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William James
William James was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th century, one of the most influential philosophers and is often dubbed the "father of American psychology".
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science · American philosopher and psychologist (1842–1910) · philosopher · psychologist · university teacher · physician · writer · also William James, W. James, James
Born 11 January 1842 · Died 26 August 1910 · Q125249
70 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 5 entries
“The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life”
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“Society for Psychical Research is doing much to injure psychology”
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“It is thus possible that Mrs. Piper”
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The Guardian: ‘I thought – if I die, I’ve had a good innings’: producer James Ford on life, death and making an album from his hospital bed
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2002· 1 entry
Ranked James as the 14th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century
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1991· 1 entry
Ranked James's reputation in second place, after Wilhelm Wundt, who is widely regarded as the founder of experimental psychology
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1984· 1 entry
“Psychology, briefer course - Página 7, William James - Harvard University Press, 1984, ISBN 0674721020, 9780674721029 - 553 páginas”
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1977· 2 entries
Equating the United States' 1970s energy crisis, oil crisis, and the changes and sacrifices Carter's proposed plans would require with the "moral equivalent of war", may have borrowed its title and much of its theme from
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“The varieties of religious experience: a study in human nature - Página 248, William James - Forgotten Books, 1977, ISBN 1606802461, 9781606802465 - 508 páginas”
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1975· 1 entry
Harvard University Press began publication of a standard edition of The Works of William James
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1918· 1 entry
“Ch. 1 : The Scope of Psychology (1918 edition)”
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1910· 24 entries
Died 1910-08-26.
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“(…) władzę, jaką alkohol rozciągnął nad ludzkością, niezaprzeczenie zawdzięcza on swej sile rozbudzania mistycznych właściwości natury ludzkiej, zazwyczaj dławionych przez suche fakty i suchy krytycyzm chwil trzeźwości.”
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“What holds attention determines action”
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“Il metodo pragmatico consiste nel distogliere lo sguardo dai princìpi e guardare alle conseguenze.”
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“Cuando un problema filosófico ha sido resuelto, deja de ser filosófico y pasa al dominio de las ciencias.”
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“O św. Ludwiku Gonzadze: gdy intelekt nie jest większy niż łepek szpilki i żywi w sobie stosownie drobne pojęcie Boga, rezultatem tego, pomimo całego włożonego w to bohaterstwa, może być jedynie coś całkiem odrażającego.”
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“Aquilo que prende a atenção determina a ação.”
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“[Sulla coscienza] È il nome di una non-entità e non ha alcun diritto a un posto tra i principi primi. Coloro che ancora vi si aggrappano, si attaccano in realtà a una pura eco, al flebile rumore lasciato nell'aere filosofico dall'"anima" che scompare.”
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“Actúa como si lo que haces marca la diferencia. Lo hace».[Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does]”
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“US-amerikanischer Philosoph und Psychologe”
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“A difference which makes no difference is no difference at all.”
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“Pragmatysta trzyma się faktów i tego, co konkretne, obserwuje, jak prawda działa w konkretnych przypadkach i uogólnia. Prawda staje się dla niego zbiorową nazwą wszelkiego rodzaju wartości efektywności doświadczenia.”
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“Również ludzie o nastawieniu empirycznym, kiedy formułują hipotezy kierujące ich życiem, często popadają w dogmatyzm jak nieomylni papieże.”
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“Różnica między człowiekiem dobrym a złym polega na motywie działania.”
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“As the brain-changes are continuous, so do all these consciousnesses melt into each other like dissolving views. Properly they are but one protracted consciousness, one unbroken stream.”
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“Tell him to live by yes and no — yes to everything good, no to everything bad.”
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“Wherever you are it is your own friends who make your world.”
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“Gdyby wszystko, co jest zimne, było wilgotne, i wszystko, co jest wilgotne, było zimne, gdyby wszystko co jest twarde, i wyłącznie to, kuło nam skórę, czy odróżnialibyśmy zimno od wilgoci i twardość od ostrości?”
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“Comparados ao que deveríamos ser, estamos apenas meio acordados. Usamos apenas uma pequena parte de nossos recursos físicos e mentais. Em linhas gerais, o indivíduo está longe de usar todo o seu potencial. Ele dispõe de diversos poderes que não costuma usar.”
