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    Essays in Radical Empiricism
    Essays in Radical Empiricism
    Essays in Radical Empiricism
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    Essays in Radical Empiricism

    By William James

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    Experience the life-changing power of William James with this unforgettable book.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScarlet Tree Press
    Release dateDec 16, 2020
    ISBN9791220252164
    Author

    William James

    William James (1842–1910) was an American philosopher, physician, and psychologist. The brother of novelist Henry James, William James is remembered for his contributions to the fields of pragmatism and functional psychology. 

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      Essays in Radical Empiricism - William James

      Essays in Radical Empiricism

      by William James

      EDITOR'S PREFACE

      The present volume is an attempt to carry out a plan which William James

      is known to have formed several years before his death. In 1907 he

      collected reprints in an envelope which he inscribed with the title

      'Essays in Radical Empiricism'; and he also had duplicate sets of these

      reprints bound, under the same title, and deposited for the use of

      students in the general Harvard Library, and in the Philosophical

      Library in Emerson Hall.

      Two years later Professor James published _The Meaning of Truth_ and _A

      Pluralistic Universe_, and inserted in these volumes several of the

      articles which he had intended to use in the 'Essays in Radical

      Empiricism.' Whether he would nevertheless have carried out his original

      plan, had he lived, cannot be certainly known. Several facts, however,

      stand out very clearly. In the first place, the articles included in the

      original plan but omitted from his later volumes are indispensable to

      the understanding of his other writings. To these articles he repeatedly

      alludes. Thus, in _The Meaning of Truth_ (p. 127), he says: "This

      statement is probably excessively obscure to any one who has not read my

      two articles 'Does Consciousness Exist?' and 'A World of Pure

      Experience.'" Other allusions have been indicated in the present text.

      In the second place, the articles originally brought together as 'Essays

      in Radical Empiricism' form a connected whole. Not only were most of

      them written consecutively within a period of two years, but they

      contain numerous cross-references. In the third place, Professor James

      regarded 'radical empiricism' as an _independent_ doctrine. This he

      asserted expressly: "Let me say that there is no logical connexion

      between pragmatism, as I understand it, and a doctrine which I have

      recently set forth as 'radical empiricism.' The latter stands on its own

      feet. One may entirely reject it and still be a pragmatist."

      (_Pragmatism_, 1907, Preface, p. ix.) Finally, Professor James came

      toward the end of his life to regard 'radical empiricism' as more

      fundamental and more important than 'pragmatism.' In the Preface to _The

      Meaning of Truth_ (1909), the author gives the following explanation of

      his desire to continue, and if possible conclude, the controversy over

      pragmatism: "I am interested in another doctrine in philosophy to which

      I give the name of radical empiricism, and it seems to me that the

      establishment of the pragmatist theory of truth is a step of first-rate

      importance in making radical empiricism prevail" (p. xii).

      In preparing the present volume, the editor has therefore been governed

      by two motives. On the one hand, he has sought to preserve and make

      accessible certain important articles not to be found in Professor

      James's other books. This is true of Essays I, II, IV, V, VIII, IX, X,

      XI, and XII. On the other hand, he has sought to bring together in one

      volume a set of essays treating systematically of one independent,

      coherent, and fundamental doctrine. To this end it has seemed best to

      include three essays (III, VI, and VII), which, although included in the

      original plan, were afterwards reprinted elsewhere; and one essay, XII,

      not included in the original plan. Essays III, VI, and VII are

      indispensable to the consecutiveness of the series, and are so

      interwoven with the rest that it is necessary that the student should

      have them at hand for ready consultation. Essay XII throws an important

      light on the author's general 'empiricism,' and forms an important link

      between 'radical empiricism' and the author's other doctrines.

      In short, the present volume is designed not as a collection but rather

      as a treatise. It is intended that another volume shall be issued which

      shall contain papers having biographical or historical importance which

      have not yet been reprinted in book form. The present volume is intended

      not only for students of Professor James's philosophy, but for students

      of metaphysics and the theory of knowledge. It sets forth systematically

      and within brief compass the doctrine of 'radical empiricism.'

      A word more may be in order concerning the general meaning of this

      doctrine. In the Preface to the _Will to Believe_ (1898), Professor

      James gives the name _radical empiricism_ to his "philosophic

      attitude, and adds the following explanation: I say 'empiricism,'

      because it is contented to regard its most assured conclusions

      concerning matters of fact as hypotheses liable to modification in the

      course of future experience; and I say 'radical,' because it treats the

      doctrine of monism itself as an hypothesis, and, unlike so much of the

      halfway empiricism that is current under the name of positivism or

      agnosticism or scientific naturalism, it does not dogmatically affirm

      monism as something with which all experience has got to square" (pp.

      vii-viii). An 'empiricism' of this description is a "philosophic

      attitude" or temper of mind rather than a doctrine, and characterizes

      all of Professor James's writings. It is set forth in Essay XII of the

      present volume.

      In a narrower sense, 'empiricism' is the method of resorting to

      _particular experiences_ for the solution of philosophical problems.

