William James and the Metaphysics of Experience

A new interpretation of the philosopher, psychologist and religious thinker William James.

David C. Lamberth (Author)

9780521108973, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 February 2009

272 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.4 kg

"This is a very bold and exciting book..." Philosophy and Phenomenological

William James is frequently considered one of America's most important philosophers, as well as a foundational thinker for the study of religion. Despite his reputation as the founder of pragmatism, he is rarely considered a serious philosopher or religious thinker. In this new interpretation David Lamberth argues that James's major contribution was to develop a systematic metaphysics of experience integrally related to his developing pluralistic and social religious ideas. Lamberth systematically interprets James's radically empiricist world-view and argues for an early dating (1895) for his commitment to the metaphysics of radical empiricism. He offers a close reading of Varieties of Religious Experience; and concludes by connecting James's ideas about experience, pluralism and truth to current debates in philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and theology, suggesting James's functional, experiential metaphysics as a conceptual aid in bridging the social and interpretive with the immediate and concrete while avoiding naive realism.

Acknowledgments
Note on the text
Introduction
1. James's radically empiricist Weltanschauung
2. From psychology to religion: pure experience and radical empiricism in the 1890s
3. The Varieties of Religious Experience: Indications of a philosophy adapted to normal religious needs
4. Squaring logic and life: making philosophy intimate in A Pluralistic Universe
5. Estimations and anticipations
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of religion [HRAB]