William James

by

Michael Slater

• LAST REVIEWED: 03 July 2019
• LAST MODIFIED: 30 October 2019
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0252

Introduction

William James (b. 1842–d. 1910) was the most influential American philosopher and psychologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the founding father of empirical psychology in the United States. A thinker of unusually broad interests and abilities and a physiologist by training, James rose to international prominence with the publication of his monumental The Principles of Psychology (originally published in 1890), but devoted roughly the last twenty years of his life to popular lecturing on philosophical and psychological topics and to the articulation and development of his philosophical views, the seeds of which can be largely found in Principles. He is perhaps best known to philosophers today as one of the originators of pragmatism (along with Charles Sanders Peirce), and for his defense of innovative and controversial philosophical doctrines such as radical empiricism and “the will to believe.” In addition to Principles, James’s most famous works are The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (published first in 1897), The Varieties of Religious Experience (published in 1902), and Pragmatism (first published in 1907).

General Overviews

A number of outstanding general studies of James’s philosophy have been published since the 1980s, and the list offered here is necessarily partial and selective. All such studies build upon Perry 1935, which, while not always entirely fair to James, nevertheless remains an essential reference point in the secondary literature. Myers 1986 offers perhaps the most comprehensive, careful, and detailed account of James’s thought available, and is especially helpful in sorting through the various features of his psychology. Seigfried 1990 offers an extended reading of James as a radical philosopher who rejected and sought to reconstruct many inherited features of the Western philosophical tradition. Gale 1999 is perhaps the most philosophically rigorous book-length study of James to date, and has generated a great deal of discussion among specialists in American pragmatism since its publication, in part due to its unpopular thesis that James’s philosophy contains a number of fundamentally inconsistent and irreconcilable positions. Cooper 2002 offers a direct response to Gale 1999, and argues for a unified reading of James, albeit one that frequently involves reconstructing James’s views in the service of such a project. Gale 2004 presents the same basic line of argument as Gale 1999 in a more accessible form. Jackman 2008 and Goodman 2013 are both highly accessible and philosophically astute short introductions to James’s philosophy, and ideal resources for undergraduate and graduate students approaching James for the first time.

• Cooper, Wesley. The Unity of William James’s Thought. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2002.

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  A comprehensive study of James’s thought, which aims, in the author’s words, to show that “there is a systematic philosophy in James’s writings, however it may have been with the philosopher” (p. 2).

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• Gale, Richard M. The Divided Self of William James. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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  The most rigorous and provocative interpretation of James’s philosophy written in the late 20th century. An excellent resource for graduate students and professional philosophers and a pleasure to read, but technically demanding at times.

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• Gale, Richard M. The Philosophy of William James: An Introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511617300Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  One of the very best short introductions to James’s philosophy. Presents Gale’s “divided self” interpretation of James (Gale 1999) in a more distilled form.

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• Goodman, Russell. “William James.” In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 2013.

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  A brief, balanced, and informative introduction to James’s thought that contains a helpful list of some of the best secondary literature on James. Its easy accessibility also makes it a useful reference for students.

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• Jackman, Henry. “William James.” In The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy. Edited by Cheryl Misak, 60–86. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

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  A finely written and insightful introduction to James’s philosophy by one of the leading contemporary interpreters of James and American pragmatism.

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• Myers, Gerald E. William James: His Life and Thought. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986.

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  A philosophically rich and balanced historical study of James. It offers the most extensive and detailed treatment of James’s psychology available in the secondary literature.

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• Perry, Ralph Barton. The Thought and Character of William James. 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown, 1935.

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  The classic study of James’s life and ideas by one of his leading former students (and occasional critics). It is essential reading for the James scholar, but offers a more biased interpretation of James than Myers 1986.

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• Seigfried, Charlene Haddock. William James’s Radical Reconstruction of Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.

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  A comprehensive study of James’s philosophy that interprets James through the lens of Deweyan pragmatism and certain trends in 20th-century Continental philosophy.

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Anthologies

The best anthology on James, Putnam 1997, also serves as an excellent general overview of James’s psychology and philosophy, and is highly recommended for use in undergraduate and graduate courses. The other anthologies listed here all concern various aspects of James’s philosophy of religion, although Halliwell and Rasmussen 2014 also deals with other aspects of James’s life, thought, and influence. Proudfoot 2004 is the most narrowly focused of these, but all of the contributions are uniformly strong. Carrette 2005 is a highly interdisciplinary volume (as befits its subject matter), and offers an admirably wide range of perspectives on James’s Varieties by a team of leading James scholars. Rydenfelt and Pihlström 2013 assembles a balanced team of contributors from Europe and North America and includes multiple essays dealing with James’s will to believe doctrine and views on religious experience.

• Carrette, Jeremy, ed. William James and The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Centenary Celebration. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2005.

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  A wide-ranging, interdisciplinary collection of essays devoted to James’s most important work on religion. An essential resource for scholars working on James’s philosophy of religion.

