William James

Tags: Philosopher.

William James (January 11 1842 – August 26 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States James was one of the leading thinkers of the late nineteenth century and is believed by many to be one of the most influential philosophers the United States has ever produced while others have labelled him the Father of American psychology.

thumbnail

birth date

1842-01-11

death date

1910-08-26

death place

Chocorua New Hampshire, Tamworth New Hampshire

era

20th-century philosophy, 19th-century philosophy

influenced

Bertrand Russell, Edmund Husserl, Henri Bergson, John Dewey, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Edwin Holt, Émile Durkheim, Morris Raphael Cohen, F. C. S. Schiller, Hilary Putnam, W. E. B. Du Bois, George Santayana, Richard Rorty

influenced by

Charles Sanders Peirce, David Hume, African Spir, Ernst Mach, Hermann von Helmholtz, Charles Bernard Renouvier, David Hartley (philosopher), F. C. S. Schiller, Pierre Janet, Emanuel Swedenborg

main interest

Epistemology, Philosophy of religion, Psychology, Meaning (linguistics), Pragmatism

notableIdea

Pragmatic theory of truth, The Will to Believe, James–Lange theory, Psychologist's fallacy, Ten percent of brain myth, Radical empiricism

philosophicalSchool

Pragmatism, Functional psychology, Radical empiricism