ABSTRACT
By the end of the twentieth century, the neo-Darwinian synthesis of genetics and natural selection had crystallized into a philosophy of nothing but: ultimately, human beings are nothing but a product of the long-term mechanical sorting of variation by the environment. Proximally, we are nothing but genetic programs being triggered by impersonal external factors. If evolution has a protagonist, it is not the organism at all but the selfish gene.
This interpretation of Darwinism now appears so natural that it is easy to forget how contested the evolutionary terrain was in Charles Darwin’s own time. At the end of the nineteenth century, there was no broad agreement about the causes of evolution or the deeper implications of a worldview that embraces ongoing change and transformation. It was even possible to advance Darwinian arguments – as William James did – to carve out a place for individual agency and freedom in the world.
In this chapter, I will show that James was an early innovator of generalized selectionism, or the application of the logic of natural selection to a range of phenomena including perception and cognition, socio-historical change, and even truth. Indeed, the concept of selection constitutes a hidden logical backbone to James’s thinking, structuring his deepest-held philosophical conviction: that reality is in the making, with individuals as active participants.