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• Halliwell, Martin, and Joel D. S. Rasmussen, eds. William James and the Transatlantic Conversation: Pragmatism, Pluralism, and Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

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  A recent collection of essays focused on the transatlantic context of James’s thought and influence. Roughly half of the essays examine James’s influences and historical context, while the other half focus on James’s last published work, A Pluralistic Universe (1909).

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• Proudfoot, Wayne, ed. William James and a Science of Religions: Reexperiencing The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

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  An interdisciplinary volume of essays that critically examines James’s concept of and potential contributions to an empirical “science of religions.”

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• Putnam, Ruth Anna, ed. The Cambridge Companion to William James. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

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  Perhaps the single most valuable reference work on James. The essays are uniformly strong and cover the full range of James’s thought. An ideal resource for both undergraduate and graduate students.

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• Rydenfelt, Henrik, and Sami Pihlström, eds. William James on Religion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

  DOI: 10.1057/9781137317353Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A recent volume of essays on James’s philosophy of religion by an international team of scholars.

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James’s Works

Numerous editions of James’s works are in print, but the seventeen-volume Harvard edition James 1975–1988 is the only complete compilation of his works, and it is the standard reference work used by specialists on James. Another valuable scholarly resource is James 1992–2004, the complete twelve-volume set offers important insights into James’s personal and professional relationships, as well as the development of and motivation behind many of his philosophical views. The other works listed here are all more affordable and readily available, and are better suited for use in the classroom or as handy desktop references. The Dover edition James 1956 is a reprint of the original edition published by Longmans and Green. McDermott 1977 includes a wide selection of James’s writings and a helpful introduction, and is ideal for classroom use in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. Gunn 2000 and Richardson 2010 are also wide-ranging collections of James’s writings, although less so than McDermott 1977, and would be good choices for use in a wide range of undergraduate courses. James 2005 is the first translation into French of one of James’s most complex and challenging works, Essays in Radical Empiricism.

• Gunn, Giles, ed. Pragmatism and Other Writings. Penguin Classics. New York and London: Penguin, 2000.

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  An affordable collection of James’s writings that is ideal for classroom use; includes the full text of Pragmatism along with representative selections from James’s religious and moral writings.

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• James, William. The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, and Human Immortality. New York: Dover, 1956.

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  A widely available and affordable edition of The Will to Believe collection of essays, which also includes the short book Human Immortality: Two Supposed Objections to the Doctrine (1898).

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• James, William. The Works of William James. 17 vols. Edited by Frederick H. Burkhardt, Fredson Bowers, and Ignas K. Skrupskelis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975–1988.

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  This is the standard edition of James’s works, and an invaluable scholarly resource. Each volume includes a helpful introduction by a leading James scholar, as well as valuable textual notes.

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• James, William. The Correspondence of William James. 12 vols. Edited by Ignas K. Skrupskelis and M. Elizabeth Berkeley. Charlottesville, VA, and London: University of Virginia Press, 1992–2004.

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  Includes three volumes of correspondence between William James and his brother Henry (the famous novelist), as well as nine volumes that include correspondence with many of the leading psychologists and philosophers of the time.

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• James, William. Essais d’empirisme radical, Traduit de l’anglais et préfacé par Guillaume Garreta et Mathias Girel. Marseille, France: Agone, 2005.

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  The first French translation of James’s Essays in Radical Empiricism, with a substantial introduction by two French philosophers.

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• McDermott, John J., ed. The Writings of William James: A Comprehensive Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.

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  As the subtitle rightly claims, this is perhaps the most comprehensive edition of James’s writings short of the seventeen-volume Harvard edition (James 1975–1988). Ideal for use in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses.

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• Richardson, Robert D., ed. The Heart of William James. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.

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  A wide-ranging and representative collection of James’s psychological and philosophical writings, but not as comprehensive as the McDermott volume.

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Biographies

There have been a number of outstanding biographies of James, which is perhaps unsurprising given the interdisciplinary nature of his work and his enduring popular appeal. As anyone who is well acquainted with James’s writings knows, it is difficult (and probably unwise) to draw any sharp separations between the personal and professional sides of his life. Barzun 1983 is distinguished by the biographer’s own personal admiration for James, which comes through on virtually every page. Feinstein 1984 offers a probing account of James’s inner life and his personal struggles. Simon 1998 is distinctive for its careful attention to the pluralistic and interdisciplinary nature of James’s ideas and work. Richardson 2006 does an excellent job of portraying James’s life and thought against the background of the unsettling and revolutionary period in which he lived.

• Barzun, Jacques. A Stroll with William James. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.

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  An engaging and highly personal study of James’s life, thought, and historical legacy.

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• Feinstein, Howard. Becoming William James. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984.

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  Perhaps the most psychologically rich study of James and the connections between his personal and professional life.

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• Richardson, Robert D. William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006.

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  The most up-to-date biography of James, written by an accomplished biographer. Sheds new light on the historical and personal contexts of James’s revolutionary work in psychology.

