William James

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. These classic essays address concerns of religious faith from a philosophical perspective. "The Will to Believe" is a defense of the legitimacy of religious faith-though not as a defense of the validity of such faith. James responds to the often corrosive effect of rationality on religious faith by arguing that it is most rational to choose faith. He continues his...

Condensed and reworked from James's monumental Principles of Psychology, this classic text examines habit; stream of consciousness; self and the sense of personal identity; discrimination and association; the sense of time; memory; perception; imagination; reasoning; emotions, instincts; the will and voluntary acts; and much more. This edition omits the outdated first nine chapters.

Published in 1897, this essay was the 1896 Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard University. James, in a preface to the second edition, writes, "My concern in the lecture was not to discuss immortality in general. It was confined to showing it to be not incompatible with the brain-function theory of our present mundane consciousness."

Though unfinished at his death, Some Problems in Philosophy demonstrates the psychological insight and devotion to literary excellence that James brought to philosophy. Intended to serve both as a historical overview of metaphysics and a systematic statement of his philosophical beliefs, this volume is one of his seminal works. This edition includes a preface by the author's brother, Henry James.

Henry James (1843-1916) was an America-born English writer whose novels, short stories and letters established the foundation of the modernist movement in twentieth century fiction and poetry. His career, one of the most significant and influential in English literature, spanned over five decades and resulted in a body of work that has had a profound impact on generations of writers. Born in New York, but educated in France, Germany, England and Switzerland,...

William James was the older brother of novelist Henry James, and a pioneering psychologist and philosopher. His works pushed the boundaries of psychology and helped shape the direction the field would grow in. Collected here are four of his most important books: 'Essays in Radical Empiricism', 'The Meaning of Truth', 'The Varieties of Religious Experience', and 'What is an Emotion?' These books helped forge a field and remain as important today as...

Brother of novelist Henry James and godson of eminent philosopher, essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James earned his own reputation for the monumental contributions he made in the field of Psychology. Here in his most comprehensive work on psychology, "Principles of Psychology", we find a textbook which took James twelve years to complete, and which is still prevalent in the contemporary study of psychology. James' writings were, influenced...

I should say first of all that the only emotions I propose expressly to consider here are those that have a distinct bodily expression. That there are feelings of pleasure and displeasure, of interest and excitement, bound up with mental operations, but having no obvious bodily expression for their consequence, would, I suppose, be held true by most readers. Certain arrangements of sounds, of lines, of colours, are agreeable, and others the reverse,...

William James's fascinating treatise explores the psychology of habitual behavior in human beings, discussing the science of habit and it's drawbacks, benefits, negation, and more. This easy-to-digest volume is highly recommended for students and will appeal those with an interest in psychology. William James (1842 - 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. He is among the most influential thinkers of the late nineteenth century and is...

The Principles of Psychology was written by William James, an American philosopher and psychologist who trained to be a physician before going into psychology. There are four methods from James' book: stream of consciousness (James' most famous psychological metaphor); emotion (later known as the James-Lange theory); habit (human habits are constantly formed to achieve certain results); and will (through James' personal experiences in life).