William James

Also known as W. James

American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist (1842–1910)

AI overview

William James was an American philosopher and psychologist who lived from 1842 to 1910 and became a leading figure in pragmatism, a school of thought that judges ideas by their practical usefulness rather than abstract truth. His work laid important foundations for modern psychology and philosophy by emphasizing how our minds work in real-world situations and how our beliefs shape our actions.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: January 11, 1842
Died: August 26, 1910
Works: 574

Top works

Founders' Day addresses, March 9, 1906
Pragmatism, selections
Vie et Oeuvres spirituelles [de l'admirable docteur mystique le bienheureux père Saint Jean de la Croix.]
心理学について
Traité de l'amour de Dieu

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: Germany
Active from: 1929-04-17
Active to: 2015-06-09

acoustic porridgeeasy listeningeuropeangermanjazz

Discography

Official site Discogs Stream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 2,042
Total plays: 10,693

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews
· 2021 · cited 77,549x
Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations
· 1976 · cited 67,202x
Fiji: an open-source platform for biological-image analysis
· 2012 · cited 65,124x
VMD: Visual molecular dynamics
· 1996 · cited 61,655x
Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure
· 1976 · cited 43,955x

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Quotes

“I think that yesterday was a crisis in my life. I finished the first part of Renouvier's second Essais and see no reason why his definition of free will—"the sustaining of a thought because I choose to when I might have other thoughts"—need be the definition of an illusion. At any rate, I will assume for the present—until next year—that it is no illusion. My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.”
“All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods.”
“Freedom is only necessity understood.”
“What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural way, — nay, more, a menacing and an imminent way? And what sense can there be in condemning ourselves for taking the wrong way, unless we need have done nothing of the sort, unless the right way was open to us as well? I cannot understand the willingness to act, no matter how we feel, without the belief that acts are really good and bad.”
“The most any one can do is to confess as candidly as he can the grounds for the faith that is in him, and leave his example to work on others as it may.”
“Old-fashioned determinism was what we may call hard determinism. It did not shrink from such words as fatality, bondage of the will, necessitation, and the like. Nowadays, we have a soft determinism which abhors harsh words, and, repudiating fatality, necessity, and even predetermination, says that its real name is freedom; for freedom is only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom”

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Wikidata facts

Image: William James by Alice M. Boughton, c. 1907, platinum print, from the National Portrait Gallery - NPG-NPG 87 37James-000001 (cropped).jpg

Show 8 more facts

Commons gallery: William James
Commons category: William James (psychologist)
date of birth: 1842-01-11
date of death: 1910-08-26
name in native language: William James
Commons Creator page: William James (psychologist)
P6944: William James
P12749: Roland Freisler

Sources (5)

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~40 min read

Article

William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th century, one of the most influential philosophers and is often dubbed the "father of American psychology".

Born into a wealthy family, James was the son of the Swedenborgian theologian Henry James Sr. and the brother of both the prominent novelist Henry James and the diarist Alice James. James trained as a physician and taught anatomy at Harvard, but never practiced medicine. Instead, he pursued his interests in psychology and then philosophy. James wrote widely on many topics, including epistemology, education, metaphysics, psychology, religion, and mysticism. Among his most influential books are The Principles of Psychology, a groundbreaking text in the field of psychology; Essays in Radical Empiricism, an important text in philosophy; and The Varieties of Religious Experience, an investigation of different forms of religious experience, including theories on mind-cure.