Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2008 A Pluralistic University: William James and Higher Education Pamela Castellaw Crosby Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION A PLURALISTIC UNIVERSITY: WILLIAM JAMES AND HIGHER EDUCATION By PAMELA CASTELLAW CROSBY A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2008 The members of the Committee approve the Dissertation of Pamela C. Crosby, defended on June 16, 2008. _____________________________________ Jeffrey A. Milligan Professor Directing Dissertation _____________________________________ Peter Dalton Outside Committee Member _____________________________________ Jon C. Dalton Committee Member _____________________________________ Emanuel Shargel Committee Member Approved: _______________________________ Gary Crow, Chair, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii I dedicate this work to Dr. Donald A. Crosby, my husband, best friend, soul mate, and the one who introduced me to William James. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the members of my dissertation committee for their guidance throughout the dissertation process: Dr. Jeff Milligan, for teaching me to be an independent scholar, yet providing me with the direction and support that I needed when I stumbled and veered off course; Dr. Jon Dalton, for treating me as a junior colleague while at the same time offering me his ongoing mentorship; Dr. Peter Dalton, for teaching me what outstanding teachers do both inside and outside the classroom; and Dr. Emanuel Shargel, for kindling my interest in issues relating to social philosophy of education and to the university. I also want to thank Dr. Cynthia Wallat for making me feel a part of the Florida State community when I first came to campus— offering me the use of her office, inviting me to teach a class with her, and giving me confidence to apply to graduate school. I am most grateful also to Dr. Victoria MacDonald for teaching the class that was to mark the pivotal point in my directed course of study and research: History of Higher Education. For their ongoing patience and help in so many matters, I want to thank the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies staff members Amy McKnight, Mary Peterson, Natasha Blankenship, and Jimmy Pastrano. In addition, I want to acknowledge the professional expertise of Dr. John Tyndall, Manuscript Clearance Advisor, whose wit and wisdom helped to make the last stages of the dissertation process a productive and pleasant experience. Finally, I want to express my deepest appreciation to the staff of the Hardee Center for Leadership and Ethics in Higher Education, not only for their friendship, but also for teaching me what exemplary professionals in higher education do for students and their colleagues in order to build a nurturing intellectual community: Dr Jon Dalton, Director (and fellow Co-editor of the Journal of College and Character); Aurelio Valente, Associate Director; David Eberhardt, Research Associate; and Chris Rindosh, Research Associate. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………… ........................ vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM ..................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM .................................................. 11 CHAPTER 3: THE PHILOSOPHY OF WILLIAM JAMES .............................. 28 CHAPTER 4: PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION—THE CULTIVATION OF THE WHOLE PERSON ................................................................................ 47 CHAPTER 5: THE PRAGMATIC TEST—IMPLICATIONS OF JAMES’S THEORIES AND PROPOSALS FOR EFFECTIVE PRACTICE ...................... 85 REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 113 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .............................................................................. 122 v ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to examine and assess critically how William James envisioned the mission of the university. The mission of the university, for James, is to educate students to become whole, distinctive, and flourishing persons who contribute to as well as benefit from a pluralistic society. A flourishing person for James is one who has high and distinctive ideals and goals and devotes her greatest efforts to achieving these aims while testing their usefulness in ongoing experience. The most important role for a university, therefore, is to guide students to choose ideals for themselves, provide them with the best means to realize these goals, and help them critically to examine the consequences of attaining these goals. This argument for the mission of the university is firmly grounded in James’s philosophy. To know something concretely for James is to become familiar with its many relationships, that is, its connections and disconnections. To understand the meaning of concepts or abstractions is to ask how they function, what is their use, how they make a difference that leads to further fruitful action or thought. To begin to understand a person as fully as possible is to seek to know that person in as many dimensions of that person’s experience as possible, which includes an appreciation of the inner complex life comprised of many kinds of emotions, anticipations, memories, desires, interests, and values. James conceives of a “significant” life as a life devoted to lofty ideals, goals, and aims. Worthy goals and aims help individuals to strive toward human excellence and cannot be imposed from the outside but must be truly their own. A worthy ideal (a) compels persons toward new directions; (b) demands their attention and dedication; (c) involves struggle; (d) alters lives in meaningful ways; (e) is valuable according to its consequences in experience; (f) is feasible; and (g) is compatible with others’ pursuits of ideals. James proposes at least two ways that colleges and universities can help young people pursue their ideals. The first way is to insure that there is meaningful and purposeful interaction between exceptional adult leaders and students in students’ active engagement in learning. The second proposal James presents is the integration of pluralistic biographical, historical, philosophical, and literary components with basic courses in order to emphasize excellence in all human endeavors. vi For James, a major threat to the university mission of helping young people to pursue their interests is the increasing layers of bureaucratization as a result of mounting specialization and professionalization that force faculty and administrators to treat subordinates in their organizations, not as persons of value in themselves, but as a means to promote their own interests. Institutional intellectualism (a term coined in this study) is the institutional version of an intellectual outlook in philosophy that is unaware of its failure to take adequate account of the concrete world and its complex interrelations. James’s solution to the problem of the misuse of abstractions is always to appeal directly to human experience and to continue to test practices and policies in the light of worthy goals and aims. vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM Introduction The purpose of this research is to examine and assess critically how William James envisioned the mission of the university. The mission, for James, is to educate students to become whole, distinctive, and flourishing persons who contribute as well as benefit from a pluralistic society. A flourishing person for James is one who has high and distinctive ideals and goals and devotes her greatest efforts to achieving these aims while testing their usefulness in ongoing experience. The most important role for a university is to guide students to choose the right goals and ideals for themselves as particular individuals while helping to provide them with the best means to achieve these goals and to examine the consequences of achieving these goals. A superior university, therefore, is a pluralistic university that values and nurtures diverse points of view and specific abilities of faculty and students. Two practices in higher education that James proposes for helping students to form, reach, and test their ideals are (a) the creation of a learning environment where there is extensive meaningful and purposeful interaction between students and exceptional adult leaders and (b) the implementation of a curriculum of diverse subjects and topics that are presented within a broad humanities context. The barrier to formulating worthy ideals and performing useful actions in achieving and assessing these ideals is the misuse of abstractions or concepts in a way that neglects attention to relevant experience (this is also James’s criticism of many philosophical arguments). The misuse of abstractions can be in the form of policies, practices, and disciplines, as well as of instruments of measurement. James’s solution to the problem of the misuse of abstractions is always to appeal to human experience directly and to continue to test practices and policies in the light of worthy goals and aims. The approach used in supporting this study