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SUSSMAN-DISSERTATION-2017.Pdf (1.420Mb) DISCLAIMER: This document does not meet current format guidelines Graduate School at the The University of Texas at Austin. of the It has been published for informational use only. Copyright by Sarah Gail Sussman 2017 i The Dissertation Committee for Sarah Gail Sussman Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Pragmatic Enchantment: William James, Psychical Research, and the Humanities in the American Research University, 1880-1910 Committee: Brian A. Bremen, Supervisor Robert H. Abzug Linda Dalrymple Henderson Martin W. Kevorkian Hannah C. Wojciehowski ii Pragmatic Enchantment: William James, Psychical Research, and the Humanities in the American Research University, 1880-1910 by Sarah Gail Sussman, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2017 iii Acknowledgements First, I’d like to extend my sincerest thanks to my committee. My adviser, Brian Bremen, has always been incredibly generous with his time. He has pushed me to clarify this dissertation’s argument in both my writing and my thinking and lent his expertise in integrating challenging critical texts in pragmatism and the philosophy of science into this project. Robert Abzug’s class “The Birth of Psychotherapy” inspired many of the links I was then only beginning to articulate between various threads of late-nineteenth century alternative psychological thought and his own writing has provided an instructive critical paradigm. Martin Kevorkian’s seminar on Melville was one of the most valuable courses of my graduate career and his gift for close reading pushed me to a new appreciation for attention to detail. Linda Henderson’s work on “vibratory modernism,” the ether, and the avant-garde could not have provided a more apt critical model for this project. Finally, I would like to thank Hannah Wojciehowski for her path-breaking work bridging the gap between the humanities and the sciences. A number of libraries and archives have provided useful material that shaped my argument. I am especially grateful to the Huntington Library for a short term fellowship where I was able to develop these ideas over the course of a summer. Their unparalleled Jack London collection revealed just how prevalent a topic psychical research was in popular magazines and journals. I am also grateful for the feedback I received on a talk I delivered at the Huntington that was useful in shaping my project in its early stages. The 4 Philadelphia Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine afforded me the opportunity to share my work and visit archives. The consortium’s director, Babak Ashrafi, pointed me towards the importance of physics to psychical research at a critical juncture in the project’s development. Beth Lander at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Historical Medical Library, which holds S. Weir Mitchell’s papers, was generous with her time in locating documents. George Murnaghan Gordon at the Kislak Center at the University of Pennsylvania was also incredibly helpful. At the Fisher Library at the University of Toronto, I am very grateful to Anne Dondertman who arranged for a meeting with Adam Crabtree, another important critical interlocutor in my research. My friends and colleagues have my sincerest thanks for their input on my work. At least some of the interdisciplinarity of this project has benefitted from their wide- ranging specialties. Thanks to: Ty Alyea, Meredith Coffey, Kristie Flannery, Heather Graehl, Matthew Heeney, Mallorie Hendrix, Oscar Vargas Hernandez, Mukaram Hhana, Molly Hubbs, Corie Hill, Altina Hoti, Kuan Hwa, Emily Lederman, Sean Maguire, Destiny Preston, Helene Remiszewska, Sara Saylor, Connie Steel, Jenean Vasquez, Laura Knowles Wallace, Cole Wehrle, Jay Williams, Lindsey Wolf, Rachel Wise, and Nat Zingg. Last but not least, I would like to share my appreciation for my family for giving me perspective and support throughout this endeavor. 5 Pragmatic Enchantment: William James, Psychical Research, and the Humanities in the American Research University, 1880-1910 Sarah Gail Sussman, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2017 Supervisor: Brian A. Bremen Pragmatic Enchantment juxtaposes the histories of two intellectual movements from the fin de siècle that could not appear more different on their surfaces: pragmatism, or the philosophical approach that predicates the truth value of a belief or theory based on the success of its practical application, and psychical research, the scientific investigation of telepathy and allied phenomena. This study makes the argument that beneath the surface, psychical research was a major formative influence on pragmatism. The intertwinement of the two has been obscured because of the unlikely comparison between what is largely deemed a pseudo-science and the pristine reputation of a cornerstone of American intellectual life. In confluence, this study argues, these two intellectual movements played a contributory role in defending the state of humanistic inquiry in late- nineteenth century research universities. For William James, among the most famous of psychical researchers, I argue that his philosophy of pragmatism as it exists throughout his corpus from The Principles of Psychology to Pragmatism was rooted in his grappling with the need for personally meaningful or “live hypotheses” through the field of psychical research. First-generation pragmatists Charles Peirce, F.C.S. Schiller, and Henri Bergson were all involved in psychical research, and an examination of their writings in this arena reveals its influence on their contributions to pragmatism. At the 6 same time, rescaling psychical research’s place in history through a networked view unveils its connection to changes in higher education, particularly its programmatic relevance to American research universities which were swiftly turning towards an emphasis on the STEM fields. The professionalization of psychical research led to the establishment of programs at institutions like the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University. These programs created lines of scholarly communication through investigations undertaken collaboratively by both science and humanities professors. While the development of research universities would seem to support Max Weber’s popular thesis of secularization and Entzauberung (disenchantment) in the wake of late- nineteenth century scientific progress, this study argues to the contrary: psychical research propounded the very pragmatism of enchantment. It carried a humanistic raison d’etre for bringing “live hypotheses” into the investigative spirit of American research universities. 7 Table of Contents List of Tables .........................................................................................................10 Chapter One - From Margin to Center: The Materialization of Psychical Research25 Chapter One Introduction: The Edifice of Modern Science .........................25 Literature Review ..........................................................................................37 Paths to Psychical Research (1848-1882) .....................................................69 Placing the Fox Sisters into Scale: Spiritualism’s Network ................70 Swedenborgianism ...............................................................................76 Spiritualism: A Progressive Religious Movement ...............................79 Spiritualism Challenges the Edifice of Modern Science .....................80 The X Club: Naturalists Against Spiritualism .....................................82 The London Dialectical Society and the Psychological Society: Toward a Scientific-Spiritual Synthesis ......................................................84 The London Dialectical Society ..................................................84 The Psychological Society ..........................................................87 Chapter One Conclusion ...............................................................................88 Chapter Two - From the Courtroom to the University: The Emergence of Psychical Research as an Academic Discipline ............................................................91 Chapter Two Introduction: Henry Slade: Spiritualist, Criminal, Test Subject91 Martyrs of Modern Science ..........................................................................94 An Ethic of Science: Professionalization Under the Research University Model ............................................................................................................102 Reorganized Knowledge: Psychical Research in the Era of Academic Societies ............................................................................................................109 Chronology of Principal Disciplinary Associations and Publications. .......113 Professionalizing Spiritualism: The Formation of the Society for Psychical Research and the American Society for Psychical Research .............117 Gathering Narratives: Major Undertakings and Findings of the Society for Psychical Research .............................................................................120 Psychical Research Enters the Ivory Tower: The Seybert Commission for the Investigation of Modern Spiritualism at the University of Pennsylvania127 8 Afterlives of the Seybert Commission: From Ghosts to Hallucinations .....134 Chapter Three - An
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