Essays in Radical Empiricism (The Works of William James) - Hardcover

James, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674267176 ISBN 13: 9780674267176

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1976

Synopsis

A pioneer in early studies of the human mind and founder of that peculiarly American philosophy called Pragmatism, William James remains America's most widely read philosopher. Generations of students have been drawn to his lucid presentations of philosophical problems. His works, now being made available for the first time in a definitive edition, have a permanent place in American letters and a continuing influence in philosophy and psychology.

The essays gathered in the posthumously published Essays in Radical Empiricism formulate ideas that had brewed in James's mind for thirty years as he sought a way out of the philosophical dilemmas generated by the new psychology of the late nineteenth century. They constitute the explanatory core of his doctrine of radical empiricism, a doctrine that charts his course between the absolute idealism he could not accept and, at the other extreme, the law of associationism, which reduces knowledge to sheer contiguity of ideas. In his introduction John J. McDermott describes the historical background and the genesis of James's theory and considers the objections raised by its opponents.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Essays in Radical Empiricism shows William James concerned with ultimate reality and moving toward a metaphysical system. The twelve essays originally appeared in journals between 1904 and 1906. James himself collected them to illustrate what he called "radical empiricism", but this volume was not published until 1912, two years after his death. Included are such seminal essays as "Does Consciousness Exist?" and "A World of Pure Experience". The distinguished scholar and biographer Ralph Barton Perry, who edited this volume, called the essays essential to an understanding of James writings. Radical empiricism takes us into a "world of pure experience". In the essays as introducer Ellen Kappy Suckiel notes, "James inquires into the metaphysically basic reality underlying the common-sense objects of our world. It is here that he defends his view that 'experience' is the sole and ultimate reality". The essays deal with the applications of this "pure" or "neutral" experience the general problem of relations, the role of feeling in experience, the nature of truth.

About the Author:

Fredson Bowers is Linden Kent Professor of English, Emeritus, at the University of Virginia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1976
• ISBN 10: 0674267176
• ISBN 13: 9780674267176
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368
• Editor: Bowers Fredson, Skrupskelis Ignas K.