology.

[Hesam · Rating 2 out of 5]

کتابی که شاید در نبود فاجعۀ ترجمه، حرف‌های مهمی برای گفتن داشت

اول از همه و با عصبانیت بگم که این دومین تجربۀ دردناک از ترجمۀ کتابی از نشر بیدگل بود (قبلی کتاب حسرت)
ترجمۀ پردست‌انداز مهدی نصراله‌زاده چنان متن رو از میان برده (نظر شخصی و غیرفنی) که دنبال کردن بحث سخت و دشواره

اما دربارۀ خود کتاب و آنچه دستگیرم شد:

بیدل دهلوی جای گفته:
از ورق‌ گردانی وضع جهان غافل مباش
صبح و شام این‌ گلستان انقلاب رنگ‌هاست

به نظرم نگاه مهم ویلیام جیمز، تعبیر جالبی از این شعر بود
اینکه این نگاه مبتنی بر
cause & effect
لاجرم منتهی به نوعی جبرگرایی میشه
اگر مسیر اتفاقات در عالم از یک نقطه و یک علت آغازین شروع شده باشه و خطی و با نگره‌ای نیوتنی و مبتنی بر گذشته جلو اومده باشه ما محکوم به جبریم، گویی کل صفحه بازی و حرکت‌هاش از پیش عیان است

خب جیمز نمی‌تونسته به‌هیچ وجه با این مسأله کنار بیاد و حتی در جوانی دچار افسردگی میشه
در نهایت مبتنی بر کارهای فردی به نام رنوویه سعی می‌کنه درباره‌ی این نگاه نیوتنی بازاندیشی کنه
رنوویه معتقد بود اراده‌ی یک فرد قادره تداوم منطقی یک زنجیره‌ی مکانیکی رو بشکنه و علت آغازین زنجیره‌ای دیگه ای از پدیده‌ها باشه
و همین نگاه اون رو از چاه ویل جبرگرایی به در می‌کنه می‌بره سمت نگاه پراگماتیستی
این جمله معروفش که نخستین عمل نشات گرفته از اراده آزاد، باور به اراده‌ی ازاده

[Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief, biographical, and useful introduction to pragmatism and particularly William James's life and work. Either or not you're already into philosophy in any sense.

Maybe, one can say that the book is mainly focused on the biographical aspects of James and Kaag himself. But I think such an approach is well justified and in line with -I guess- the first purpose of the piece.

I would have liked a longer length, so the author could dig deeper into the central philosophical thesis and arguments. However, it's well documented with references to take the undertaking oneself, including the previous work of the author, "American Philosophy", that I think will be my next incursion in this topic. Moreover, the biographical style provides a very nice format to expose the more technical issues, linking life and ideas in an attractive fashion -like a living "conceptual cartography", maybe?

As a critical note, I think the author regularly assigns to the topic of pragmatism and James's other ideas an undeserved cryptic or obscure nature. This attitude, a think, makes a disservice to the historical picture of the philosophy, that is, like a "deep" and very difficult thing to grasp, reserved to only a reduced bunch of illuminated people. The author could be treating the understanding of the philosophy of James as a life-long task -like himself states sometimes-, so giving the reader a misleading characterization of this particular tradition and, even, philosophy in general.

One way or another, this is an inspiring book -especially if you're are reading it in 2020. A good non-bullshit and responsibly informed self-help book.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A modern writer walks the reader through the philosophy of William James, a late-19th century Harvard philosopher focused on pragmatism, free will, and the worthiness of life.

The author helps ease the reader through a subject which can often seem daunting or heavy--philosophy. It's intense and deep reading in its original form, but the author relates it to his own life and to all our modern lives, which makes it more approachable. And really, William James is fairly approachable as they go.

James grew frustrated with life early on due to some physical limitations and his natural intellectual leanings. Then he was inspired to take the bull by the horns with life, deciding that it is what you make of it (without becoming emptily optimistic). He decided that you have free will if you decide you have free will, because the very act of that decision proves it.

It's an interesting and quick tour through a heavy subject.