William James

« James’ Non-rationality and its Religious Extremum in the Light of the Concept of Pure Experience » (2004)

by Michel Weber

« James’ Non-rationality and its Religious Extremum in the Light of the Concept of Pure Experience », in Jeremy Carrette (ed.), William James and The Varieties of Religious Experience. A Centenary Celebration, London and New York, Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 2004, pp. 203-220.

Right at the beginning of the Varieties, James makes it clear that he will address only “first-hand and original forms... more Right at the beginning of the Varieties, James makes it clear that he will address only “first-hand and original forms of [religious] experience” —or (individual) religiousness —, factually putting into brackets (collective) religion qua “second-hand religious life”. This focus could be “handed according to many sets of ideas” ; it will be contextualized here with the concept of non-rationality exploited in the Pluralistic Universe. The argument unfolds in three epochs, each one involving two steps, a definitional one, exploiting James’ concepts themselves, and an interpretational one, expanding their horizon.

Pragmatisme et idées-forces. Alfred Fouillée fut-il une source du pragmatisme américain?

by J.M.C. Chevalier

LISY, Preliminary Remarks for the Comparative Study of Mysticism - Mysticism is, what unio mystica is, in Communio viatorum 54, 2012, (in print)

by Keren Mice

The article will be published in: Communio viatorum 54, 2012, pp. (in print). When I receive the article from the author it will be available here for free.

I found his article very interesting and useful in its new perspective. It is obvious that the author follows Huss' and Balagangadhara's approach and his final argument is based on Wittgenstein. Also, we can understand his article as a polemic with a book: The Origins of Jewish Mysticism by Peter Schäfer.

Interestingly, the author mentioned in the article that a part of the material was already discussed at the international conference Rethinking Religion in India III. I followed for some time links of its participants and it seems to me there is a research group using Balagangadhara's approach from different countries and from various fields in Humanities. If you follow their links it is possible to find more books and articles on the study of comparative religion and most of them you can download for free (see more links in my About section and Profile). And all of them share a common ground. It is Balagangadhara's framework very well argued in his book: Heathen in His Blindness. Note, there are scholars who sharply disagree with him. The whole scientific discussion is very interesting and inspiring and leads to new directions in the study of mysticism and religion. Some of them you can find through Web of Science.

There is an abstract in the article.

"The mother-tongue of thought". James and Wittgenstein on common sense

by Anna Boncompagni

in Cognitio - Revista de Filosofia, vol. 13 no. 1, forthcoming

“Our later and more critical philosophies are mere fads and fancies compared with this natural mother-tongue of... more “Our later and more critical philosophies are mere fads and fancies compared with this natural mother-tongue of thought”, says William James in his lecture on common sense. The deep bond connecting language, common sense and nature is also one of the main concerns of the later Wittgenstein. The aim of this paper is to compare the two philosophers in this respect, particularly focusing on James’ Pragmatism and on Wittgenstein’s On Certainty. Similarities, but also differences, will be highlighted. A further element will be offered by the analysis of a fragment of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass, which anticipates his image of the river-bed of thought through the critique of James’ stream of thought. By means of this comparison, I will question Wittgenstein’s explicit refusal of pragmatism. I will argue that his late philosophy can be said to be even more pragmatist than James’, in that it delineates a conception of the common sense certainties which shape our Weltbild (world-picture) as practically, and not merely epistemically, connected to our life.

« On a Certain Blindness in Political Matters » (2011)

by Michel Weber

Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, Vol 7, No 2 (2011)

This essay argues for two complementary theses, one pertaining to epistemology and the other to politics. First,... more This essay argues for two complementary theses, one pertaining to epistemology and the other to politics. First, unless philosophy adopts a radical empiricist standpoint and seeks the uttermost generalities, it cannot differentiate itself from yet another form of limited expertise and becomes useless. Second, both radical empiricism and imaginative pragmatism lead the philosopher towards the left end of the political spectrum, i.e., to a radically progressive politics.

« Whitehead et James : conditions de possibilité et sources historiques d'un dialogue systématique » (2009)

by Michel Weber

in A. Benmakhlouf et S. Poinat (éd.), Quine, Whitehead, et leurs contemporains, Noesis, 13, 2009, pp. 251-268.

