William James and the Philosophy of Life

2005 ◽  
pp. 205-222
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Present Discussion ◽  
Philosophy Of Life ◽  
National Life ◽  
Josiah Royce

This chapter presents some comments about the significance of William James's philosophy. James was a friend of Josiah Royce from his youth to the end of James's beneficent life. As a pupil of James for a brief time, Royce thought of himself as James's disciple; although perhaps a very bad one. According to Royce, James is an American philosopher of classic rank because he stands for a stage in our national self-consciousness—for a stage with which historians of our national mind must always reckon. This statement shall be the focus of the present discussion, which also estimates the significance of the stage in question, and of James's thought insofar as it seems to express the ideas and ideals characteristic of this phase of national life.

Josiah Royce's Philosophy of the Community: Danger of the Detached Individual

1985 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 153-176
Author(s):  
John J. McDermott
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
William James ◽  
Royal Institute ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Religion And Psychology ◽  
American Philosophy ◽  
The World ◽  
Josiah Royce ◽  
The Individual

The popular mind is deep and means a thousand times more than it knows.It is fitting that the Royal Institute of Philosophy series on American philosophy include a session on the thought of Josiah Royce, for his most formidable philosophical work, The World and the Individual, was a result of his Gifford lectures in the not too distant city of Aberdeen in 1899 and 1900. The invitation to offer the Gifford lectures was somewhat happenstance, for it was extended originally to William James, who pleaded, as he often did in his convenient neurasthenic way, to postpone for a year on behalf of his unsettled nerves. James repaired himself to the Swiss home of Theodore Flournoy, with its treasure of books in religion and psychology, so as to write his Gifford lectures, now famous as The Varieties of Religious Experience. In so doing, however, James was able to solicit an invitation for Royce to occupy the year of his postponement. Royce accepted with alacrity, although this generosity of James displeased his wife Alice, who ranted, ‘Royce!! He will not refuse, but over he will go with his Infinite under his arm, and he will not even do honour to William's recommendation.’ Alice was partially correct in that Royce, indeed, did carry the Infinite across the ocean to the home of his intellectual forebears, although on that occasion as on many others, he acknowledged the support of his personal and philosophical mentor, colleague and friend, William James.

Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930)

1980 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurel Furumoto
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Paired Associate ◽  
American Psychological Association ◽  
Self Psychology ◽  
The Self ◽  
American Psychological ◽  
Mental Abilities ◽  
Josiah Royce ◽  
Work Done

Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930) was fourteenth President of the American Psychological Association, invented the paired-associate technique, founded an early psychological laboratory, and developed a system of self-psychology. Her eminence as a psychologist and a scholar was widely acknowledged and she was the recipient of two honorary degrees. Calkins published prolifically in both psychology and philosophy, moving away from psychology into philosophy during the latter half of her career. Both her work in psychology and philosophy came to center on the importance of the self. Calkins studied with William James, Josiah Royce and Hugo Münsterberg at Harvard in the 1890s, and although she completed all the requirements for the Ph.D., she was not granted the degree because she was a woman. In 1902, she was offered a Radcliffe degree which she declined on principle, because she believed that work done at Harvard should be recognized by a Harvard degree regardless of whether the recipient was a female or a male. On many occasions throughout her life, she expressed her opposition to differentiation between the sexes based on the assumption of inherent differences in mental abilities.

scholarly journals Transformationen der Kantischen Postulatenlehre im „Cambridge Pragmatism“ (Charles S. Peirce, William James, Josiah Royce)

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-75
Author(s):  
Ludwig Nagl
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
Hilary Putnam ◽  
The Will ◽  
Josiah Royce ◽  
Modern Experience

The “Cambridge pragmatists”, Charles S. Peirce, William James and Josiah Royce, are at least in two respects significantly indebted to Kant: first, as von Kempski, Apel and Murphey have shown, with regard to the epistemological issues investigated in pragmatism; secondly, with regard to the various pragmatic approaches to religion, something which has been long overlooked. These approaches are best understood as innovative re-readings of Kant’s postulates of freedom, immortality, and God. Since Hilary Putnam pointed out — in his 1992 book Renewing Philosophy — that James’s essay, “The Will to Believe”, in spite of having received a great deal of hostile criticism, is in “its logic, in fact, precise and impeccable”, James’s thoughts are considered by many contemporary philosophers (by Charles Taylor, e.g., and by Hans Joas) as particularly inspiring. James’s approach is based on the modern experience of secularism and interprets Kant’s “postulate” as the “option” to believe. A deepening of the debate on the relevance of Kant’s analysis of the horizon of religious hope with regard to human praxis for a pragmatism-inspired philosophy of religion can be expected from a detailed discussion of the thoughts of Peirce and Royce, of thoughts, which, in complex ways, relate to, as well as criticise, James’s individuum-focused interpretation of religious faith.

Josiah Royce's Philosophy of the Community: Danger of the Detached Individual

1985 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 153-176
Author(s):  
John J. McDermott
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
William James ◽  
Royal Institute ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Religion And Psychology ◽  
American Philosophy ◽  
The World ◽  
Josiah Royce ◽  
The Individual

The popular mind is deep and means a thousand times more than it knows.It is fitting that the Royal Institute of Philosophy series on American philosophy include a session on the thought of Josiah Royce, for his most formidable philosophical work, The World and the Individual, was a result of his Gifford lectures in the not too distant city of Aberdeen in 1899 and 1900. The invitation to offer the Gifford lectures was somewhat happenstance, for it was extended originally to William James, who pleaded, as he often did in his convenient neurasthenic way, to postpone for a year on behalf of his unsettled nerves. James repaired himself to the Swiss home of Theodore Flournoy, with its treasure of books in religion and psychology, so as to write his Gifford lectures, now famous as The Varieties of Religious Experience. In so doing, however, James was able to solicit an invitation for Royce to occupy the year of his postponement. Royce accepted with alacrity, although this generosity of James displeased his wife Alice, who ranted, ‘Royce!! He will not refuse, but over he will go with his Infinite under his arm, and he will not even do honour to William's recommendation.’ Alice was partially correct in that Royce, indeed, did carry the Infinite across the ocean to the home of his intellectual forebears, although on that occasion as on many others, he acknowledged the support of his personal and philosophical mentor, colleague and friend, William James.

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