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• Simon, Linda. Genuine Reality: A Life of William James. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998.

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  An excellent biography that pays special attention to the pluralistic character of James’s thought.

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Intellectual History

James is an important figure for a number of academic disciplines besides philosophy, and many of the leading contemporary experts on his life and thought are professional historians or scholars in fields such as American studies. Bordogna 2008 is a widely acclaimed work of intellectual history that deepens our understanding of the unconventional and discipline-defying nature of James’s thought and intellectual activity. Cotkin 1990 is the classic study of James’s career as a public intellectual who sought to make philosophy relevant for and responsive to the needs of everyday people. Croce 1995 explores James’s ideas against the background of the revolutionary times in which he lived, and in light of the growing tension between science and religion.

• Bordogna, Francesca. William James at the Boundaries: Philosophy, Science, and the Geography of Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

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  An outstanding work of intellectual history that provides new insights into the interdisciplinary nature of James’s thought.

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• Cotkin, George. William James: Public Philosopher. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.

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  An impressive study of James’s influence as a popular lecturer and public intellectual.

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• Croce, Paul Jerome. Science and Religion in the Era of William James. Volume 1, Eclipse of Certainty, 1820–1880. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

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  A “cultural biography” of James and his era by a leading James specialist.

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Comparative Studies

A number of outstanding comparative works have been written that examine the relationship between James’s philosophical views and those of other philosophers. Four of these—Carlson 1997, Conant 1997, Gale 1997, and Hookway 1997—can be found in Putnam 1997 (cited under Anthologies), which deal respectively with James’s relation to Kant, Royce, Dewey, and Peirce. One of the most important and detailed comparative studies is Sprigge 1993, which examines James’s relation to and extensive philosophical disagreements with F. H. Bradley. Hingst 1998 is a German-language work for which there is presently no English translation, but that offers the only extended comparative study of James and Nietzsche. Goodman 2002 is an outstanding book-length study of James’s influence on Wittgenstein, and shows that this influence was more extensive than many scholars of Wittgenstein and the history of analytic philosophy have recognized. Girel 2004 is a French-language work that examines Emerson’s influence on James.

• Carlson, Thomas. “James and the Kantian Tradition.” In The Cambridge Companion to William James. Edited by Ruth Anna Putnam, 363–383. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

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  Argues (convincingly, in my view) that James’s psychological and philosophical views bear a number of important similarities with Kant’s, in spite of their many differences.

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• Conant, James. “The James/Royce Dispute and the Development of James’s ‘Solution.’” In The Cambridge Companion to William James. Edited by Ruth Anna Putnam, 186–213. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

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  A careful study that reveals the extent to which James developed his pragmatism in response to his ongoing debate with Josiah Royce, and how certain puzzling features of James’s pragmatism make better sense in the light of that debate.

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• Gale, Richard M. “John Dewey’s Naturalization of William James.” In The Cambridge Companion to William James. Edited by Ruth Anna Putnam, 49–68. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

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  A valuable corrective to the widespread assumption that James and Dewey had few, if any, substantive philosophical differences, and that Dewey merely continued and refined certain lines of thought first developed by James.

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• Girel, Mathias. “Les Angles de L’acte, Usages d’Emerson dans la Philosophie de William James.” Cahier Charles V 37 (2004): 207–245.

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  Offers an overview and reinterpretation of James’s relation to Emerson.

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• Goodman, Russell B. Wittgenstein and William James. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

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  A fascinating and insightful study of James’s influence on Wittgenstein that details many of their common philosophical commitments. Helps to substantiate the claim that Wittgenstein was a kind of pragmatist.

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• Hingst, Kai-Michael. Perspektivismus und Pragmatismus: Ein Vergleich auf der Grundlage der Wahrheitsbegriffe und der Religionsphilosophien von Nietzsche und James. Würzburg, Germany: Königshausen and Neumann, 1998.

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  An extensive comparative study of James’s and Nietzsche’s views on truth and the philosophy of religion.

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• Hookway, Christopher. “Logical Principles and Philosophical Attitudes: Peirce’s Response to James’s Pragmatism.” In The Cambridge Companion to William James. Edited by Ruth Anna Putnam, 145–165. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

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  Reveals important differences between Peirce’s and James’s versions of pragmatism, including their differing philosophical aims, while arguing against the view that James misread or misunderstood Peirce’s views.

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• Sprigge, Timothy L. S. James and Bradley: American Truth and British Reality. Chicago: Open Court, 1993.

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  An impressively balanced work of scholarship on James and F. H. Bradley that examines their long-running and extensive philosophical disagreements.

