William James
American philosopher and psychologist, a founder of pragmatism, often called the father of American psychology Show bio
Bio
William James set aside painting after his father urged him to become a physician. He fought illness and depression as a young man, sometimes contemplating suicide for months. James went to Germany seeking a cure and found his true interests in philosophy and psychology.
He taught Harvard's first experimental psychology course as the field was just becoming a science. James spent twelve years on The Principles of Psychology, recasting the mind as purposeful and selective.
He judged ideas by their fruits rather than their roots, testing them against lived experience. James earned the medical degree his father had urged but never practiced medicine.
Books by William James
- PragmatismPragmatism
Eight lectures examine how ideas gain meaning through their practical effects. One lecture asks whether a man circling a tree also circles the squirrel hiding behind it.
- The Varieties of Religious ExperienceThe Varieties of Religious Experience
These lectures examine personal religious experience through accounts of conversion, prayer, and unusual states of mind. One account describes a man's sudden sense of God's presence while hiking in the mountains.