William james biography amazon

A sudden rush of positive insight or total oneness may not be as self-evidently true as we might like. Are such experiences completely self-verifying? In the metaphor James uses more than once, we may well be like our pet dog who wanders around a library without the vaguest idea of the larger world it is in and only the most minimal and most limited idea of the world outside its consciousness.

Still, our best developed and best functioning concepts are all we have in practice.

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As James says in so many ways, these are stepping stones for our understanding of ourselves and the universe. We can stand on them — for a while — as long as they are productive and bear themselves out in practice. His relationship to his famous brother Henry is laid out in detail as well as his marriage to Alice Gibbens. The English is clear and well-organized with excellent chapter divisions.

The transitions are smooth and this is especially important when mixing the life and the ideas of an academic figure. I recommend this biography in the strongest terms as one of the finest examples around of engaging the reader in the life story of an original American thinker. Extraordinary man, complex and inspiring, a hero for any age. The book does justice as far as a book can.

I need not repeat the summaries set forth below by other reviewers, since these explain both Richardson's method -- to tell the life story through the work -- and the essentials of James' theories. What I will say is that, even if you have no background in philosophy or psychology, you should read this brilliant, passionate biography. James wrote for a popular as well as a professional audience; he was open and curious to all experience, and wished to be inclusive rather than exclusive in disseminating his ideas.

Richardson is clear and succinct in explaining James theories -- often in the man's own, crisp, evocative language and clarifying analogies. Moreover, the concepts that James developed have in many cases become part of our popular vocabulary, including through organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous, which Richardson reports took inspiration from James' Gifford lectures, published in the U.

You will come away from "In the Maelstrom of American Modernism" with a better understanding of both American values and ideals, and the history of U. Most importantly, however, you will come away with enormous admiration for the radiant personality that was William James, or as Richardson exclaims using italics, not caps at the end of this great work, for "the SPIRIT the man.

That's how good this book is -- for every reader. This book will resonate perfectly with scholars trained in philosophy and psychology. Biographer Richardson traces William James' evolving thought patterns with a thoroughness no writer could exceed. For the average reader, though, I suggest the book will have value mostly because of the interesting lives of William James and his novelist brother Henry.

Certainly I had been unaware of William's lifelong health problems. Too, the book provides fascinating tidbits about his courtship with his eventual wife Alice. Note his highly formal writing style in a love letter to her: "My duty is to win your hand if I can. What I beg of you now is that you should let me know categorically whether any absolute irrevocable obstacle already exist to that consummation.

See more reviews. Report an issue. Does this item contain inappropriate content? Do you believe that this item violates a copyright? Does this item contain quality or formatting issues? Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. Back to top. Get to know us. Make money with us. Let Us Help You. So he floundered about, like many a young man before and since, feeling demoralized, confused and uncertain about what to do with himself.

Nonetheless, James grew close to some of the most original minds of his generation -- in particular, the future jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes and the brilliant and frequently destitute philosopher Charles S. Peirce, the founder of semiotics the study of signs. In his early 20s, he even traveled to Brazil on a five-month collecting william james biography amazon with the eminent Harvard naturalist Louis Agassiz.

At the age of 30, though, William James was offered a job teaching physiology and later psychology, and eventually philosophy at Harvard, resulting in a more settled outward life. He married, kept up with his siblings through letters, began to deliver public lectures on subjects as various as determinism and the moral life. Only at the age of 48 did he finally publish a book: the three-volume The Principles of Psychologyshortly followed by an abridged textbook version for teachers, which made him quite well off.

By contrast with Freud's investigations, James's psychology deals largely with the function of consciousness. He insists that the mind is active, a participant and shaper of our lives, not just a looker-on. As he writes, consciousness enables us to select and "choose out of the manifold experiences present to it at a given time some one for particular accentuation, and to ignore the rest.

James emphasizes, for example, the importance of developing good habits and tells us how to do this; proffers advice on successful test-taking hit the williams james biography amazon hard, then stop studying completely a full day before the exam ; and recommends that once we make a decision we avoid stewing about the consequences.