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Psychology

James is arguably the greatest psychologist America has produced, and he was the leading figure in the development of psychology as an empirical science in the United States in the late 19th century. Although his introspective approach to psychology has long since passed out of favor, a number of his views are still actively debated in the mind sciences of the early 21st century, most notably his theory of emotions (the James-Lange theory, as it is usually called). And many philosophers continue to find aspects of his psychology philosophically interesting, including his notion of the stream of consciousness and his views on the relationship between emotions and cognition. Wilshire 1979 is a book-length study that draws a number of connections between James’s psychology and the phenomenological tradition descended from Husserl. Myers 1981 is the introductory essay in the Harvard edition of James’s major psychological work, The Principles of Psychology, and is a valuable scholarly resource for nonspecialists and specialists alike. Myers 1986 offers perhaps the most detailed and informed account of James’s psychology available in the secondary literature. Putnam 1990 is one of the most balanced and insightful philosophical studies of James’s theory of perception. Skrupskelis 1995 provides an insightful overview of James’s conception of and contributions to psychology. Flanagan 1997 and Myers 1997 offer different but equally valuable perspectives on James’s legacy as a psychologist and philosopher of mind, and are usefully read together. Klein 2009 is one of the most revealing, original, and philosophically interesting essays on James’s psychology to have appeared in many years.

• Flanagan, Owen. “Consciousness as a Pragmatist Views It.” In The Cambridge Companion to William James. Edited by Ruth Anna Putnam, 25–48. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

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  A lively and engaging study of James’s frequently conflicting views on the nature of consciousness, which also offers insights into his general approach to philosophy.

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• Klein, Alexander. “On Hume on Space: Green’s Attack, James’ Empirical Response.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 47.3 (July 2009): 415–449.

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  A careful and insightful study of James’s theory of perception that highlights the revolutionary nature of his views.

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• Myers, Gerald E. “Introduction.” In The Principles of Psychology: The Works of William James. Edited by Frederick H. Burkhardt, Fredson Bowers, and Ignas K. Skrupskelis, xi–lxviii. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.

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  A detailed and balanced guide to James’s major work on psychology by the leading expert on the subject.

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• Myers, Gerald E. William James: His Life and Thought. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986.

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  As discussed previously (see General Overviews), it offers the most extensive and detailed treatment of James’s psychology available in the secondary literature.

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• Myers, Gerald E. “Pragmatism and Introspective Psychology.” In The Cambridge Companion to William James. Edited by Ruth Anna Putnam, 11–24. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

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  A concise and informative essay on James’s introspective approach to psychology. Also argues for the contemporary relevance of such an approach for philosophy, if not for psychology.

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• Putnam, Hilary. “James’ Theory of Perception.” In Realism with a Human Face. Edited by James Conant, 232–251. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.

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  An illuminating, fair, and philosophically rigorous guide to one of the thorniest issues in James’s philosophy.

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• Skrupskelis, Ignas K. “James’s Conception of Psychology as a Natural Science.” History of the Human Sciences 8 (1995): 73–89.

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  A helpful overview of James’s revolutionary work on empirical psychology by a leading James scholar.

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• Wilshire, Bruce. William James and Phenomenology: A Study of The Principles of Psychology. New York: AMS, 1979.

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  An innovative and controversial study of James’s psychology and its similarities with the Continental phenomenological tradition.

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The Will to Believe

James defended his will to believe doctrine (or the right to believe, as he later named it) in numerous works, but the locus classicus for his account of the ethics of belief is the 1897 essay The Will to Believe. James’s doctrine has had its fair share of critics over the years, but also numerous supporters as well, and even more than a century later, remarkably little scholarly consensus exists over how to evaluate the doctrine (or even how to interpret it). Davis 1972 provides one of the clearest and most forceful refutations of one of the most frequently encountered criticisms of James’s will to believe doctrine, namely that its purpose or effect is to provide a license for wishful thinking (a criticism that was first raised by one of James’s former students, Dickenson Miller). Kauber 1974 provides one of the clearest and most unbiased analyses of James’s doctrine. Kauber and Hare 1974 offers another clear analysis of James’s doctrine, but with the constructive aim of clarifying certain issues that arise in debates over the ethics of belief. O’Connell 1984 is the only book-length study to date of James’s will to believe doctrine, and gives a nuanced and largely sympathetic treatment of his views while also showing their indebtedness to Pascal and Renouvier. Gale 1999 defends a strongly pragmatic and moral (as opposed to epistemic) interpretation of James’s doctrine, and does an excellent job of sorting through the various debates that have arisen in the secondary literature, but perhaps prematurely rules out certain alternative ways of interpreting James’s views. Jackman 1999 offers one of the clearest and most rigorous treatments of the subject, and effectively challenges views such as Gale’s that deny that James’s doctrine aims to provide any sort of epistemic justification for belief. Kasser and Shah 2006 presents a novel and sophisticated (if not always textually defensible) expressivist interpretation of James’s doctrine as dealing with the metaethics as opposed to the ethics of belief.

• Davis, Stephen T. “Wishful Thinking and ‘The Will to Believe.’” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 8.4 (Fall 1972): 231–245.

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  One of the best rebuttals of the old (but mistaken) chestnut that James provides a license for wishful thinking with his will to believe doctrine.

