William James on Free Will
Origins of William James / Jamesian Thinking
William James, born 1842, was a trained physician who subsequently dabbled in works of philosophy and psychology (in which he officiated as a formal study through lectures) (Goodman, 2009). As did many philosophers, Jamesian thinking seeded many discussions on various philosophical topics such as metaphysics, morality, free will-determinism, religion and the afterlife; however, what truly made his ideas notable was his uncanny ability to borrow and integrate knowledge from branches of physiology, psychology and philosophy to weave new insights and dimensions onto traditional philosophical arguments (Goodman).
His influential piece called The Principles of Psychology took these ideas together and encouraged a trend of pragmatism and phenomenology in philosophy amongst a generation of American and European thinkers such as the likes of Bertrand Russell, John Dewey and Edmund Husserl (Goodman, 2009). James’ ideas were widely discussed and sparked new approaches to thinking due to his tendencies to adapt the strength of differing knowledge from his branches of study that sat somewhat comfortably in the spectrum between two dichotomies (i.e. he argued for the existence of indeterminism in free will versus determinism argument) (Goodman). His ideas were as much philosophical as they were scientific hence allowing room for many to embrace such forms of thinking (Goodman).
The general idea behind most of William James’ philosophy rests on its arguments that philosophical concepts needed not to be always present in an ‘either/or’ condition, but a logical resolution can be reasoned between two opposing concepts, at least in part of the philosopher himself. Most would regard Jamesian philosophy as adopting a compatibilist view of the notions (Doyle, 2010) as was highly apparent in his take on the argument on free will versus determinism.
Free Will versus Determinism: William James and Indeterminism Prior to James during the
William James, born 1842, was a trained physician who subsequently dabbled in works of philosophy and psychology (in which he officiated as a formal study through lectures) (Goodman, 2009). As did many philosophers, Jamesian thinking seeded many discussions on various philosophical topics such as metaphysics, morality, free will-determinism, religion and the afterlife; however, what truly made his ideas notable was his uncanny ability to borrow and integrate knowledge from branches of physiology, psychology and philosophy to weave new insights and dimensions onto traditional philosophical arguments (Goodman).
His influential piece called The Principles of Psychology took these ideas together and encouraged a trend of pragmatism and phenomenology in philosophy amongst a generation of American and European thinkers such as the likes of Bertrand Russell, John Dewey and Edmund Husserl (Goodman, 2009). James’ ideas were widely discussed and sparked new approaches to thinking due to his tendencies to adapt the strength of differing knowledge from his branches of study that sat somewhat comfortably in the spectrum between two dichotomies (i.e. he argued for the existence of indeterminism in free will versus determinism argument) (Goodman). His ideas were as much philosophical as they were scientific hence allowing room for many to embrace such forms of thinking (Goodman).
The general idea behind most of William James’ philosophy rests on its arguments that philosophical concepts needed not to be always present in an ‘either/or’ condition, but a logical resolution can be reasoned between two opposing concepts, at least in part of the philosopher himself. Most would regard Jamesian philosophy as adopting a compatibilist view of the notions (Doyle, 2010) as was highly apparent in his take on the argument on free will versus determinism.
Free Will versus Determinism: William James and Indeterminism Prior to James during the
References: Doyle, B. (2010). Jamesian free will, the two-stage model of William James. William James Studies, 5, 1-28. Retrieved from williamjamesstudies.org/5.1/doyle.pdf Goodman, R. (2009). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: William James. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/ James, W. (1884). The dilemma of determinism. Retrieved from http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/blattnew/intro/james_dilemma_of_determinism. pdf