DOCSLIB.ORG

William James on Free Will: a Personal Response to the Dilemma of Determinism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
William James on Free Will: a Personal Response to the Dilemma of Determinism Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1962 William James on Free Will: A Personal Response to the Dilemma of Determinism Robert Michael Buren Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Buren, Robert Michael, "William James on Free Will: A Personal Response to the Dilemma of Determinism" (1962). Master's Theses. 1753. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/1753 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1962 Robert Michael Buren - W 01 $e' - r1m' mas ••' .' wttT.IAM JAMFS ON FREE WILL. A PERSONAL RESPONSE '1'0 THE DILEMMA (!! DEl'ERMINISM by R. Michael Buren, S.J. A Thes!. Submitted to the Faculty or the Graduate School or Loyola University in Partial P'ul!ullment or the Requirements tor the Degree of Master or Arts June 1962 ,'" ..........'---------- ...--_ .... -- .._-- .....-- ...•••.•" .... 1.. '.' ... ·....... '. ". .Ji..Iip$I_"la&,~ ~'i LIFE Robert Michael Buren, S.J., 'was born in Louisville, Kentucky, September 13, 1936. He completed. his elementary education at St. George Grammar School in that city. His secondary education was received at St. Mary's College High School, St. Mary, Kentucky, and he was graduated in May, 1954. The following September he returned to St. Mary's College and completed two years or study there. The author entered the Society of Jesus in September, 1956 at Mil!ord Nov.1- tiate of the Sacred Heart, Millord, Ohio. During his three years at Millord he was registered as an undergraduate in the College of Arts and Sciences in Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. In August, 1959 he began the atud;y or Philosophy and Science at West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana, and was enrolled in Loyola University, whence he received the Bachelor of Al-ts degree in June, 1960. Since that time he has pursued graduate studies in Philosophy in Loyola University. r' iii ... ez' k • • 'm - TABLE CF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 Purpose of the thesis--Unity and consistency of James' philosophic views--The particular problem of this thesis as seen in the pro­ gress of thought throughout its chapterss (1) James' general phil­ osophic view of lit'e; (2) His will-theory ih the Principles and his refusal to handle the free-will problem; (3) The application of his general outlook to the problem in his philosophical writ­ ings; (4) Remarks. II. JANES' PHILOSOPHICAL VIEVI OF LIFEs THE CIRCUMSTANCES NECESSARY FOR SATISFTING A PffiSONAt NEID •••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 6 James' philosophic views are primarily subjectivistic, determined by the man--The man, his early years--His increasing neurasthenic condition accompanied by the approach of a spiritual crisis--For­ tunate outcome--James' debt to Renouvier--The meaning of James' victory over the crisis of l870--Specific quality needed to com­ bat spiritual sickness then upon him--The fact that it was re­ solved by a philosophical insight--How James arrived at his dis­ tinctive philosophical approach--~~at it was--His need for the vigorous exercise of his internal faculties--"Circumstancesll necessary were his philosophical views--Interdependence of dif­ ferent facets of his philosophy with the option for free will; pluralism, radical empiricism, meliorism, pragmatism, novelty-­ Final recapitulation of thesis of this chapter--Evidences of the centrality in James' philosophy of his belief in the freedom of the will. In. THE ffiINCIPLES, MECHANISM VS. INDETERMINISM, A DILEHMA • • • • • • 26 Predominance of will-theory in tne Prlnciplcs--Sources of James' theory--Plan of this Chapter, its eight parts--Preliminary def­ inition of IlwiUII--Relationahip of psychology and philosophy in the Princip~s--(l) Instinctual movements of the will--J~~es' explosion of the "feeling of innervation" theory-(2) Ideo-motor action--() Action after deliberation--~ive types of decision-- . Importance of fifth type to the free-will controversy--(4) States of the will--(5) Pleasure and pain as springs of action--(6) iv - • ' ,we j • M$ t Me r. r Will-proper, the importance of attention--(7) ~uestion of free wi11--Strong case is made in favor or deterrninism--Evidence equally strong is given for the other side of the argument-- A dilemma--Freedom vs. determinism controversy cannot be han­ dled within the Bcope of psycho10gy--P1ace of other references throughout the Principles to the two key chapters--James' statement of his philosophical views concerning the controversy can be found in the Principles. IT. THE vJILL TO BELIEVE: A MCRAL SOLUTION TO THE ffiOBLEM . 