ABSTRACT
William James (1842-1910) was primarily a psychologist, but was important in philosophy on two accounts: he invented the doctrine which he called ‘radical empiricism’, and he was one of the three protagonists of the theory called ‘pragmatism’ or ‘instrumentalism’. In later life he was, as he deserved to be, the recognized leader of American philosophy. He was led by the study of medicine to the consideration of psychology; his great book on the subject, published in 1890, had the highest possible excellence. I shall not, however, deal with it, since it was a contribution to science rather than to philosophy.