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• Gale, Richard M. “The Will to Believe.” In The Divided Self of William James. By Richard M. Gale, 93–116. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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  Offers a provocative moral interpretation of James’s will to believe doctrine and criticizes interpreters who read James as offering any sort of epistemic justification of belief.

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• Jackman, Henry. “Prudential Arguments, Naturalized Epistemology, and the Will to Believe.” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 35.1 (Winter 1999): 1–37.

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  A textually careful and philosophically rigorous interpretation of James’s will to believe doctrine that challenges the widespread view that James’s doctrine offers a purely prudential and non-epistemic account of the ethics of belief.

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• Kasser, Jeff, and Nishi Shah. “The Metaethics of Belief: An Expressivist Reading of ‘The Will to Believe.’” Social Epistemology 20.1 (January–March 2006): 1–17.

  DOI: 10.1080/02691720500512341Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An innovative interpretation of James’s will to believe doctrine, it argues that The Will to Believe is best understood as offering a noncognitive and expressivist account of the metaethics of belief.

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• Kauber, Peter. “The Foundations of James’s Ethics of Belief.” Ethics 84.2 (January 1974): 151–166.

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  A balanced and insightful defense of James’s views on the right to believe that offers perhaps the most careful analysis of his basic position.

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• Kauber, Peter, and Peter H. Hare. “The Right and Duty to Will to Believe.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 4.2 (1974): 327–343.

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  Offers a textually careful interpretation of James’s views on the will and right to believe, and proposes a new philosophical terminology for work on the ethics of belief.

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• O’Connell, Robert J. William James on the Courage to Believe. New York: Fordham University Press, 1984.

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  The most comprehensive study to date of James’s will to believe doctrine. It correctly situates James’s doctrine within the context of his larger defense of religious faith, and also highlights his intellectual debts to Pascal and Charles Renouvier.

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Pragmatism

Charles Sanders Peirce first coined the term pragmatism and developed his pragmatic maxim as a method for clarifying the meaning of unclear terms. In James’s hands, however, pragmatism became something more: it became a method for evaluating competing philosophical views in terms of their practical consequences, and an account of truth in which the vague notion of truth as “correspondence to reality” is replaced by the various practical activities that we engage in in order to verify a claim. Ever since the publication of Pragmatism (originally published in 1907), James’s version of the doctrine has been equally vilified and celebrated, and it is probably safe to say that few if any philosophical views have generated more controversy (and are more liable to misunderstanding) than this one. Although there are important early discussions of James’s pragmatism, including critiques by leading early-20th-century philosophers such as G. E. Moore and Bertrand Russell and defenses by leading contemporary philosophers such as John Dewey (a fellow pragmatist), as well as numerous important works written at mid-century, I have chosen to highlight more recent works that have pushed discussion of James’s pragmatism in new directions. Giuffrida and Madden 1975 offers one of the most textually careful treatments of James’s pragmatic views on meaning, and is a good place to begin research on this subject. Thayer 1977 presents one of the best defenses of the widely held view that James’s pragmatic theory of truth is neither a version of the correspondence theory nor a version of the coherence theory. Suckiel 1982 is one of only a handful of book-length studies of James’s pragmatism, and offers a largely sympathetic but critical treatment of his pragmatic views on meaning, truth, and the purpose of philosophical reflection. Putnam 1997 and Putnam 2005 are two of the very best recent essays on James’s theory of truth, both in terms of philosophical rigor and interpretive accuracy. Gale 1999 offers a penetrating, and at times technical, analysis of James’s pragmatism, and is an excellent guide to the secondary literature on the subject. Cormier 2001 is another book-length study of James’s pragmatism that devotes considerable space to James’s theory of truth, and defends the view that truth is reducible to utility on James’s view. Lamberth 2005 offers a critical response to Putnam 1997 and Putnam 2005, and argues that James’s theory of truth is relatively less important than his radical empiricist account of pure experience.

• Cormier, Harvey. The Truth Is What Works: William James, Pragmatism, and the Seed of Death. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001.

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  A book-length study of James’s pragmatism that emphasizes the utilitarian and antirealist features of his account of truth.

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• Gale, Richard M. “The Semantics of ‘Truth.’” In The Divided Self of William James. By Richard M. Gale, 150–185. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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  Develops a highly original and rigorously argued interpretation of James’s views on meaning and truth in line with Gale’s “Promethean” interpretation of James’s pragmatism.

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• Giuffrida, Robert, and Edward H. Madden. “James on Meaning and Significance.” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 11 (1975): 18–36.

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  One of the clearest and most carefully argued studies of James’s pragmatic method. Argues against the view that James defended a pragmatic theory of meaning, and maintains instead that he defended a theory of the pragmatic meaning of abstract concepts.

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• Lamberth, David. “James and the Question of Truth: A Response to Hilary Putnam.” In William James and The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Centenary Celebration. Edited by Jeremy Carrette, 221–234. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2005.

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  Argues against the conventional view that truth plays a first-order role in James’s philosophy, and assigns this role instead to James’s notion of “pure experience.” Also denies that James understood truth as an absolute concept.

