William James

James, William 

Born Jan. 11, 1842, in New York; died Aug. 16, 1910, in Chocorua, N.H. American idealist philosopher and psychologist. One of the founders of pragmatism. Professor of physiology and psychology and later of philosophy at Harvard University (1872-1907).

In James’ views empiricism and biologism were contradictorily combined with extreme individualism, the assertion of free will, and elements of mysticism. In developing the ideas of C. Peirce, he advanced a new “pragmatic” criterion of truth. According to this criterion, that which corresponds to the practical success of an action is true. Truth, according to James, is “only the expedient in the way of our thinking” (Pragmatism, New York, 1963, p. 98). He attempted to stand above materialism and idealism, declaring the only reality to be the direct sensual experience of the individual (so-called radical empiricism). The primary material of experience is “neutral,” but its elements can appear in the process of cognition as both physical and psychological for the purposes of practical convenience.

According to James, thoughts, like things, consist of feelings and impressions (see “Sushchestvuet li soznanie?” in the collection Novye idei v filosofii, collection 4, 1913). This brings his position close to Machism. V. I. Lenin considered the differences between Machism and James’ pragmatism in the understanding of experiences to be “insignificant and unimportant” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 18, p. 363, footnote).

In psychology, James came out against associationism, having developed, in counterbalance to it, his own concept of the “stream of consciousness”—continuously alternating integral and individual psychic states, whose alternation reflects the physiological processes in an organism. James emphasized the principle of the activity of psychic life and the primacy in it of will and interest. According to him, the psyche has a vital “functional” value as the instrument of the biological survival of the individual. James’ doctrine that emotions are an expression of bodily movements later became one of the sources of behaviorism.

In works on the psychology of religion, James reduced religion to individual experiences that are subject to scientific analysis. At the same time, from the viewpoint of pragmatism he defended religion, which is “truthful” insofar as it is useful, since it seemingly imparts certainty and stability to existence. James was also actively engaged in parapsychological experiments and spiritualism.

In his political views, James was a representative of bourgeois liberalism.

WORKS

Principles of Psychology, vols. 1-2. New York, 1890.
In Russian translation:
Nauchnye osnovy psikhologii. St. Petersburg, 1902.
Zavisimost’ very ot voli. St. Petersburg, 1904.
Mnogoobrazie religioznogo opyta. Moscow, 1910.
Pragmatizm. St. Petersburg, 1910.
Vselennaia s pliuralisticheskoi tochki zreniia. Moscow, 1911.

REFERENCE

Bykhovskii, B. E. “Pragmatizm i ’radikal’nyi empirizm’ U. Dzhemsa.” In the collection V. I. Lenin i voprosy marksistskoi filosofii. Moscow, 1960.
Bogomolov, A. S. Anglo-amerikanskaia burzhuaznaia filosofiia epokhi imperializma. Moscow, 1964. Chapter 4, sec. 1.
Perry, R. B. Thought and Character of W. James, vols. 1-2. Boston, 1935.
Morris, L. R. W. James. New York, 1950.
Wild, J. The Radical Empiricism ofW. James. New York, 1969.

B. E. BYKHOVSKII and D. N. LIALIKOV