See also: James

William James (January 11th 1842 with New York - August 26th 1910 with Chocorua in the New Hampshire) is a psychologist and American philosopher , wire of Henry James, the disciple of Swedenborg, and older brother of Henry James, famous novelist.

Doctor in Médecine, it first of all endeavors to constitute a scientific psychology ( Principes of psychology , 1890), then defends the principles of the Pragmatisme, of which it is one of the leaders, concept that it borrows from Charles Sanders Peirce.

University career

The essence of the university career of William James proceeds with Harvard where it is initially instructor (1872) then assisting professor of Physiologie (1876). In 1880, he becomes assisting professor, then very quickly, in 1885, professor of Philosophie. In 1890, its official title is “professor of psychology” before becoming again “professor of philosophy” in 1897.

Theory

William James affirms that the Vérité is relating to the procedures of experimental checking, at the one time community, a theoretical context, etc

The Truth, for him, is thus not the inherent property of a statement; it is only a event, i.e. a reliable assertion temporarily and partially just and.

The Pragmatisme of William James is summarized by his famous formula: “Truth consists simply in what is advantageous for the thought. ”

William James & Carl Lange work out in 1884 the theory of the emotions: James-Lange theory. For them, the emotion translates a physiological answer to the modifications. “We feel sad because we cry, in anger because we strike somebody and frightened because we tremble. ”

William James: pioneer

In addition to its work of pioneer in psychology (cf 1400 pages of the " Principles off Psychology" from 1890) and in philosophy, William James is famous for her work within psychic sciences, or Parapsychologie. Its long studies of Mrs Piper are joined together in its " Studies and reflections of a psychiste". It founds the American Society for Psychical Research and works out exchanges supported with his European colleagues: Bergson, Henri Flournoy, Myers, etc. One also owes him the first work on the memory: integrating a double system of memorizing according to the duration of retention of information.

Principal works

• The Principles off Psychology , 1890. French translation: Principles of psychology
• Psychology. Briefer Race , 1892. French translation: Precise of psychology , hinderers to think in round, Paris, 2002.
• The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy , 1897. French translation: Will to believe , hinderers to think in round, Paris, 2005.
• The Varieties off Religious Experiment , 1902. Partial French translation: multiple Forms of the religious experiment , 1906.
• the Theory of the Emotion French Translation. Preface Georges Dumas. Alcan, 1902.
• Experiments of a psychist , transl. E. Durandeaud, introd. Rene Sudre, Paris, Payot, " With the borders of science " , 1969/" Small library Payot " , 2000 of the ED. from Paris, Payot, 1924, appeared under the title: '' Études and reflections of a psychist ''.
• Pragmatism , 1907. French translation: Pragmatism . New translation, Flammarion, Fields, October 2007.
• Essays in Radical Empiricism , 1912. French translation: Tests of radical empiricism , Agonic, Marseilles, 2005. Republication pocket, Flammarion, Fields, October 2007.

Bibliography on William James

• Delacroix, Henri Varieties of the religious experiment by William James. Review of metaphysics and morals 11.5 (Seven 1903): 642-669.

Jean Wahl, pluralist philosophies of England and America, Paris, Hinderers to think in rond/Le Threshold, 2005, 403 p. (Republication of the thesis of doctorate of the author comprising a chapter on William James).

External bonds

• William James contributed an important share to psychic sciences
• Chromatiques whiteheadiennes: http://www.chromatika.org

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