      Rationalists are the men of principles, empiricists the men of facts.

      (_Some Problems of Philosophy_, p. 35; cf. also, _ibid._, p. 44; and

      _Pragmatism_, pp. 9, 51.) Or, "since principles are universals, and

      facts are particulars, perhaps the best way of characterizing the two

      tendencies is to say that rationalist thinking proceeds most willingly

      by going from wholes to parts, while empiricist thinking proceeds by

      going from parts to wholes." (_Some Problems of Philosophy_, p. 35; cf.

      also _ibid._, p. 98; and _A Pluralistic Universe_, p. 7.) Again,

      empiricism remands us to sensation. (_Op. cit._, p. 264.) The

      empiricist view insists that, "as reality is created temporally day by

      day, concepts ... can never fitly supersede perception.... The deeper

      features of reality are found only in perceptual experience." (_Some

      Problems of Philosophy_, pp. 100, 97.) Empiricism in this sense is as

      yet characteristic of Professor James's philosophy _as a whole_. It is

      not the distinctive and independent doctrine set forth in the present

      book.

      The only summary of 'radical empiricism' in this last and narrowest

      sense appears in the Preface to _The Meaning of Truth_ (pp. xii-xiii);

      and it must be reprinted here as the key to the text that follows.[1]

      "Radical empiricism consists (1) first of a postulate, (2) next of a

      statement of fact, (3) and finally of a generalized conclusion."

      (1) "The postulate is that _the only things that shall be debatable

      among philosophers shall be things definable in terms drawn from

      experience_. (Things of an unexperienceable nature may exist ad libitum,

      but they form no part of the material for philosophic debate.)" This is

      the principle of pure experience as a methodical postulate. (Cf.

      below, pp. 159, 241.) This postulate corresponds to the notion which the

      author repeatedly attributes to Shadworth Hodgson, the notion "that

      realities are only what they are 'known as.'" (_Pragmatism_, p. 50;

      _Varieties of Religious Experience_, p. 443; _The Meaning of Truth_, pp.

      43, 118.) In this sense 'radical empiricism' and pragmatism are closely

      allied. Indeed, if pragmatism be defined as the assertion that "the

      meaning of any proposition can always be brought down to some particular

      consequence in our future practical experience, ... the point lying in

      the fact that the experience must be particular rather than in the fact

      that it must be active" (_Meaning of Truth_, p. 210); then pragmatism

      and the above postulate come to the same thing. The present book,

      however, consists not so much in the assertion of this postulate as in

      the _use_ of it. And the method is successful in special applications by

      virtue of a certain statement of fact concerning relations.

      (2) "The statement of fact is that _the relations between things,

      conjunctive as well as disjunctive, are just as much matters of direct

      particular experience, neither more so nor less so, than the things

      themselves_." (Cf. also _A Pluralistic Universe_, p. 280; _The Will to

      Believe_, p. 278.) This is the central doctrine of the present book. It

      distinguishes 'radical empiricism' from the ordinary empiricism of

      Hume, J. S. Mill, etc., with which it is otherwise allied. (Cf. below,

      pp. 42-44.) It provides an empirical and relational version of

      'activity,' and so distinguishes the author's voluntarism from a view

      with which it is easily confused--the view which upholds a pure or

      transcendent activity. (Cf. below, Essay VI.) It makes it possible to

      escape the vicious disjunctions that have thus far baffled philosophy:

      such disjunctions as those between consciousness and physical nature,

      between thought and its object, between one mind and another, and

      between one 'thing' and another. These disjunctions need not be

      'overcome' by calling in any "extraneous trans-empirical connective

      support" (_Meaning of Truth_, Preface, p. xiii); they may now be

      _avoided_ by regarding the dualities in question as only _differences of

      empirical relationship among common empirical terms_. The pragmatistic

      account of 'meaning' and 'truth,' shows only how a vicious disjunction

      between 'idea' and 'object' may thus be avoided. The present volume not

      only presents pragmatism in this light; but adds similar accounts of the

      other dualities mentioned above.

      Thus while pragmatism and radical empiricism do not differ essentially

      when regarded as _methods_, they are independent when regarded as

      doctrines. For it would be possible to hold the pragmatistic theory of

      'meaning' and 'truth,' without basing it on any fundamental theory of

      relations, and without extending such a theory of relations to residual

      philosophical problems; without, in short, holding either to the above

      'statement of fact,' or to the following 'generalized conclusion.'

      (3) "The generalized conclusion is that therefore _the parts of

      experience hold together from next to next by relations that are

      themselves parts of experience. The directly apprehended universe needs,

      in short, no extraneous trans-empirical connective support, but

      possesses in its own right a concatenated or continuous structure_."