61 James' shift of interest to phi10Bophy--The 90's--The Will to Believe--Be1ief and its relationship to the will must ~lear- 1y understood--Doctrine of the will to believe--Two cases where the will can legitimately determine belief--This is not willful subjectivism: conditions for a valid use of the will to believe --A "tender-minded pragmatic theory of meaning--The "faith1adder" of A Pluralistic Universe--"The Dilemma of Determinism"--Its context, p1ura1ism--A systematic study or it--Two suppositions --Determinism--Indeterminism--"Postulates of Reality" will de­ termine the victor--Pessimism and human feelings of regret-­ Subjectivism--The true dilemma: Pessimism vs.subjectivism-­ James' vigorous option of indeterminism--Action--A second argu­ ment--Two objections answered--Other writings--1876--1882-­ Talks to Teachers--The Philosophy 3 Syl1abUS'--Essays in Radical EmpiriCIsm--Pragmatism--Meaning of Truth--Some :~oblems Of Philosophy--Summaryof texts. -- - V. REMARKS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 94 James' consideration of freedom solely within a larger context of subjectivity--Fundarnenta1 freedom--The norm of "conscious awareness"--Janv3s' refusal to use it to arrive at freedom--Psy­ chology of automatism vs. philosophy of freedom in the Prinei­ ples--Resort to will when intellect could carry on--Two theories of meaning make for a split phil080phy--Conclusion. BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • lOS ) Ph t p ,.) • - $" ? ':te r . ' CHAPrER ONE ... - INTRODUCTION The purpose or this thesis is an exposition or Will.1am James' views con­ cerning the free-w1l1 controversy. An err art will be made to see how the prob­ lem arose for him, the m&rmer in whioh he viewed it, and the way that, after many years or personal difficulty and intellectual struggle, he ultimately re- solved the problem. Before beginning these matters, however, a word about the unity and consistency of James' philosophic views is in order. James has often been taunted, posthumously, with the accusation that he is nunsystematic.tt If by a system of phnosop~ is meant fitting everything in the universe into its proper logical.l.y demarcated compartment, James has no sys­ tem of philosophy. In fact he would rebel against the thought of such a system, both in himself' or in others. He hated system, in thill sense, and his own pic- ture or the world leaves it full of loose ends and uncompleted processes. He considered this the only true description of' the wcrld as we find it. On the other hand, 1£ one means by a system or phUosop~ the answering of a wide varietyof' questions in the light of a ffIW basic principles, then James is systematic; and, his philosophic views are unified and oonsistent. James' writings and lestures cover a span of over thirty-tive years, arxi the • S' un 51' Z'P 7 '2 un 12' 2 clear example or this, it is obvious to anyone who has read more than a little or James, that his theory of truth, his views on ethics, hi. radical empiricism, his cosmology and his philosophy or religion, are all based on h18 distinctive pragmatic theory or meaning. It'is hoped that this thesis will also illustrate thill same unity and consistency with regard to James' handling or the problem of free will. Because James' philosophical views were so prof'use and varied, and because he wrote in the popular style of the lecturer, it is necessary before begin­ ning to show clearly where the matter of this thesis fits into the complex pattern of' his thought. Also, James had a distinctive way of viewing the op­ erations of the human c:rganlsm, and the psychological terms that are or partic- ular concern here, "will," "free-will," "will to believe," and "belief," must be clearly explained so as to avoid confusion; however, this can be done in the proper place in following chapters. The best way to situate the particular ". problem of this thesis is to show briefly the sweep of the thought here as it progresses through this and succeeding chapters. In the following ohapter the concern is with James' general philosophical. approach to lit e. We will show what he understands philosophy to be, and how this understanding or his clearly illustrates the stance that he takes in grap­ pling with the problems to come. It is part of' the thesis or this chapter that James' personal. psychological make-up has a lot to do with his view or life and, therefore, with his philosophy. Just as hil!l personal. make-up can tell us something about his advocacy of' pluralism over monism,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • At Least in Biophysical Novelties Amihud Gilead
