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Essays in Radical Empiricism
The influential philosopher's preoccupation with ultimate reality and his turn toward a metaphysical system are the focus of Essays in Radical Empiricism. Originally published in journals between 1884 and 1906, these 12 essays were selected by William James to illustrate the doctrine he called "radical empiricism" — a concept that made him the center of a new philosophic approach.
Proclaiming experience to be the ultimate reality, James explores the applications of experience to the problem of relations, the role of feeling in experience, and the nature of truth. He argues in favor of a pluralistic universe, denying that experience can be defined in terms of an absolute force determining the relationships between things and events. Relationships, regardless of whether they hold things together or apart, are as real as the things themselves — their functions are real, and there are no hidden factors responsible for life's harmonies and dissonances.
Seminal essays in this collection include "Does Consciousness Exist?: "The Essence of Humanism," and "Absolutism and Empiricism." In addition, this edition features a new translation of "On the Notion of Consciousness" — the first English rendering of the essay, which was written in French. Indispensable to an understanding of the great philosopher's other works, this systematic and compact treatment functions equally well in and out of the classroom.
Proclaiming experience to be the ultimate reality, James explores the applications of experience to the problem of relations, the role of feeling in experience, and the nature of truth. He argues in favor of a pluralistic universe, denying that experience can be defined in terms of an absolute force determining the relationships between things and events. Relationships, regardless of whether they hold things together or apart, are as real as the things themselves — their functions are real, and there are no hidden factors responsible for life's harmonies and dissonances.
Seminal essays in this collection include "Does Consciousness Exist?: "The Essence of Humanism," and "Absolutism and Empiricism." In addition, this edition features a new translation of "On the Notion of Consciousness" — the first English rendering of the essay, which was written in French. Indispensable to an understanding of the great philosopher's other works, this systematic and compact treatment functions equally well in and out of the classroom.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1912
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About the author
William James
344 books1,352 followersLibrarian 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 17, 2022
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.
Read
September 29, 2020Super technical, but a nice way of looking at the world in a different light.
August 6, 2011
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'.
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'.
April 23, 2024
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.
January 12, 2008
I like the first chapter quite a lot, in which he presents consciousness as a function, and not as an entity.
August 22, 2021
James in essay form can be more humorous than usual. Easy read compared to Kant!
June 10, 2022
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.”
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.”
January 28, 2019
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.
April 29, 2023
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
January 21, 2021
hm. certainly a Whole Lot but a lot that is good
January 7, 2022
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.
December 28, 2022
He's just a goose. American Philosophy Fall 2022
October 5, 2024
Was very good, very clear. Seems to be getting at something groundbreaking.
Want to read
June 30, 2008Bukan 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.
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.
October 17, 2013
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.
January 31, 2013
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.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews