William James

11 January 1842 – 26 August 1910
On the timeline →

An American philosopher and psychologist, and the brother of the novelist Henry James. His Principles of Psychology (1890) helped establish psychology as a science in America, where he taught one of its first courses, at Harvard. In The Will to Believe (1897), The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) and Pragmatism (1907) he developed the pragmatism first proposed by his friend Charles Sanders Peirce.

1897
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy

In this book, first published in book form in 1897, James ponders such conundrums as... Is life worth living?. The sentiment of rationality. The dilemma of determinism. The moral philosopher and the moral life.

contents →
1902
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature

The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is a book by Harvard University psychologist and philosopher William James.

contents →