    The Twilight of Determinism: At Least in Biophysical Novelties Amihud Gilead Department of Philosophy, Eshkol Tower, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838 Email: [email protected] Abstract. In the 1990s, Richard Lewontin referred to what appeared to be the twilight of determinism in biology. He pointed out that DNA determines only a little part of life phenomena, which are very complex. In fact, organisms determine the environment and vice versa in a nonlinear way. Very recently, biophysicists, Shimon Marom and Erez Braun, have demonstrated that controlled biophysical systems have shown a relative autonomy and flexibility in response which could not be predicted. Within the boundaries of some restraints, most of them genetic, this freedom from determinism is well maintained. Marom and Braun have challenged not only biophysical determinism but also reverse-engineering, naive reductionism, mechanism, and systems biology. Metaphysically possibly, anything actual is contingent.1 Of course, such a possibility is entirely excluded in Spinoza’s philosophy as well as in many philosophical views at present. Kant believed that anything phenomenal, namely, anything that is experimental or empirical, is inescapably subject to space, time, and categories (such as causality) which entail the undeniable validity of determinism. Both Kant and Laplace assumed that modern science, such as Newton’s physics, must rely upon such a deterministic view. According to Kant, free will is possible not in the phenomenal world, the empirical world in which we 1 This is an assumption of a full-blown metaphysics—panenmentalism—whose author is Amihud Gilead. See Gilead 1999, 2003, 2009 and 2011, including literary, psychological, and natural applications and examples —especially in chemistry —in Gilead 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014a–c, and 2015a–d.
    [Show full text]
  • Remembering Gregg Schraw
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Special Education and Communication Department of Special Education and Disorders Faculty Publications Communication Disorders 11-3-2016 Remembering Gregg Schraw Matthew T. McCrudden Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/specedfacpub Part of the Special Education and Teaching Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Special Education and Communication Disorders Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. digitalcommons.unl.edu Remembering Gregg Schraw Matthew T. McCrudden Faculty of Education, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand email [email protected] Gregg Schraw passed away on September 15, 2016 at age 62 after a battle with cancer. Gregg was a Barrick Distinguished Professor of ed- ucational psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He completed a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and became a certified teacher. Later, he completed a M.S. in instructional science (1986), a M.S. in applied statistics (1988), and finally a Ph.D. in cogni- tion and instruction, each from the University of Utah. The progres- sion of his degrees was a prelude to a professional career that was characterized by his emphasis on the use of theory, design, and mea- surement to investigate practical issues in education. Published in Educational Psychology Review 28 (2016), pp 673–690. doi:10.1007/s10648-016-9390-2 Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York.
    [Show full text]
  • Causality and Determinism: Tension, Or Outright Conflict?
    1 Causality and Determinism: Tension, or Outright Conflict? Carl Hoefer ICREA and Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona Draft October 2004 Abstract: In the philosophical tradition, the notions of determinism and causality are strongly linked: it is assumed that in a world of deterministic laws, causality may be said to reign supreme; and in any world where the causality is strong enough, determinism must hold. I will show that these alleged linkages are based on mistakes, and in fact get things almost completely wrong. In a deterministic world that is anything like ours, there is no room for genuine causation. Though there may be stable enough macro-level regularities to serve the purposes of human agents, the sense of “causality” that can be maintained is one that will at best satisfy Humeans and pragmatists, not causal fundamentalists. Introduction. There has been a strong tendency in the philosophical literature to conflate determinism and causality, or at the very least, to see the former as a particularly strong form of the latter. The tendency persists even today. When the editors of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy asked me to write the entry on determinism, I found that the title was to be “Causal determinism”.1 I therefore felt obliged to point out in the opening paragraph that determinism actually has little or nothing to do with causation; for the philosophical tradition has it all wrong. What I hope to show in this paper is that, in fact, in a complex world such as the one we inhabit, determinism and genuine causality are probably incompatible with each other.
    [Show full text]
  • Truth in Economic Subjectivism
    Munich Personal RePEc Archive Truth in Economic Subjectivism Zuniga, Gloria L. October 1998 Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/5568/ MPRA Paper No. 5568, posted 04 Nov 2007 UTC Journal of Markets & Morality 1, no. 2(October 1998), 158-168 Markets & Morality 159 Copyright © 1998 Center for Economic Personalism The first is an epistemic sense of ‘subjective’ that provides an acco unt of choice given the constraint of limited resources despite unlimited wants. The second is an ontological sense of subjective that describes the eco- nomic character of things as dependent on human acts of valuing. Truth in Economic Subjectivism Carl Menger advanced this account of the subjective theory of value in his Principles of Economics, first published in 1871. The significance of his co ntributio n lies in the transcatego rical description of social phenomena. Gloria L. Zúñiga While most accounts reduce value either to the mind or to some intrinsic Doctoral Candidate in Philosophy pro perty o f things, Menger demo nstrated that all so cial phenomena was State University of New York at Buffalo composed of varying combinations of beliefs and entities, judgments and facts, mind and matter. In order to achieve such a transcatego rial acco unt of value, Menger first provided an epistemic account of economic valua- tion by grounding his analysis on the experience of the valuing individual. Second, he provided a description of exact laws of economic phenomena, The Problem of Subjectivism thus advancing an ontology of economic objects. The achievement
    [Show full text]
  • A Sociological Study of Nihilism: a Case Study
    International Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Science ISSN: 2307-924X www.ijlass.org A Sociological Study of Nihilism: A Case Study Jahangir Jahangiri, PhD Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology and Social Planning, Faculty of Social Sciences, Shiraz University, Eram Place, Shiraz, Fars, Iran Code Postal: 7194685115 Email: [email protected] Rayehe Ghareh M.A in Sociology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran Email: [email protected] Abstract The present research aims at studying nihilistic thoughts among students of Shiraz University. The framework of the research is Crosby’s theory about nihilism. The study is based on a quantitative approach and employs a survey method so as to collect the required data. Statistical population of the study is the whole Students of Shiraz University that according to the formal statistics consists of 20000 students. 400 students are selected by multistage sampling method. The results show that there is a significant relationship between the independent variables of gender, adherences to religious practices, fatalism, fear of failure, need for achievement and the dependent variable nihilism. Stepwise regression method used to predict the dependent variable. Ordinarily, five variables of fatalism, fear of failure, Adherences to religious practices, gender and need for achievement could predict 33% of dependent variable (R2=0.338) Key Words: Nihilism, Sociology, University Students, Shiraz University, Iran Introduction Undoubtedly, the most fundamental question that every human being faces with, is about the purpose of life. Not only modern human, but also pre-modern human beings have been encountered with this question. The intolerable journey from birth to death, and relentless onslaughts of hopelessness and despair, persuade every human to answer the question, as possible.
    [Show full text]
  • The Will to Live
    University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Dissertations 1977 An Empirical Investigation of an Existential Theory as it Appears to the Elderly: The Will to Live Ann M. Varna Garis University of Rhode Island Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss Recommended Citation Varna Garis, Ann M., "An Empirical Investigation of an Existential Theory as it Appears to the Elderly: The Will to Live" (1977). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 1114. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/1114 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. - AN EMPIRICALINVESTIGATION OF AN EXISTENTIALTHEORY AS IT APPLIES TO THE ELDERLY: THE WILL TO LIVE BY ANNM. VARNAGARIS A DISSERTATIONSUBMITTED IN PARTIALFULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTSFOR THE DEGREEOF DOCTOROF PHILOSOPHY IN PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITYOF RHODEISLAND 1977 ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to investigate the Will to Ltve concept as it applies to the elderly. This was accomplished by exploring the relationship among the variables of Purpose in Life; Locus of Control; Depression; and a self-ratin g Will to Live scale. These are variables which, according to the literature, could be expected to be major components of the Will to Live concept. The subjects for this study were 6J volunteers, ran gin g in a ge from 60 to 95, taken from different housing settin gs, nursing homes; apartments for the elderly; and private homes in the community.