1. Contextes global et local : mysterium conjunctionis
1.1. Contexte global : l’avancée créatrice et ses modesmore 1. Contextes global et local : mysterium conjunctionis
1.1. Contexte global : l’avancée créatrice et ses modes
1.1.1. L’avancée créatrice
1.1.2. Les modes de l’avancée créatrice
1.2. Contexte local : le génie et son épigone ?
2. Conditions de possibilité de tout dialogue systématique
2.1. Analytiques
2.2. Synthétique
3. Enracinement jamesien de la spéculation whiteheadienne
3.1. Historique
3.2. Spéculatif
3.2.1. Global
3.2.2. Conceptuel
Conclusion : panpsychisme et panexpérientialisme
Haut de page

Neglected Areas in Bereavement Research- Sorrow and Solace .pdf

by Dennis Klass

An abbreviated version of this paper is now in press in Death Studies titled  Sorrow and Solace: Neglected Areas in Bereavement Research. This version includes material edited out of the DS version. I welcome comments and suggestions about how the paper could be developed further, and about other material that might illuminate the topic

The paper argues that in its focus on finding positive outcomes, bereavement research has neglected or denigrated... more The paper argues that in its focus on finding positive outcomes, bereavement research has neglected or denigrated central phenomena in intense and long-term grief: sorrow and solace. Indeed sorrow is the defining characteristic of grief and consolation historically has been its amelioration. We now seldom describe grief as sorrow.  Inconsolable, the traditional word describing difficult grief, has fallen into disuse. Sorrow has two elements: yearning for the dead person and grief’s depression. The first is best understood within attachment theory, the second is about the human condition and, thus, beyond attachment theory. When we focus on grief’s depression, we attend to grief’s thoughts that can be, as William James said, the “openers of our eyes to the deepest levels of truth.” To be consoled is to be comforted or soothed. Consolation comes into sorrow, but does not remove it. The bereaved can be consoled in human relationships and from inner resources. Solace is found within the sense of being connected to trustable realities outside the self. The paper argues that our research would be more complete were we to include solace that comes into sorrow as one of the outcomes we can help foster.

Nauseating Flux: Iris Murdoch on Sartre and Heraclitus

by David Robjant

forthcoming, The European Journal of Philosophy
Article first published online: 17 APR 2012

I observe Iris Murdoch’s distinctive use of the word ‘flux’ in discussion of Sartre’s Nausea and show that her usage... more I observe Iris Murdoch’s distinctive use of the word ‘flux’ in discussion of Sartre’s Nausea and show that her usage is persuasive and revolutionary, first as Sartre exegesis, second as Heraclitus exegesis, and throughout as a contribution to the philosophy of language. Murdoch’s usage of ‘flux’ frames a comparison of Sartre’s Roquentin with other figures who have had similarly flowing experience but without nausea. Roquentin's plight is shown to be ‘a philosopher's plight’ precipitated by a defective theory of descriptive success. I then show how the Heraclitean fragments would support Murdoch’s treatment of flux and on close analysis contradict the established view exemplified in the work of Wittgenstein and Jonathan Barnes. Flux is not a variety of change, and the river image ‘cannot be analysed into non-metaphorical components without a loss of substance’.

Fairweather, R. (2011) ‘A Transtheoretical Understanding of Emotions’, Groundings, 4(1), pp. 113-128. ISSN 1754-7474.

by Rory Fairweather

Conjunctive Fabulation: William James and the Politics of Radical Empiricism

by Alexander Livingston

theory & event (forthcoming)

This article argues that William James's metaphysics of radical empiricism represents his central contribution to... more This article argues that William James's metaphysics of radical empiricism represents his central contribution to political thought. In response to critics who view of James’s metaphysics as distinct from his political thought, it argues that James's empiricism shifts the centre of gravity of his liberalism away from an atomistic individualism and towards a relational or molecular individualism. Through a reading of his fabulating essay on the San Francisco earthquake, ‘On Some Mental Effects of the Earthquake’, this article demonstrates how radical empiricism offers liberalism a new way to think about the excesses of affect while resisting the temptation to denigrate the unavoidably affective registers of democratic politics.

"Saintliness"

by Juliana Ossa

Based on The Varieties of Religious Experience, a book by WIlliam James (1902)

Sagrado/profano El aspecto durkheimiano de la filosofía de la religión de William James Claudio Marcelo Viale

by claudio viale

The Sartorial Self: William James's Philosophy of Dress.

by Cecelia Watson

Cromagnon Readings and Reviews

by Jacques Coulardeau

CRO-MAGNON
READINGS AND REVIEWS
A WORK IN PROGRESS
Assistant Ivan EVE
Here are some of the reviews of some of the readings I have been doing over the last 18 months for this project, Cromagnon’s Language. July 2005 to present,

