ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides two biographical essays by Linda Simon and Paul Croce, among his finest biographers, in which James is presented as young man who struggled to find a congenial stance and stable position, torn as he was between the arts and the sciences, the flights from reality and its very taming. It focuses on what people might call James’s “practical philosophy”, even though his philosophy in its entirety might well fit the bill. The book shows the promises of a Jamesian approach to political citizenship and conscience. It describes the extent as well as the limits of such an appeal in moral and political matters. The book focuses on some selected philosophical encounters, was particularly needed as James’s was a collective philosophical journey if ever there was one.
