William James Society
@wjsociety.bsky.social
Encouraging the discussion and application of the pragmatic, pluralistic philosophy of William James (1842-1910).
Pinned
The philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos.
As the art of reading (after a certain stage in one's education) is the art of skipping, so the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
November 7, 2025 at 11:02 AM
As the art of reading (after a certain stage in one's education) is the art of skipping, so the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
Congratulations to newly-elected executive board officers Alexis Dianda (Xavier) and John Snarey (Emory)! And thanks to all who’ve offered to serve.
October 29, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Congratulations to newly-elected executive board officers Alexis Dianda (Xavier) and John Snarey (Emory)! And thanks to all who’ve offered to serve.
What an awful trade that of professor is--paid to talk, talk, talk! I have seen artists growing pale and sick whilst I talked to them without being able to stop. And I loved them for not being able to love me any better...
October 17, 2025 at 12:16 PM
What an awful trade that of professor is--paid to talk, talk, talk! I have seen artists growing pale and sick whilst I talked to them without being able to stop. And I loved them for not being able to love me any better...
Autumn 2025 Newsletter
President’s Message from Dr. Phil Oliver
Autumnal season’s greetings, fellow friends of William James.
I first began to think of WJ in casually-friendly terms back in the Fall of my first year of grad school at Vanderbilt in the ’80s…
wjsociety.org/news/
President’s Message from Dr. Phil Oliver
Autumnal season’s greetings, fellow friends of William James.
I first began to think of WJ in casually-friendly terms back in the Fall of my first year of grad school at Vanderbilt in the ’80s…
wjsociety.org/news/
WJS Newsletter (NEW!) – William James Society
wjsociety.org
October 13, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Autumn 2025 Newsletter
President’s Message from Dr. Phil Oliver
Autumnal season’s greetings, fellow friends of William James.
I first began to think of WJ in casually-friendly terms back in the Fall of my first year of grad school at Vanderbilt in the ’80s…
wjsociety.org/news/
President’s Message from Dr. Phil Oliver
Autumnal season’s greetings, fellow friends of William James.
I first began to think of WJ in casually-friendly terms back in the Fall of my first year of grad school at Vanderbilt in the ’80s…
wjsociety.org/news/
Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens out the widest vistas. It 'bakes no bread,' as has been said, but it can inspire our souls with courage…
courage.no
October 1, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. It works in the minutest crannies and it opens out the widest vistas. It 'bakes no bread,' as has been said, but it can inspire our souls with courage…
Bertrand Russell was famously critical of American philosophers like William James and their radical theories of truth. But Russell’s attack rests on a caricature, argues philosopher John Kaag…
iai.tv/articles/rus...
www.facebook.com/share/p/1JRH...
iai.tv/articles/rus...
www.facebook.com/share/p/1JRH...
Redirecting...
www.facebook.com
September 28, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Bertrand Russell was famously critical of American philosophers like William James and their radical theories of truth. But Russell’s attack rests on a caricature, argues philosopher John Kaag…
iai.tv/articles/rus...
www.facebook.com/share/p/1JRH...
iai.tv/articles/rus...
www.facebook.com/share/p/1JRH...
Kaag on Russell on James www.facebook.com/share/p/1JRH...
Redirecting...
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September 28, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Kaag on Russell on James www.facebook.com/share/p/1JRH...
Excellent Lyceum address from Megan Craig, on staying human(e) and present in the face of mortality. #mtsu #AppliedPhilosophyLyceum
September 27, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Excellent Lyceum address from Megan Craig, on staying human(e) and present in the face of mortality. #mtsu #AppliedPhilosophyLyceum
James, alongside Bergson, recognized the value of non-intellectual sense, urging us to reanimate our capacity for greater intimacy and sensible contact with the world… James encouraged us to access “our earliest, most instinctive, least developed, kind of consciousness.” Megan Craig
September 26, 2025 at 12:27 PM
James, alongside Bergson, recognized the value of non-intellectual sense, urging us to reanimate our capacity for greater intimacy and sensible contact with the world… James encouraged us to access “our earliest, most instinctive, least developed, kind of consciousness.” Megan Craig
Megan Craig (Stony Brook University) is MTSU's upcoming Applied Philosophy Lyceum speaker...
RELATION AND RUPTURE
AT THE END OF LIFE
Friday, September 26, 2025 • 5 p.m.
College of Education, Room 164
philoshap2.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-co...
RELATION AND RUPTURE
AT THE END OF LIFE
Friday, September 26, 2025 • 5 p.m.
College of Education, Room 164
philoshap2.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-co...
A conversation with Megan Craig
Megan Craig (Stony Brook University) is MTSU 's upcoming Applied Philosophy Lyceum speaker... RELATION AND RUPTURE AT THE END OF LIFE ...
philoshap2.blogspot.com
September 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Megan Craig (Stony Brook University) is MTSU's upcoming Applied Philosophy Lyceum speaker...
RELATION AND RUPTURE
AT THE END OF LIFE
Friday, September 26, 2025 • 5 p.m.
College of Education, Room 164
philoshap2.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-co...
RELATION AND RUPTURE
AT THE END OF LIFE
Friday, September 26, 2025 • 5 p.m.
College of Education, Room 164
philoshap2.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-co...
Psychedelics Blew His Mind. He Wants Other Philosophers to Open Theirs. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/b...