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“A maior descoberta da minha geração foi a de que o ser humano pode alterar sua vida alterando sua mente.”
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“It is as important to cultivate your silence power as it is your word power.”
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“No particular results then, so far, but only an attitude of orientation, is what the pragmatic method means. The attitude of looking away from first things, principles, 'categories,' supposed necessities; and of looking towards last things, fruits, consequences, facts.”
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“Every way of classifying a thing is but a way of handling it for some particular purpose.”
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“The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.”
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1909· 2 entries
While he worked on a philosophy text (unfinished but posthumously published as Some Problems in Philosophy)
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“true ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and verify. False ideas are those that we cannot.”
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1907· 1 entry
“Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)”
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1906· 1 entry
And published in 1910, in which "James considered one of the classic problems of politics: how to sustain political unity and civic virtue in the absence of war or a credible threat", and which "sounds a rallying cry for
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1904· 1 entry
Career landmark: President of the American Psychological Association (1904–1904).
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1902· 1 entry
Would write: "I originally studied medicine in order to be a physiologist, but I drifted into psychology and philosophy from a sort of fatality
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1899· 1 entry
“Letter to Mrs. Henry Whitman (7 June 1899), in The Letters of William James, ed. Henry James, vol. 2, p. 90 (1926)”
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1898· 1 entry
James joined the Anti-Imperialist League, in opposition to the United States annexation of the Philippines
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1897· 2 entries
“Letter to John Jay Chapman (5 April 1897)”
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“The Will to Believe (1897)”
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1895· 3 entries
The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)
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“Letter to E.L. Godkin (24 December 1895)”
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“Reported in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) edited by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 225”
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1894· 1 entry
Career landmark: President of the American Psychological Association (1894–1894).
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1890· 1 entry
“Letter to Henry James (ca. 1890) as quoted by Robert D. Richardson, William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism (2007) p. 297. Also as quoted partially by Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (1925) p. 2.”
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1885· 1 entry
The year after the death of his young son, James had his first sitting with Piper at the suggestion of his mother-in-law
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1884· 8 entries
“Lecture at the Harvard Divinity School (13 March 1884); published in the The Unitarian Review and Religious Magazine as The Dilemma of Determinism (September 1884)”
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And 1885, James became president of the British Society for Psychical Research for which he wrote in Mind and in the Psychological Review
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“The Dilemma of Determinism (1884) p.153”
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“The Dilemma of Determinism (1884) p.155”
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“The Dilemma of Determinism (1884) republished in The Will to Believe, Dover, 1956, p. 149”
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“The Dilemma of Determinism (1884)”
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James set the terms for all future discussions of determinism and compatibilism in the free will debates with his lecture to Harvard Divinity School students published as "The Dilemma of Determinism"
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James published his article "What is an Emotion
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1882· 1 entry
James joined the Theosophical Society
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1880· 1 entry
James contributed to this discussion with "Great Men, Great Thoughts, and the Environment", an essay published in the Atlantic Monthly
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1879· 1 entry
“Clifford's "Lectures and Essays"' (1879) in Collected Essays and Reviews (1920) pp. 138-139. Review of Lectures and Essays and Seeing and Thinking by William Kingdon Clifford, London and New York (1879). Reprinted from Nation (1879) 29, pp. 312-313.”
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1874· 1 entry
James experimented with inhaled nitrous oxide, upon which he experienced a "tremendously exciting sense of an intense metaphysical illumination" in which "every opposition
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1873· 1 entry
Assistant Professor of Psychology in 1876, Assistant Professor of Philosophy in 1881, full professor in 1885, Endowed Chair in Psychology in 1889, Return to Philosophy in 1897, and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy in 190
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1872· 1 entry
After an extended period of philosophical searching
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1870· 1 entry
“Diary entry (April 30, 1870) as quoted in Ralph Barton Perry, The Thought and Character of William James, vol. 1, p. 323; Letters of William James, vol. I, p. 147.”
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1864· 1 entry
James took up medical studies at Harvard Medical School
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1861· 1 entry
James then switched to scientific studies at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard College
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1842· 1 entry
Born 1842-01-11.
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