The Thinker Who Believed in Doing
On a late September morning in 1891, William James walked reluctantly
to his class in Harvard College’s Sever Hall. Characteristically dressed
in a colorful shirt and a Norfolk jacket with a boutonniere, he must
have seemed slightly bohemian. His lectures were spontaneous and
rambling, unlike those of his more logical, organized colleagues. James
claimed he did not like teaching, particularly to listless Harvard
undergraduates. Yet he was good at it, even exceptional. Conversation
with James, Walter Lippmann recalled, was “the greatest thing that has
happened to me in my college life.” W. E. B. Du Bois wrote, “He was my
friend and guide to clear thinking.” In his biography of James, Robert
Richardson says, “William James was one of America’s great teachers.”William James also avoided his study. In 1878 he signed a contract to
write a psychology textbook in two years. It took 12. Writing was harder
for him than speaking at conferences or climbing mountains. Sprinkled
with anecdotes and personal examples and written in energetic prose, The Principles of Psychology,
published in 1890, was praised in America and Europe both by academics
and lay readers. Historian Jacques Barzun declared it a classic and
likened it to Moby-Dick.The psychology text was just a start. Throughout his life, James wrote
essays and books that transformed psychology and philosophy. He
popularized pragmatism, a distinctly American way of thinking that
argues we must test our beliefs and decisions by results.In Talks to Teachers on Psychology he took the insights of
psychology to the classroom. In widely read essays, such as “What Makes A
Life Significant,” he extolled optimism and empathy. At the end of his
life, he wrote The Varieties of Religious Experience,
legitimizing faith for an age dominated by reason and science. Alfred
North Whitehead believed James was as significant a thinker as Plato,
Aristotle, and Leibniz.Who was this man? Why is he relevant today?
[…] William James reminds us “a philosophy is the expression of a man’s
intimate character.” After his death, Henry wrote that he would miss his
brother’s “inexhaustible company … originality, the whole
unspeakably vivid and beautiful presence of him.” James left behind
hundreds of letters to family, students, and fellow academics. They
reveal an attractive personality: spontaneous, witty, playful, humane,
tolerant, and public-spirited. He was a man who turned his neuroses into
accomplishment.What is his legacy?
William James took philosophy out of the academy and into the street.
In memorable sentences, he made philosophy useful to ordinary citizens
who wished to understand their minds and to improve their lives. He
turned psychology into a science, inventing the notion of “stream of
consciousness,” suggesting the brain was a dynamic, vital organ. He
popularized pragmatism, a particularly American way of problem solving,
useful to policymakers and ordinary citizens today. He legitimized
religious belief, bringing solace to an America perplexed by Darwinism.
To Americans plagued by nervous exhaustion, he preached energy, action,
and optimism. And in the early years of the twentieth century, he wrote
stinging denunciations of imperialism, trying to explain and extirpate
human violence and aggression in a world drifting toward catastrophe. [keep reading]