    [Show full text]
  • Nineteenth Century Cracks in the Concept of Determinism
    !"#$%$$#%&'($#%)*+'(*,-./'"#'%&$'(0#-$1%'02'3$%$*4"#"/4 5)%&0*6/78'9,#':,-."#; <$="$>$?'>0*.6/78 @0)*-$8'A0)*#,B'02'%&$':"/%0*+'02'9?$,/C'D0BE'FFC'!0E'G'6A)BE'H'@$1EC'IJKG7C'11E'FLLHFML N)OB"/&$?'O+8'University of Pennsylvania Press @%,OB$'P<Q8'http://www.jstor.org/stable/2709176 . 5--$//$?8'IIRIIRSTII'IK8TT Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the History of Ideas. http://www.jstor.org NINETEENTH CENTURY CRACKS IN THE CONCEPT OF DETERMINISM BY IAN HACKING Deterministe: Nom d'une secte peu connue en Allemagne et qui y a peu d'influence. Determinisme: Systeme, principes, doctrine des deterministes.1 Duringthe nineteenth century we witness an event that I call the erosion of determinism. At the start of the period we read Laplace, confident that all the world is ruled with the same exact necessity as is found in celestial mechanics. At the end we find C.S. Peirce (1839-1914) asserting there is no ground for believing either such a doctrine of necessity or for holding that the laws of natureare rightly represented by precise numerical constants.
    [Show full text]
  • A Celebration of the Contributions of Dr. Mortimer J. Adler
    A Celebration of the Contributions of Dr. Mortimer J. Adler August 19-21,1994 Aspen, Colorado Contents (interactive) Mortimer J. Adler: Philosopher at Midday- Jeffrey D. Wallin...................51 MJA, POLITICS: Summary - John Van Doren............................................76 Mortimer Adler: The Political Writings - John Van Doren........................79 Remarks – Mortimer J. Adler.......................................................................93 From the Editor’s Desk - Sydney Hyman...................................................95 Mortimer Adler and The Aspen Institute - Sidney Hyman........................99 Authors........................................................................................................118 51 Mortimer J. Adler: Philosopher at Midday Jeffrey D. Wallin ortimer J. Adler has made an unusual number of difficult M ideas accessible to “everybody.” Perhaps that is why he has been so uncharitably dismissed as a “popular” philosopher by his critics, a good number of whom come from that narrow breed of specialists once dismissed by Nietzsche as equipped at best to study the lives of a single species of insect, say, the leech, or that being too broad, perhaps only the leech’s brain. Adler is not a spe- cialist. He speaks to broad issues, issues of importance to all of us as men and women. Even more surprising, he speaks without jar- gon, evasion or irony. Unlike the owl of Minerva, which is said to begin its flight at dusk, this is one philosopher who learns and teaches in direct sunlight. Among the most important topics Adler has shed light upon are liberal education, democracy and human nature. Adler favors all of them, by the way. And nothing could further distance him from the strongest trends in American education. * * * In early May 1994 The New York Times carried a story about a controversy raging in Lake County, Florida.
    [Show full text]
  • Agency: Moral Identity and Free Will
    D Agency AVID Moral Identity and Free Will W DAVID WEISSMAN EISSMAN There is agency in all we do: thinking, doing, or making. We invent a tune, play, or use it to celebrate an occasion. Or we make a conceptual leap and ask more ab- stract ques� ons about the condi� ons for agency. They include autonomy and self- appraisal, each contested by arguments immersing us in circumstances we don’t control. But can it be true we that have no personal responsibility for all we think Agency and do? Agency: Moral Ident ty and Free Will proposes that delibera� on, choice, and free will emerged within the evolu� onary history of animals with a physical advantage: Moral Identity organisms having cell walls or exoskeletons had an internal space within which to protect themselves from external threats or encounters. This defense was both and Free Will structural and ac� ve: such organisms could ignore intrusions or inhibit risky behav- ior. Their capaci� es evolved with � me: inhibi� on became the power to deliberate and choose the manner of one’s responses. Hence the ability of humans and some other animals to determine their reac� ons to problema� c situa� ons or to informa- � on that alters values and choices. This is free will as a material power, not as the DAVID WEISSMAN conclusion to a conceptual argument. Having it makes us morally responsible for much we do. It prefi gures moral iden� ty. A GENCY Closely argued but plainly wri� en, Agency: Moral Ident ty and Free Will speaks for autonomy and responsibility when both are eclipsed by ideas that embed us in his- tory or tradi� on.