James throws out apothegms that sound almost like Dale Carnegie or a self-help seminar: "There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. Indeed, Richardson emphasizes that James refused to confine his thinking to accepted, scholarly paths. For instance, he experimented with nitrous oxide and drugs, regularly attended seances and helped found the American Society for Psychical Research.

In his later years, he relied on injections made from bull testicles and other elixirs for relief from fatigue, eye strain and angina.

William james biography amazon: William James: Writings The Varieties

Above all, though, he began to think hard about the other-worldly visions and mystical trances that are so common in the william james biography amazon of religious experience. It is here that James grows truly profound and haunting. We need a life not correlated with death, a health not liable to illness, a kind of good that will not perish, a good in fact that flies beyond the goods of nature.

Maybe, maybe not, James says. But "no fact in human nature is more characteristic than its willingness to live on a chance. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true. Suppose, for instance, that you are climbing a mountain, and have worked yourself into a position from which the only escape is by a terrible leap.

Have faith that you can successfully make it, and your feet are nerved to its accomplishment. But mistrust yourself, and think of all the sweet things you have heard the scientists say of maybes, and you will hesitate so long that, at last, all unstrung and trembling, and launching yourself in a moment of despair, you roll in the abyss. In such a case.

Refuse to believe, and. But believe, and again you shall be right, for you shall save yourself. As he frequently says, "By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their roots. He was not always a secular saint, but he could sometimes be a witty one. All Rights Reserved. Click to play video. Andrew Langston. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness. Customers find the biography useful and engaging. They praise the author's skillful writing style and eloquent language. The book is described as an interesting, fun read that engages the reader deeply.

Readers appreciate the sympathetic portrait of a scholar and their detailed account of his life. AI-generated from the text of customer reviews. They appreciate the author's perspective and the way he intertwines biographical details with intellectual history. The book provides an intimate glimpse into the sources of genius and self-inflicted obstacles.

Readers describe it as one of the best biographies they have read, providing insights into one of the greatest Americans. All in all, a seminal work on one of the greatest psychological thinkers of all timea brilliant pragmatist and Promethean visionary who hiked and I enjoyed the book as a life story well told. Customers find the writing style skillful and engaging.

They appreciate the direct william james biography amazon and well-organized chapter sections. The book is described as a good read with clear, crisp language. His relationship to his famous brother Henry is laid out in detail as well as his marriage to Alice Gibbens Richardson is clear and succinct in explaining James theories -- often in the man's own, crisp, evocative language and clarifying analogies Note his highly formal writing style in a love letter to her: "My duty is to win your hand if I can.

Customers find the book engaging and fun to read. They describe it as lively, absorbing, and rewarding. The writing is clear and well-researched, with an interesting story that immerses readers in the life of William James. This biography is simply a very good read and a rewarding one. William James was a whirlwind of continuous creativity who lived life to the full.

A good example of Carpe diem for all of us. Customers appreciate the book's portrait quality. They find it sympathetic and detailed, providing a full account of William James' life and personality. Readers describe him as an exceptional man of the 20th century with a radiant personality. It gives a full portrait on not only what William James did, but also of what he read, Richardson's fine-grained account of William James resembles perhaps the kind of presentation Incorporating information from previously unpublished letters, family records, and journals, a definitive portrait of the influential philosopher, educator, and psychologist follows William James from his youth and his relationship with other members of his brilliant family to his masterful contributions to the modernist movement, mysticism, education, and other fields.

Report an issue with this product or seller. Previous slide of product details. Print length. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Publication date. January 1, See all details. Next slide of product details. Customers who viewed this item also viewed. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. Previous set of slides. Robert D. William James. John Kaag. Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind.

Richardson Jr. Linda Simon. Next set of slides. From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Richardson, biographer of Thoreau and Emerson, has chosen as his subject one of the most radiant of American lives. Author, philosopher, scientist, psychologist, longtime Harvard professor, James — had set out to be a painter, but discouraged from this by his father, instead followed a wandering but ultimately consistent career path.