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. JOHN D. BENGTSON – IN HOT PURSUIT OF LANGUAGE IN PREHISTORY, ESSAYS IN THE FOUR FIELDS... more TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. JOHN D. BENGTSON – IN HOT PURSUIT OF LANGUAGE IN PREHISTORY, ESSAYS IN THE FOUR FIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
2. PETER FORSTER & COLIN RENFREW eds. – PHyLOGENETIC METHODS AND THE PREHISTORY OF LANGUAGES
3. JOSEPH H. GREENBERG – WILLIAM CROFT, ed. – GENETIC LINGUISTICS, ESSAYS ON THEORY AND METHOD
4. JOSEPH H. GREENBERG – LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS – MOUTON DE GRUYTER – BERLIN NEW YORK – 1966-2005
5. PAUL MELLARS, KATIE BOYLE, OFER BAR-YOSEF & CHRIS STRINGER – RETHINKING THE HUMAN REVOLUTION – McDONALD INSTITUTE MONOGRAPHS - McDONALD INSTITUTE FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH – CAMBRIDGE UK - 2007
6. RAY KURZWEIL – TERRY CROSSMAN, MD – TRANSCEND, NINE STEPS TO LIVING WELL FOREVER
7. RAY KURZWEIL – THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR
8. THREE INITIATES – KYBALION – 1908 – 1912 – 1940
9. RENÈ LABAT – MANUEL D’ÈPIGRAPHIE AKKADIENNE (Bilingual)
10. GEORGE LAKOFF – MARK JOHNSON – METEPHORS WE LIVE BY
11. JOHN D. BENGTSON – LINGUISTIC FOSSILS
12. ZELJKO BOSKOVIC – HOWARD LASNIK – MINIMALIST SYNTAX
13. BERTRAND RUSSELL – AN ANALYSIS OF MIND
14. THEO VENNEMANN gen. BIERFELD – EUROPA VASCONICA – EUROPA SEMITICA – MOUTON DE GRUYTER – BERLIN, NEW YORK – 2003
15. FELIPE FERNANDEZ-ARMESTO – THE WORLD, A BRIEF HISTORY - 2008

Varieties of Magical Experience: Aleister Crowley's Views on Occult Practice

by Marco Pasi

Published in: Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, 6:2 (December 2011), pp. 123-162. To be reprinted in: Henrik Bogdan and Martin Starr (eds.), Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism. An Anthology of Critical Studies, Oxford, Oxford University Press, forthcoming in 2012

Between Mysticism and Medical Materialism: The Relevance of William James and John Dewey for the Question of Neurotheology.

by Jonathan Weidenbaum

Originally delivered at a conference:: Mysticism Without Bounds, Bangalore, India. January 2011.

It is now published in a Tattva, Journal of Philosophy. Christ University, Bangalore.

Transcendence, Pathos, and the Romance of Science.

by Jonathan Weidenbaum

This is an essay I delivered at the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP), in Texas, 2009. It is not published anywhere, but it is found on the website for the conference program.

Deweyan Pragmatism

by Randy Friedman

William James Studies 1:1 (2007)

Dewey’s philosophy of religion, which admittedly does not occupy a great deal of his writing, represents a decisive... more Dewey’s philosophy of religion, which admittedly does not occupy a great deal of his writing, represents a decisive move on his part beyond James. Many have pointed out that it was James who turned Dewey from Hegelianism to what becomes his instrumentalist rendition of Jamesian pragmatism. In this article, I will concentrate on what Dewey borrows (and changes) from James: a notion of experience meant to bridge the gap between traditional philosophical rationalism and empiricism (and meant to take the place of both), and an emphasis on meliorism. I agree with those who argue that Dewey “naturalizes” James. James’s moral multiverse and his relatively uncritical approach to religious experience are replaced by a rather transparent religion of pluralism (or democracy) and a notion of moral faith which points from individual experience toward the pluralistic, democratic community. It would be more accurate to say that religion itself, any religious tradition, and religious experience, are replaced by the religious function in experience, through which the beliefs of the many and their aspirations form the working hypotheses of a progressive community.

William James on Emotion and Intentionality

by Matthew Ratcliffe

William James’s theory of emotion is often criticised for placing too much emphasis on bodily feelings and neglecting... more William James’s theory of emotion is often criticised for placing too much emphasis on bodily feelings and neglecting the cognitive aspects of emotion. This paper suggests that such criticisms are misplaced. Interpreting James’s account of emotion in the light of his later philosophical writings, I argue that James does not emphasise bodily feelings at the expense of cognition. Rather, his view is that bodily feelings are part of the structure of intentionality. In re-conceptualising the relationship between cognition and affect, James rejects a number of commonplace assumptions concerning the nature of our cognitive relationship with the world, assumptions that many of his critics take for granted.

An elaborated and improved version of my account of William James on emotion and feeling can be found in Chapters 8 and 9 of my book Feelings of Being (OUP, 2008).

William James: Von der Physiologie zur Phänomenologie

by Jan Slaby