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• Putnam, Hilary. “James’s Theory of Truth.” In The Cambridge Companion to William James. Edited by Ruth Anna Putnam, 166–185. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

  DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521452783.010Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Perhaps the most balanced and penetrating study of James’s theory of truth available. It also sheds valuable light on the verificationist dimension of James’s theory.

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• Putnam, Hilary. “James on Truth (Again).” In William James and The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Centenary Celebration. Edited by Jeremy Carrette, 172–182. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2005.

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  Revisits Putnam’s earlier discussions of James’s theory of truth and defends his general interpretation against criticisms by David Lamberth. Also observes that in his more careful moments James distinguishes truth from utility.

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• Suckiel, Ellen Kappy. The Pragmatic Philosophy of William James. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982.

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  A clearly written and carefully argued book-length study of James’s pragmatism, including his pragmatic views on meaning and truth.

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• Thayer, Horace S. “On William James on Truth.” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 13.1 (Winter 1977): 3–19.

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  Argues that James’s theory of truth neither contradicts nor competes with traditional correspondence and coherence theories of truth. It also argues that James’s well-known claim that “truth is made” is not a central feature of his pragmatic theory of truth, and that this claim is rather a special development from and application of his theory.

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Radical Empiricism

Most interpreters agree that this is one of James’s most original and important philosophical doctrines, albeit one that is open to an unusually wide range of interpretations, in part because James continued to revise and refine his views right up to his untimely death in 1910. The posthumously published Essays in Radical Empiricism (1912) collects most of James’s writings on this subject, but other important sources include the prefaces of The Will to Believe (first published in 1897) and The Meaning of Truth (published in 1909), as well as A Pluralistic Universe (originally published 1909). The seeds of James’s distinctively holistic version of empiricism can be found in earlier works such as The Principles of Psychology (first published 1890), however, and James frequently drew connections between it and his other philosophical doctrines, in particular his pragmatism and pluralism. Depending on how he formulated it, radical empiricism is variously a synonym for pluralism, a metaphilosophical view, a metaphysical view (which he sometimes combined with his notion of “pure experience,” and sometimes did not), and an epistemological view. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there is little scholarly consensus among James specialists over how to interpret his doctrine, much less over how to assess its importance relative to his other major philosophical views. Wild 1969 is the only book-length study devoted entirely to the subject, and draws connections between James’s views and philosophical movements such as existentialism and phenomenology. Gale 1999 makes a number of insightful observations about James’s radical empiricism, and identifies some of the problems facing his defense of the doctrine. Lamberth 1999 offers the fullest recent account of James’s doctrine, and argues for its centrality for understanding his other philosophical views, including his pragmatism, his views on religion, and his pluralistic worldview. Brown 2000 offers an interpretation of James’s philosophy of religion through the lens of his radical empiricism. Cooper 2002 takes one feature of James’s radical empiricism, his notion of pure experience, as the unifying thread that knits his philosophy together. Goodman 2013 offers one of the most accessible and unbiased short introductions to the subject.

• Brown, Hunter. William James on Radical Empiricism and Religion. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.

  DOI: 10.3138/9781442683518Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Interprets James’s philosophy of religion in the light of his metaphysical doctrine of radical empiricism.

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• Cooper, Wesley. The Unity of William James’s Thought. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2002.

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  Offers a fresh but textually liberal interpretation of James’s philosophy that takes his radical empiricist notion of pure experience as its focal point.

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• Gale, Richard M. The Divided Self of William James. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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  Does not devote an entire chapter to the subject, but treats James’s radical empiricism in some detail at various points and highlights some basic inconsistencies in his views.

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• Goodman, Russell. “William James.” In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 2013.

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  Offers a clear and concise introduction to James’s radical empiricism, along with his other major philosophical views.

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• Lamberth, David. William James and the Metaphysics of Experience. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511488436Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A highly original interpretation of James’s philosophy that subordinates James’s other philosophical doctrines to his radical empiricism.

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• Wild, John. The Radical Empiricism of William James. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1969.

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  The first book-length study of James’s radical empiricism; arguably overdraws certain connections between James’s doctrine and the views of Continental thinkers in the phenomenological and existentialist traditions.

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Pluralism

James regarded the problem of “the one and the many,” or the conflict between monism and pluralism, as the most significant of all philosophical conflicts, and one that lies at the heart of major disputes in such areas as metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. He was a pluralist in all of the last-mentioned areas of philosophy, and from the late 1890s onward he often described his general approach to philosophy and worldview as pluralistic. The exact nature of James’s pluralism, however, and its relation to his other major philosophical views (most notably his pragmatism and radical empiricism) is not as well understood as many other areas of his philosophy and has only recently begun to receive serious scholarly attention. Wahl 1920 offers an early assessment of James’s pluralism in relation to the pluralistic views of other Anglophone philosophers. Bernstein 2010 is a brief but profound reflection on this topic by a scholar who has devoted nearly fifty years to studying American pragmatism. Slater 2011 aims to clarify the relationship between James’s pluralism, pragmatism, and radical empiricism, and examines James’s pluralistic views in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. Goodman 2012 also aims to clarify the nature and scope of James’s pluralism, and connects James’s views to later versions of pluralism defended by Nelson Goodman and Hilary Putnam.

