Abstract
WILLIAM JAMES, the well-known psychologist and philosopher, was born in New York on January 11, 1842, the son of the Swedenborgian theologian Henry James and brother of the novelist Henry James. He studied medicine at Harvard, where he qualified in 1869. He never engaged in practice, but after occupying the chairs of anatomy and physiology at Harvard he devoted himself entirely to psychology and philosophy. From 1889 until 1897 he was professor of psychology and from 1897 until 1907 professor of philosophy at his alma mater. During his last years he was chiefly occupied by the study of religion and metaphysics. He is perhaps best known for his championship of the doctrine of pragmatism inaugurated by C. S. Peirce of Cambridge, Massachus-sets, according to which the value of any assertion is tested by its practical bearing upon human interests and purposes. He died on August 27, 1910. His principal publications were “Principles of Psychology” (1890), “ Talks to Teachers on Psychology (1899), “ Varieties of Religious Experience” (1902), and “Pragmatism” (1907). Numerous honours were conferred upon him at home and abroad, including membership of the National Academies of America, France, Italy, Prussia and Denmark, doctorate of letters at Padua and Durham, doctorate of laws at Harvard, Princeton and Edinburgh, and doctorate of science at Oxford and Geneva.
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William James (1842–1910). Nature 149, 47 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149047b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149047b0