    [Show full text]
  • SPINOZA's ETHICS: FREEDOM and DETERMINISM by Alfredo Lucero
    SPINOZA’S ETHICS: FREEDOM AND DETERMINISM by Alfredo Lucero-Montaño 1. What remains alive of a philosopher's thought are the realities that concern him, the problems that he addresses, as well as the questions that he poses. The breath and depth of a philosopher's thought is what continues to excite and incite today. However, his answers are limited to his time and circumstances, and these are subject to the historical evolution of thought, yet his principal commitments are based on the problems and questions with which he is concerned. And this is what resounds of a philosopher's thought, which we can theoretically and practically adopt and adapt. Spinoza is immersed in a time of reforms, and he is a revolutionary and a reformer himself. The reforming trend in modern philosophy is expressed in an eminent way by Descartes' philosophy. Descartes, the great restorer of science and metaphysics, had left unfinished the task of a new foundation of ethics. Spinoza was thus faced with this enterprise. But he couldn't carry it out without the conviction of the importance of the ethical problems or that ethics is involved in a fundamental aspect of existence: the moral destiny of man. Spinoza's Ethics[1] is based on a theory of man or, more precisely, on an ontology of man. Ethics is, for him, ontology. He does not approach the problems of morality — the nature of good and evil, why and wherefore of human life — if it is not on the basis of a conception of man's being-in-itself, to wit, that the moral existence of man can only be explained by its own condition.
    [Show full text]
  • The Philosophy of William James As Related to Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux
    Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 1987 The philosophy of William James as related to Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux Peggy Lyne Hurtado Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Intellectual History Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Hurtado, Peggy Lyne, "The philosophy of William James as related to Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux" (1987). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 3713. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.5597 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. ---- l I AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Peggy Lyne Hurtado for the Master of Arts in History presented June 10, 1987. Title: The Philosophy of William James as Related to Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux. APPROVED BY MEMBERS OF THE THESIS COMMITTEE: Michael F. Reard~n, Chairman Guin~ David Joh This thesis argues two issues: William James' philosophy was-to a great extent derived from his interaction with the French philosophers, Charles Renouvier, Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel and Emile Boutroux. Correlative to the fact that these five figures have an intellectual 2 relationship with one another, I also argue that in order to understand James, he must be placed within the context of these relations.
    [Show full text]
  • Immanuel Kant and the Development of Modern Psychology David E
    University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Psychology Faculty Publications Psychology 1982 Immanuel Kant and the Development of Modern Psychology David E. Leary University of Richmond, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/psychology-faculty- publications Part of the Theory and Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Leary, David E. "Immanuel Kant and the Development of Modern Psychology." In The Problematic Science: Psychology in Nineteenth- Century Thought, edited by William Ray Woodward and Mitchell G. Ash, 17-42. New York, NY: Praeger, 1982. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Psychology at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Psychology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Immanuel Kant and the Development of Modern Psychology David E. Leary Few thinkers in the history of Western civilization have had as broad and lasting an impact as Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). This "Sage of Konigsberg" spent his entire life within the confines of East Prussia, but his thoughts traveled freely across Europe and, in time, to America, where their effects are still apparent. An untold number of analyses and commentaries have established Kant as a preeminent epistemologist, philosopher of science, moral philosopher, aestheti­ cian, and metaphysician. He is even recognized as a natural historian and cosmologist: the author of the so-called Kant-Laplace hypothesis regarding the origin of the universe. He is less often credited as a "psychologist," "anthropologist," or "philosopher of mind," to Work on this essay was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No.
    [Show full text]