• Bernstein, Richard J. “The Ethical Consequences of William James’s Pragmatic Pluralism.” In The Pragmatic Turn. By Richard J. Bernstein, 53–69. Cambridge, UK, and Malden, MA: Polity, 2010.

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  Bernstein’s essay “The Ethical Consequences of William James’s Pragmatic Pluralism,” is an elegant and learned reflection on James’s pluralistic ethical and political views and their historic influence on Horace Kallen and Alain Locke. It also argues that pragmatic pluralism represents a viable middle way between absolutism and relativism.

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• Goodman, Russell. “William James’s Pluralisms.” Revue Internationale de Philosophie 2 (2012): 155–176.

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  Distinguishes various senses of the term pluralism in James’s writings, including metaphysical pluralism, epistemological pluralism (which Goodman subdivides into two types), and ethical pluralism. Also discusses contemporary versions of pluralism such as those defended by Nelson Goodman and Hilary Putnam.

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• Slater, Michael R. “William James’s Pluralism.” Review of Metaphysics 65.1 (September 2011): 63–90.

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  Examines the relationship between James’s pluralism and his better-known doctrines of pragmatism and radical empiricism. Also distinguishes James’s metaphysical doctrine of pluralism from his pluralistic views in epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of religion, and argues that what is common to these different senses of pluralism is a principled antireductionism.

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• Wahl, Jean. Les philosophies pluralistes d’Angleterre et d’Amérique. Oakland: University of California Libraries, 1920.

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  A digitized version of the original French edition of Wahl’s classic study, which was one of the earliest works to examine James’s pluralism.

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Philosophy of Religion

Much of the work that has been done on James’s philosophy of religion has understandably tended to focus on The Will to Believe, which—although important—does not give a complete picture of his religious views when considered in isolation from his other writings on religion. James’s major work on religion, The Varieties of Religious Experience (originally published in 1902), is also an important resource for understanding his philosophy of religion, as are later works such as Pragmatism (published in 1907) and A Pluralistic Universe (first published in 1909). Levinson 1981 offers perhaps the fullest picture of James’s “religious investigations,” and tends to downplay the importance of his will to believe doctrine for understanding his religious views. Suckiel 1996, in contrast, offers a less historical and more philosophical treatment of James’s religious thought, and does a fine job of relating James’s views to classic and contemporary debates in the philosophy of religion. Ramsay 1993 is primarily a work of intellectual history, and emphasizes the importance of understanding James’s religious views in order to understand his philosophy as a whole. Rorty 1997 is a well-known essay by a leading contemporary interpreter of James and American pragmatism, but offers a reading of James that downplays the importance of certain features of his religious thought because they do not agree with the author’s preferred views. Gale 1999 provides an excellent discussion of James’s views on religious and mystical experience, and highlights a number of problems facing those views while also acknowledging James’s importance for thinking about this topic. Slater 2009 examines the many connections between James’s philosophy of religion and his ethics, and also offers an extended reading of James as a religious realist. Pihlström 2013 reads James’s philosophy of religion along broadly Kantian lines and seeks to show how his views transcend many of the usual categories used in the philosophy of religion.

• Gale, Richard M. The Divided Self of William James. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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  Offers a sophisticated discussion of James’s views on religious and mystical experience in line with Gale’s “divided self” interpretation of James, in addition to its earlier treatment of James’s will to believe doctrine in chapter 4 of this same text (see Gale 1999 in The Will to Believe).

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• Levinson, Henry S. The Religious Investigations of William James. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981.

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  One of the most extensive treatments of James’s religious thought to date, and a fine piece of historical scholarship.

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• Pihlström, Sami. “The Jamesian Pragmatic Method in the Philosophy of Religion.” In Pragmatic Pluralism and the Problem of God. By Sami Pihlström, 99–128. New York: Fordham University Press, 2013.

  DOI: 10.5422/fordham/9780823251582.003.0005Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Interprets James in broadly Kantian terms, and argues that James’s pragmatic and pluralistic philosophy of religion “goes beyond” the debates over evidentialism versus fideism and realism versus antirealism.

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• Ramsay, Bennett. Submitting to Freedom: The Religious Vision of William James. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

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  A historical study that argues that James’s philosophy as a whole was motivated primarily by religious concerns, and that his religious concerns and views are largely a reflection of his social and historical context.

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• Rorty, Richard. “Religious Faith, Intellectual Responsibility, and Romance.” In The Cambridge Companion to William James. Edited by Ruth Anna Putnam, 84–102. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

  DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521452783Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A provocative and rather loose interpretation of James’s religious views by one of the most influential recent pragmatists. Argues that in his best moments, James defended an essentially private and noncognitive conception of faith.

