Talk:William James
From Academic Kids
THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY (1890) http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/ was published about the time Freud first published and was used as a text at Harvard.
PRAGMATISM: A New Name For Some Old Ways of Thinking http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=5116 was a series of lectures delivered at Lowell Institute, Boston (November and December, 1906), and at Columbia University, New York (January, 1907).
ESSAYS IN RADICAL EMPIRICISM needs a mention.
| Contents |
Anybody want to defend this passage?
"James was not trained as a philosopher, but rather as a psychologist, at the time when the two disciplines were only beginning to separate themselves. He was in fact one of the first laboratory psychologists in America, though he was also skeptical of the ultimate value of laboratories for understanding the human mind."
His formal training was as a medical doctor. He TAUGHT psychology, and made his first mark there with his famous textbook in the field, before he became known as a philosopher. I don't know what is meant by his skepticism about the "ultimate value of laboratories" here.
- What he meant was the characteristics of the human mind are investigated by the subjective technique of personal report, rather than objective experiment as in the physical sciences. Since James's day many objective tools and techniques have been introduced for neurological (brain) study, but the neural correlates of consciousness have not yet been discovered over a century later. --Blainster 03:08, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
"References" section
As I understood it, "References" was a place to list material we use in constructing an article, and as such shouldn't require comment about quality, though it might be apt to icnlude comments about what material was referenced; "Further reading" is the usual Wikipedia convention for additional materials reccomeded to the reader with comments about particular areas of importance. -- कुक्कुरोवाच|Talk‽ 16:06, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)
truth
i have some issues with the following:
Pragmatism as a view of the meaning of truth is considered obsolete in contemporary philosophy, because the predominant trend of thinking in the years since James' death (1910) has been toward non-epistemic definitions of truth, i.e. definitions that don't make truth dependent upon the warrant of a belief. A contemporary philosopher or logician will often be found explaining that the statement "the book is on the table" is true if and only if the book is on the table.
imo, to equate logical positivism with contemporary philosophy and contend that pragmatism is considered "obsolete" seems to clearly violate the npov policy. Positivism had its hey-day, but is no longer the dominant trend in philosophical thought by any means. I kind of think the paragraph should just be eliminated, but this certainly seems like something that should be discussed first. otherwise, if no discussion ensues in a couple of days, i'll edit it as i see fit. Heah 18:56, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I wrote this graf. Sorry that I haven't risen to its defense in a more timely fashion. I'll get back to you soon and make the case for restoring it. --Christofurio 14:47, May 31, 2005 (UTC)
Okay. Here goes. I've restored the passage in question, because it is a noteworthy fact, and not an expression of point of view. To say that film cameras are "considered obsolete" by 21st century digital photographers wouldn't be a POV either, after all, just a fact. "This is too bad because film has its advantages" would be a POV! So would, "and good riddance to that icky chemical stuff anyway!" be a POV. Noting the fact that a general consensus has developed defining terms and questions differently in philosophy is like noting the fact of the rise of digital tech. I don't say "too bad" or "hurrah" either. --Christofurio 23:19, Jun 4, 2005 (UTC)
- hmm . . . but still, my problem is that you seem to be equating logical positivism and contemporary philosophy. i don't think that the "general concensus" among philosophers would be to define truth along the lines of "snow is white if and only if snow is white". in the last two decades, this version of "truth" has also become obsolete. it is no longer the premeir way of thinking taught in universities (or at least american universities)- or at least, it has been fading over the last two decades, and interest in hegel, heideger, plato, pragmatism, et al has been rekindling. i don't think you'd find all that many philosophers actually subscribing to this form of truth.
- some concensus can surely be reached though- noting that pragmatist theories of truth quickly gave way to logical positivism is surely worth a mention, but if so it should probably also be noted that the "if and only if" definition of truth is no longer so prominent as it once was.
C. S. Peirce
This article needs at minimum a reference to Charles Peirce
James and parapsychology
This paragraph has been moved here from the article:
William James was interested in Parapsychology. Parapsychology is the study of the evidence involving phenomena where a person seems to affect or to gain information about something through a means not currently explainable within the framework of mainstream, conventional science. Proponents of the existence of these phenomena usually consider them to be a product of unexplained mental abilities.
The term parapsychology did not exist in James' day. He may have been innterested in the concept, but the editor who made the addition provided no reference to any of James writing on the subject. When adding substantive new material, please supply a reference similar to the ones in each of the other subjects covered in the article. --Blainster 20:21, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)
