ABSTRACT
William James famously claimed that individual philosophies reflect the temperaments of those who propose and accept them. If so, how exactly did James’s own temperament impact upon his thought? This chapter will address this question by translating temperament into its psychological manifestations and asking (1) What were the personal characteristics, experiences, and concerns – the personal psychology – that shaped James’s thought? (2) How was this personal psychology expressed in his professional psychology? and (3) How was his philosophy rooted in his psychology, both personal and professional? With appropriate qualifications along the way, this division of labor and progression – from the personal context of James’s life to the development of his psychology and thence to the articulation of his philosophy – will provide an effective means of elucidating the personal nature of James’s thought. Among the highlighted aspects of his psychology and philosophy will be his subtle observations regarding the nature of consciousness; his distinctive emphasis upon the active selectivity of the human mind; his thoroughgoing realization of the significance of emotion, habit, will, and action in human life; and his fundamental belief in the existence and consequences of real, undetermined possibilities in a world that is always in the making. These personally grounded aspects of his thought will be shown to be related in essential ways to James’s radical empiricism and pragmatism.