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• Slater, Michael R. William James on Ethics and Faith. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511635298Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Defends the claim that James was a religious realist. It also offers new interpretations of James’s will to believe doctrine, his moral arguments for religious faith, his ethical aims in The Varieties of Religious Experience, and his pragmatic account of religion.

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• Suckiel, Ellen Kappy. Heaven’s Champion: William James’s Philosophy of Religion. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1996.

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  The most comprehensive study of James’s philosophy of religion to date, and an excellent resource for undergraduate and graduate students. Offers an especially lucid discussion and defense of James’s criticisms of scientific rationalism.

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Moral Philosophy

James wrote only one significant essay on moral philosophy, “The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life” (first published in 1891), but it has continued to exert a powerful influence on how pragmatists think about a number of fundamental issues in ethics. Ethical concerns also play an important if less obvious role in other of James’s writings, however, and many interpreters have argued that they are central to his approach to philosophy in general. Roth 1969 is one of a handful of book-length studies of James’s ethics, and one that connects his ethical views to his views on other topics such as free will. Putnam 1990 defends the view that ethical concerns pervade James’s philosophical writings, and that a proper understanding and appreciation of his philosophy requires attending to those concerns. Putnam 1997 offers a fine study of James’s value pluralism that draws upon a number of his writings, including important essays such as “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings” (1899), and Putnam 2006 offers a textually careful account of his views on moral objectivity. Slater 2009 is a book-length study of James’s ethics and its relation to his philosophy of religion, and argues that his ethical and religious views are frequently interwoven. The essays collected in Hester 2011 showcase a diverse spectrum of views on James’s ethics, and deal in different ways with some of the problems surrounding his pluralistic ethical views. Lekan 2012 presents a largely sympathetic reconstruction of James’s normative ethical views in order to defend them against the objections of critics. Bush 2017 offers the most comprehensive study to date of James’s political thought and its relation to other areas of his philosophy.

• Bush, Stephen S. William James on Democratic Individuality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

  DOI: 10.1017/9781316477007Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A study of James’s political commitments that argues that James had a political philosophy and that he offers a theory of the nature and value of a quality the author terms “democratic individuality.”

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• Hester, D. Micah, ed. Special Issue: James’s Ethics; A Debate. William James Studies 6 (2011).

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  A special issue devoted to James’s ethics with essays by leading contemporary interpreters of James, framed around a critical essay by Scott F. Aikin and Robert B. Talisse.

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• Lekan, Todd. “A Reconstruction of James’s Normative Ethics.” William James Studies 9 (2012): 144–168.

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  Offers a reconstruction and defense of James’s normative ethics by filling in some of the missing details in his account, in particular how his metaethical commitment to value pluralism relates to his consequentialist commitment to maximizing demands.

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• Putnam, Hilary. “William James’s Ideas.” In Realism with a Human Face. Edited by James Conant, 217–231. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.

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  Argues that ethical concerns permeate James’s philosophical writings and that understanding these concerns is essential for understanding his approach to philosophy.

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• Putnam, Ruth Anna. “Some of Life’s Ideals.” In The Cambridge Companion to William James. Edited by Ruth Anna Putnam, 282–299. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

  DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521452783.015Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An insightful study of James’s value pluralism that draws together themes from a number of his moral writings.

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• Putnam, Ruth Anna. “William James on Moral Objectivity.” William James Studies 1.1 (2006): 1–12.

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  A well-written and careful study of James’s views on moral objectivity.

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• Roth, John K. Freedom and the Moral Life: The Ethics of William James. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969.

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  One of the few book-length studies of James’s ethics, but one that is beginning to show its age. Draws some important connections between James’s ethical views and his views on libertarian free will.

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• Slater, Michael R. William James on Ethics and Faith. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511635298Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  One of the most recent book-length studies of James’s ethics. Argues that many of James’s ethical views are inseparable from his religious views, and that a fuller picture of his ethical thought emerges when we attend carefully to his religious writings.

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Psychical Research

James believed that the scientific establishment of his day had prematurely closed inquiry into psychic and other paranormal phenomena, and he became a leading figure in the American Society for Psychical Research (the sister organization of the British Society for Psychical Research, whose prominent members included the philosopher Henry Sidgwick). Taylor 1996 shows how James’s views on altered forms of consciousness make sense within the context of his psychology, which was a driving force behind the development of his metaphysical and religious views. Blum 2006 paints a vivid and highly personal picture of James’s involvement in psychical research, including the professional ridicule that he endured for pursuing such research.

• Blum, Deborah. Ghost Hunters: William James and the Scientific Search for Life after Death. New York: Penguin, 2006.

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  An engrossing work of intellectual history that examines James’s scientific and personal interests in psychic and paranormal phenomena.

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• Taylor, Eugene. William James on Consciousness beyond the Margins. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.

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  Situates James’s interests in psychical research and religious experience within the larger context of his psychology, and argues that James remained a psychologist when pursuing his later philosophical investigations. It is also an excellent resource for scholars interested in James’s psychology more generally.

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