The Cambridge Companion to William James

by Ruth Anna Putnam (Editor)

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

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Psychology, Reference

424 pages, Paperback

First published April 13, 1997

About the author

Ruth Anna Putnam was an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College.

Reviews

[Bardon Kaldian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather disappointing. Sure, you'll get some ideas about James' ideas, but you won't get insight into what makes James a significant thinker. For instance, the presentation of his views on "religious experience" is dreadful. Good only for skimming through it.

[saml · Rating 3 out of 5]

as well as being a good set of essays on james, these are a good set of essays. each instilled in me again the love of james as a man

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reasonable context for the writer.

On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings - to penetrate to the inner life of everything. Whereas Dewey viewed the other person primarily as a co-worker in a cooperative venture to realize some shared goal, James wanted to “I-Thou” this person, in fact, the universe at large. In A Pluralistic Universe he even speaks of penetrating by an act of “intuitive sympathy” to “the inner life of the flux” to “the inner nature of reality.” A Pluralistic Universe is a plea for a philosophy of “intimacy” according to which “The inner life of things must be substantially akin anyhow to the tenderer parts of man’s nature.”

How does this quest to penetrate to the inners of things pertain to James’ attachment to introspection? If one already believed that everything had an inner conscious life that gave value and meaning to its existence, as James did, then pride of place would be given to the introspective method.

James thought comprised the crucial American contribution to the international matrix of early modernism. Along with Nietzsche, Bergson, Freud, Shaw, Ibsen, and Dostoevsky, it was James whom the first self-conscious American cultural avant-garde - the young intellectuals of the generation of 1910 - adopted as a hero in their revolt against Victorian and Puritan culture.

[Stan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've only read Rorty's essay, which is great.