      When thus generalized, 'radical empiricism' is not only a theory of

      knowledge comprising pragmatism as a special chapter, but a metaphysic

      as well. It excludes the hypothesis of trans-empirical reality (Cf.

      below, p. 195). It is the author's most rigorous statement of his theory

      that reality is an experience-continuum. (_Meaning of Truth_, p. 152;

      _A Pluralistic Universe_, Lect. V, VII.) It is that positive and

      constructive 'empiricism' of which Professor James said: "Let empiricism

      once become associated with religion, as hitherto, through some strange

      misunderstanding, it has been associated with irreligion, and I believe

      that a new era of religion as well as of philosophy will be ready to

      begin." (_Op. cit._, p. 314; cf. _ibid._, Lect. VIII, _passim_; and _The

      Varieties of Religious Experience_, pp. 515-527.)

      The editor desires to acknowledge his obligations to the periodicals

      from which these essays have been reprinted, and to the many friends of

      Professor James who have rendered valuable advice and assistance in the

      preparation of the present volume.

        RALPH BARTON PERRY.

        CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

        January 8, 1912.

      FOOTNOTES:

      [1] The use of numerals and italics is introduced by the editor.

      CONTENTS

           I. DOES 'CONSCIOUSNESS' EXIST?                          1

          II. A WORLD OF PURE EXPERIENCE                          39

         III. THE THING AND ITS RELATIONS                         92

          IV. HOW TWO MINDS CAN KNOW ONE THING                   123

           V. THE PLACE OF AFFECTIONAL FACTS IN A WORLD

              OF PURE EXPERIENCE                                 137

          VI. THE EXPERIENCE OF ACTIVITY                         155

         VII. THE ESSENCE OF HUMANISM                            190

        VIII. LA NOTION DE CONSCIENCE                            206

          IX. IS RADICAL EMPIRICISM SOLIPSISTIC?                 234

           X. MR. PITKIN'S REFUTATION OF 'RADICAL EMPIRICISM'    241

          XI. HUMANISM AND TRUTH ONCE MORE                       244

         XII. ABSOLUTISM AND EMPIRICISM                          266

              INDEX                                              281

      I

      DOES 'CONSCIOUSNESS' EXIST?[2]

      'Thoughts' and 'things' are names for two sorts of object, which common

      sense will always find contrasted and will always practically oppose to

      each other. Philosophy, reflecting on the contrast, has varied in the

      past in her explanations of it, and may be expected to vary in the

      future. At first, 'spirit and matter,' 'soul and body,' stood for a pair

      of equipollent substances quite on a par in weight and interest. But one

      day Kant undermined the soul and brought in the transcendental ego, and

      ever since then the bipolar relation has been very much off its balance.

      The transcendental ego seems nowadays in rationalist quarters to stand

      for everything, in empiricist quarters for almost nothing. In the hands

      of such writers as Schuppe, Rehmke, Natorp, Münsterberg--at any rate in

      his earlier writings, Schubert-Soldern and others, the spiritual

      principle attenuates itself to a thoroughly ghostly condition, being

      only a name for the fact that the 'content' of experience _is known_. It

      loses personal form and activity--these passing over to the content--and

      becomes a bare _Bewusstheit_ or _Bewusstsein überhaupt_, of which in its

      own right absolutely nothing can be said.

      I believe that 'consciousness,' when once it has evaporated to this

      estate of pure diaphaneity, is on the point of disappearing altogether.

      It is the name of a nonentity, and has no right to a place among first

      principles. Those who still cling to it are clinging to a mere echo, the

      faint rumor left behind by the disappearing 'soul' upon the air of

      philosophy. During the past year, I have read a number of articles whose

      authors seemed just on the point of abandoning the notion of

      consciousness,[3] and substituting for it that of an absolute experience

      not due to two factors. But they were not quite radical enough, not

      quite daring enough in their negations. For twenty years past I have

      mistrusted 'consciousness' as an entity; for seven or eight years past I

      have suggested its non-existence to my students, and tried to give them

      its pragmatic equivalent in realities of experience. It seems to me that

      the hour is ripe for it to be openly and universally discarded.

      To deny plumply that 'consciousness' exists seems so absurd on the face

      of it--for undeniably 'thoughts' do exist--that I fear some readers will

      follow me no farther. Let me then immediately explain that I mean only

      to deny that the word stands for an entity, but to insist most

      emphatically that it does stand for a function. There is, I mean, no

      aboriginal stuff or quality of being,[4] contrasted with that of which

      material objects are made, out of which our thoughts of them are made;

      but there is a function in experience which thoughts perform, and for

      the performance of which this quality of being is invoked. That

      function is _knowing_. 'Consciousness' is supposed necessary to explain

      the fact that things not only are, but get reported, are known. Whoever

      blots out the notion of consciousness from his list of first principles

      must still provide in some way for that function's being carried on.

      I

      My thesis is that if we start with the supposition that there is only

      one primal stuff or material in the world, a stuff of which everything

      is composed, and if we call that stuff 'pure experience,' then knowing

      can easily be explained as a particular sort of relation towards one

      another into which portions of pure experience may enter. The relation

      itself is a part of pure experience; one of its 'terms' becomes the

      subject or bearer of the knowledge, the knower,[5] the other becomes the

      object known. This will need much explanation before it can be

      understood. The best way to get it understood is to contrast

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