The Divided Self of William James

A study of the multiple directions of James's philosophy.

Richard M. Gale (Author)

9780521642699, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 February 1999

376 pages
23.8 x 16.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.7 kg

'Original in focus and style, Gale's book will certainly be hailed as one of the most stimulating studies of James to have appeared in years. And it will attract a wide readership not only for the benefit of scholars and seminar students but for all those 'out there' beyond the campus border, who for one reason or another read James and about him and his works.' Gerald Myers, author of William James: His Life and Thought

This book offers a powerful interpretation of the philosophy of William James. It focuses on the multiple directions in which James's philosophy moves and the inevitable contradictions that arise as a result. The first part of the book explores a range of James's doctrines in which he refuses to privilege any particular perspective: ethics, belief, free will, truth and meaning. The second part of the book turns to those doctrines where James privileges the perspective of mystical experience. Richard Gale then shows how the relativistic tendencies can be reconciled with James's account of mystical experience. An appendix considers the distorted picture of James's philosophy that has been refracted down to us through the interpretations of his work by John Dewey.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. The Promethean Pragmatist: 1. The ethics of Prometheanism
2. The willfulness of belief
3. The freedom of belief
4. The will to believe
5. The ethics of truth
6. The semantics of 'truth'
7. Ontological relativism: William James meets Poo-bah
Part II. The Anti-Promethean Mystic: 8. The self
9. The I-thou quest for intimacy and religious mysticism
10. The humpty-dumpty intuition and panpsychism
11. Attempts at a one-world interpretation of James
Appendix: John Dewey's naturalization of William James
Bibliography of works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]