William James was an American psychologist and philosopher born in the year 1842 in January 11th in New York City the first born in a family of five children and died in 1910 on the 26th of August. He is greatly known for his role in shaping the American psychological education since he was the first professor to ever offer a course in psychology in America. Being among the most powerful American philosophers, he was labeled the father of psychology in America. As a philosophy and psychology professor at the University of Harvard, he turned out to be the most celebrated living psychologist in America as well as of his era. Being the first ever educator of psychology in America, he was considered the founding father of psychology in the United States. Before gaining interest in science, James had begun his career as a student of art. In the year 1863, he joined the Medical School of Harvard, where six years later he graduated with an MD (doctor of medicine). Due to depression and illness, his education was interrupted, but later he managed to get well and was appointed as the physiology and anatomy instructor at Harvard. He subsequently became the deputy lecturer of philosophy and later rose to become the head professor of psychology and philosophy. He stayed and continued with his career at Harvard, where he retired in the year 1907. In one of his works, he wrote that the skill of being intelligent is the skill of knowing whatever that has to be overlooked. William James is mostly known for functionalism, American psychology father, emotion theory James-Lange, and pragmatism. Pragmatism is a theory which he together with Sanders Peirce Charles founded.
Type of Theorist and a short explanation of the perspective they follow
Williams James was a theorist, an educator, and a writer. Most of his philosophical works have been written down in books by himself. He preferred educating the people about philosophy and how it works that spending time rather on his own and keeping his knowledge to himself. He focused on making people know what psychology was giving it a clear meaning thus making the people understand it better (James, 1962). As a theorist, he made it his agenda to ensure that people would not have a hard time differentiating between teaching and psychology which people tend to take as the same thing. He says, in his book Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals , “…Psychology is a science and teaching is an art; and sciences never generate arts directly out of themselves” (James, 1962). His main focus was leaving the world with a better understanding of philosophy and psychology than he found it. From his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience at least three perspectives stand out. These perspectives include the pragmatist, experimental psychologist, and the polytheist or theist. Psychologists are said to classify and describe experiences in religion, pragmatists are believed to determine their value or significance, and the polytheist/theist usually reveals his/her over-beliefs (Carrette, 2005).
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Main ideas and vocabulary associated with the theorist/theory
William James had a number of ideas and vocabularies which were vital to his psychological and philosophical works thus highly associated with him. First, he had a variety of experience in the religious world which can be seen in his book The Varieties of Religious Experience a number of ideas are seen, including the experimental psychologist, pragmatist, and the polytheist or theist who both have a different understanding towards religion. Also, he distinguishes two questions about religion which are 1). What religious propensities are and 2. What philosophical significance they have. Answering them, James considers the question on the meaning or importance of religious propensities. This question he considered it to be for the pragmatists, and he “answers it in terms of fruits of religion” (Carrette, 2005). Then he considers the second question which is a theological and metaphysical question having two parts. The first question asks for proof about “the existence of the divine” and of what type if so. And this is considered by James as the primary issue that Varieties addresses. And considers the answer to be “that the evidence consists in religious experiences” (Carrette, 2005). Then there is the second question which concerns the divine nature. In this question, William James refers to the answer that he has about these questions “as his over-beliefs” (Carrette, 2005).
Then there is the idea of consciousness. Throughout his entire career, James was at the forefront of defending personal consciousness. In his work the Principles of Psychology, he says that psychology refers to the study of scientific “states of consciousness as such and intended to presume from the outset that the thinker was the thought” (Taylor, 2010). But as he was writing this statement, he also had been doing an investigation about the subconscious dynamic psychology, which successfully secures a place within the Gifford Lectures that was published in 1902 as The Varieties of Religious Experience (Taylor, 2010). This statement is considered as the clearest that he ever made before his death regarding his emerging tripartite metaphysics of pluralism, radical empiricism, and pragmatism, that essentially questioned the possibility of consciousness of science (Taylor, 2010). In the book William James on the Stream of Consciousness: All the Evidence, Bauer
Reasons you agree/disagree with the theorist
When it comes to what theorist William James did, it no doubt his best comapar3eed to the many theorists who have existed in America not just during his time but also after him. First of all, even if he may have done it wrong at some point, he was always trying to do it perfectly to create meaning and make be understood easily by the world. Compared to others, James tracked down paradoxical dimension thoughts more often, although he might have had difficulties thus unable to reconcile all the paradoxes, avoiding them (paradoxes) is impossible, but a contradiction can always be eliminated (Bauer, 2009). The theory of emotions has been considered inadequate and incomplete, thus largely dismissed by numerous studies. One argument was that; the aspect of experience was not considered by James. It is believed that James never considered the weight of the process in evaluating the situation which mentally results to the specific emotion (Barbalet, 2001). All the same, there is very little which may make Williams James be disagreed upon. James was not just a theorist, but an educator. Being a great historical figure in America, exploring and reading his great intellectual range of works would be beneficial to understanding psychology. The main reason for this is because James always focused on ensuring his audience and readers are in a position where they would take less time to understand metaphysical frameworks that he employed.
References
Barbalet, J. M. (2001). William James’ Theory of Emotions: Filling in the Picture. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 29 (3):251 - 266 · December 2001. DOI: 10.1111/1468-5914.00101
Bauer, F. (2009). William James on the stream of consciousness: All the evidence . S.l.: Iuniverse Inc.
Carrette, J. R. (2005). William James and "The varieties of religious experience": A centenary celebration . London: Routledge.
James, W. (1962). Talks to teachers on psychology: And to students on some of life's ideals . New York: Dover Publications.
Taylor, E. (2010, July 26). William James on a phenomenological psychology of immediate experience: The true foundation for a science of consciousness? History of Human Sciences, 23 (3), 119-130 https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695110363644
