Young William James Thinking PDF
Preview Young William James Thinking
Young William James Thinking This page intentionally left blank Young William James Thinking Paul J. Croce Q Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2018 Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2018 Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Mary land 21218 - 4363 www . press . jhu . edu Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Croce, Paul Jerome, author. Title: Young William James thinking / Paul J. Croce. Description: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017004269 | ISBN 9781421423654 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781421423661 (electronic) | ISBN 1421423650 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 1421423669 (electronic) Subjects: LCSH: James, William, 1842–1910. | Philosophers—U nited States—B iography. Classification: LCC B945.J24 C76 2017 | DDC 191— dc23 LC rec ord available at https:// lccn.loc . gov / 2017004269 A cata log rec ord for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410- 516- 6936 or specialsales@press. j hu. e du . Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post- consumer waste, whenever pos si ble. To Peter and Elizabeth From these young trees, what fruits may grow? This page intentionally left blank Things take the time they take. . . . How many roads did St. Augustine follow before he became St. Augustine? Mary Oliver Portrait of the Young Scientist Thinking about Philosophy. William James papers, “William James in Brazil a fter the attack of small- pox,” portrait photo graph, 1865, bMS Am 1092.2 (1185). Courtesy of Bay James and the Houghton Library, Harvard University. Although William James looks rather hip by con temporary standards, styles have changed since this photo graph from the summer of 1865, when he was wearing glasses to protect his eyes which w ere still sensitive from a case of variola minor, a mild form of smallpox, while on a natu ral history expedition in the Brazilian Amazon. At first, illness gave his face “the appearance of an im mense ripe raspberry,” and closer to the time of the photo, he wrote to his sister Alice: “What would blessed mother say if she saw me now . . . in a frightfully dilapidated state, with shaven head & fuzzy chin . . . & cheeks bloated with the remains of my small pox” (CWJ, 4:105 and 115). This image captures young James, trying on the field of natu ral history but beginning to doubt his appetite for a scientific vocation. He reported to his f ather that he had a “feeling that this work [is] not in my path” and that he had “a pining after books and study” (CWJ, 4:107). From the depths of the Amazon, he vowed to his brother Henry, “I’m g oing to study philosophy all my days” (CWJ, 1:8). Contents Chronology xi Acknowl edgments xvii An Invitation 1 Introduction Almost a Phi los o pher 3 1 First Embrace of Science 27 2 Between Scientific and Sectarian Medicine 77 3 The Ancient Art of Natu ral Grace 134 4 Crises and Construction 187 Conclusion An Earnestly Inquiring State 262 Notes 279 Bibliography 315 Index 355
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