Wittgenstein and William James

This 2002 book explores Wittgenstein's long engagement with the work of the pragmatist William James.

Russell B. Goodman (Author)

9780521038874, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 July 2007

228 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 3 cm, 0.349 kg

'… scholarly and engaging … The book is illuminating in many ways, and will reward students of James as well as students of Wittgenstein. … Goodman tells this story very well indeed.' Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society

This 2002 book explores Wittgenstein's long engagement with the work of the pragmatist William James. In contrast to previous discussions Russell Goodman argues that James exerted a distinctive and pervasive positive influence on Wittgenstein's thought. For example, the book shows that the two philosophers share commitments to anti-foundationalism, to the description of the concrete details of human experience, to the priority of practice over intellect, and to the importance of religion in understanding human life. Considering in detail what Wittgenstein learnt from his reading of Principles of Psychology and Varieties of Religious Experience the author provides considerable evidence for Wittgenstein's claim that he is saying 'something that sounds like pragmatism'. This provocative account of the convergence in the thinking of two major philosophers usually considered as members of discrete traditions will be eagerly sought by students of Wittgenstein, William James, pragmatism and the history of twentieth-century philosophy.

Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Varieties of pragmatic experience
2. Wittgenstein and The Varieties of Religious Experience
3. Wittgenstein and The Principles of Psychology: an introduction
4. What is it like to be a human being?
5. Language and meaning
6. Pragmatism reconsidered
Coda
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy, from c 1900 - [HPCF], Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]