He trained as a medical doctor but never practiced medicine; served as a naturalist and accompanied Louis Agassiz on an expedition to the upper reaches of the Amazon; broke new ground as a physiologist and psychologist; studied religion and psychic phenomena; lectured extensively; and wrote three classic books, Principles of PsychologyThe Varieties of Religious Experience and Pragmatism.

Richardson's book opens in Aprilwith the year-old James, then a visiting professor at Stanford, shaken from his bed by the second shock of the San Francisco earthquake. His immediate response typified his lifelong openness to experience and risk taking including, we're told, personal encounters with previously untested drugs and gases.

William james biography amazon: Follow William James and explore their

Instead of fear he experienced "glee," "admiration," "delight" and an exhilarating sense of "welcome. William's sister was the diarist Alice, fully as remarkable but not so publicly fulfilled as her famous elder siblings. William and the novelist Henry coexisted on often competitive but ultimately affectionate terms. One of the most poignant of the 32 pages of illustrations shows the brothers, both in their 60s, standing side by side, with William's arm around the younger Henry's shoulder in a gesture of protection and intimacy.

Previous biographers of William James have focused on his thought and character, others on the events of his life, which was often marked by doubt, depression and physical ailments.

William james biography amazon: This first full biography of

But no one has managed, as Richardson does so brilliantly, to intertwine the two and account for each with equal authority, penetration and narrative coherence. James's progression from the gently idealizing intellectual climate of Ralph Waldo Emerson to what Richardson calls "the maelstrom of American modernism" makes for a gripping and often inspiring story of intellectual and spiritual adventure.

Richardson's enthusiasm for what he calls "the matchless incandescent spirit" of William James is contagious. All rights reserved. Scholars and general readers alike will value the lucid narrative revealing how James erased the traditional boundary between thought and thinker, defying both Platonic idealism and materialistic determinism as he probed the powers of the human will to shape the universe it experiences.

Richardson investigates with particular care James' foray into the complex psychology of belief in The Varieties of Religious Experiencedetailing how James affirmed the human capacity for faith as a prerequisite for fruitful action. Readers thus see how James harmonized religious hope with his own formulation of pragmatism as the dynamic process that defines modernity.

Readers visit the academic settings in which James worked, alternately clashing and collaborating with Harvard titans such as Royce and Santayana. But readers also see how fiercely the great psychologist resisted lecture-room formulas in his quest for direct experience. And in that quest, the vicissitudes he shared with his wife, close friends, and family counted--as Richardson shows--for more than the doctrines of theoreticians.

A landmark study, certain to endure. Review "A biographical study of the highest order. In Robert D. Richardson, James has a kindred spirit. Every unerring, brilliant page is a gift. William James is honored as the first great American psychologist, an important philosopher and a pioneer of modern religious thought. But his lifelong engagement with the really significant questions -- those focused on how we should live in this world -- marks him as, above all, a classic moralist.

It thus makes perfect sense that Robert D. Richardson, the outstanding biographer of Thoreau and Emerson, should devote the past 10 years to an intensive study of the intellectual life of this revered thinker, a master-spirit of the age and a teacher who counted among his students such luminaries as George Santayana, W. Du Bois and Gertrude Stein.

James was sixty-four, famous now as a teacher and for his work in psychology, philosophy, and religion. He was spending the year as a visiting professor at Stanford University, twenty- five miles south of San Francisco. His mission was to put Stanford on the map in philosophy. Jesse Cook, a police sergeant on duty that morning in the San Francisco produce market, first noticed the horses panicking, then saw the earthquake start.

The whole street was undulating. It was as if the waves of the ocean were coming toward me. There was a sickening sway, and we were all flat on our faces. They swayed out into the street, then rocked back, only to repeat the movement with even more determination. He rushed to his william james biography amazon. The St Francis hotel was waving to and fro with a swing as violent and exaggerated as a tree in a tempest.

Then the rear of my building, for three stories upward, fell. The mass struck a series of little wooden houses in the alley below. I saw them crash in like emptied eggs, the bricks passing through the roofs as though through tissue paper. I had this feeling of finality. This is death. From some of the holes water was spurting; from others gas. Some of the more violent survivors rushed about, attacking anyone who came near.