Psychedelics Blew His Mind. He Wants Other Philosophers to Open Theirs.
www.nytimes.com
September 21, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Psychedelics Blew His Mind. He Wants Other Philosophers to Open Theirs. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/b...
Few of us are tender-foot Bostonians pure and simple, and few are typical Rocky Mountain toughs, in philosophy. Most of us have a hankering for the good things on both sides of the line. Facts are good, of course—give us lots of facts. Principles are good—give us plenty of principles.
September 20, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Few of us are tender-foot Bostonians pure and simple, and few are typical Rocky Mountain toughs, in philosophy. Most of us have a hankering for the good things on both sides of the line. Facts are good, of course—give us lots of facts. Principles are good—give us plenty of principles.
The antagonism between intensely tough and tender temperaments has formed in all ages a part of the philosophic atmosphere of the time. It forms a part of the philosophic atmosphere today. The tough think of the tender as sentimentalists and soft-heads.
September 10, 2025 at 10:28 PM
The antagonism between intensely tough and tender temperaments has formed in all ages a part of the philosophic atmosphere of the time. It forms a part of the philosophic atmosphere today. The tough think of the tender as sentimentalists and soft-heads.
Tender-minded and tough-minded people, characterized as I have written them down, do both exist. Each of you probably knows some well-marked example of each type, and you know what each example thinks of the example on the other side of the line. They have a low opinion of each other.
September 1, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Tender-minded and tough-minded people, characterized as I have written them down, do both exist. Each of you probably knows some well-marked example of each type, and you know what each example thinks of the example on the other side of the line. They have a low opinion of each other.
I hope summer has glided away as happily for you as it has for us. Now it begins to fade towards the horizon over which so many summers have slipped, and our household is on the point of "breaking up" just when the season invites one most imperiously to stay. Dang all schools and colleges, say I.
August 22, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I hope summer has glided away as happily for you as it has for us. Now it begins to fade towards the horizon over which so many summers have slipped, and our household is on the point of "breaking up" just when the season invites one most imperiously to stay. Dang all schools and colleges, say I.
My dear Howison,—How you have misunderstood the application of my word "trivial" as being discriminatively applied to your pluralistic idealism! Quite the reverse—if there be a philosophy that I believe in, it's that.
August 19, 2025 at 5:31 PM
My dear Howison,—How you have misunderstood the application of my word "trivial" as being discriminatively applied to your pluralistic idealism! Quite the reverse—if there be a philosophy that I believe in, it's that.
This is exciting (if you're a Jamesian):
William James Society board member and (with his Pragmatism Cybrary) master archivist of American Philosophy John Shook has recovered the earliest society publications… jposopher.blogspot.com/2025/08/in-b...
William James Society board member and (with his Pragmatism Cybrary) master archivist of American Philosophy John Shook has recovered the earliest society publications… jposopher.blogspot.com/2025/08/in-b...
In the beginning (of the William James Society): "The Streams of William James"
This is exciting (if you're a Jamesian ): William James Society executive board member and (with his Pragmatism Cybrary ) master archivis...
jposopher.blogspot.com
August 16, 2025 at 4:56 PM
This is exciting (if you're a Jamesian):
William James Society board member and (with his Pragmatism Cybrary) master archivist of American Philosophy John Shook has recovered the earliest society publications… jposopher.blogspot.com/2025/08/in-b...
William James Society board member and (with his Pragmatism Cybrary) master archivist of American Philosophy John Shook has recovered the earliest society publications… jposopher.blogspot.com/2025/08/in-b...
I have no doubt whatever that most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon, of which we do not dream. The practical problem is "how to get at them." Most never do.
August 12, 2025 at 10:43 AM
I have no doubt whatever that most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon, of which we do not dream. The practical problem is "how to get at them." Most never do.
The rationalist finally will be of dogmatic temper in his affirmations, while the empiricist may be more sceptical and open to discussion.
I will write these traits down in two columns… 'tender-minded' and 'tough-minded' respectively.
I will write these traits down in two columns… 'tender-minded' and 'tough-minded' respectively.
August 5, 2025 at 6:53 PM
The rationalist finally will be of dogmatic temper in his affirmations, while the empiricist may be more sceptical and open to discussion.
I will write these traits down in two columns… 'tender-minded' and 'tough-minded' respectively.
I will write these traits down in two columns… 'tender-minded' and 'tough-minded' respectively.
James also thinks inquiry needs to be conducted in a scientific fashion, but especially in philosophical inquiry, he doesn't think this should be done using jargon, in a technical fashion. James's outlook here is evolutionary… amphilos.blogspot.com/2025/07/an-i...
An interview with Alexander Klein
William James, Where All Consciousness Is Motor - 3:16 ...James also thinks inquiry needs to be conducted in a scientific fashion, but espec...
amphilos.blogspot.com
July 29, 2025 at 5:30 PM
James also thinks inquiry needs to be conducted in a scientific fashion, but especially in philosophical inquiry, he doesn't think this should be done using jargon, in a technical fashion. James's outlook here is evolutionary… amphilos.blogspot.com/2025/07/an-i...
Rationalism is more religious than empiricism when the individual empiricist prides himself on being hard-headed. In that case the rationalist will usually also be in favor of what is called free-will, and the empiricist will be a fatalist—I use the terms most popularly current.
July 27, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Rationalism is more religious than empiricism when the individual empiricist prides himself on being hard-headed. In that case the rationalist will usually also be in favor of what is called free-will, and the empiricist will be a fatalist—I use the terms most popularly current.
