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William James’s Pluralism
An Antidote for Contemporary Extremism and Absolutism
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Book Description
William James’s Pluralism: An Antidote for Contemporary Extremism and Absolutism explores extremism and the related problem of absolutism in the context of the psychology and philosophy of William James.
Extremist and absolutist views were topical in James’s day, especially around the time of the Civil War, but they are no less common in these early years of the 21st century. James argued that the love of singularities such as belief in one God, one method, one political system, or one value system contributes to extremist, even violent mentalities. In this book, James’s views on singular versus pluralistic perspectives are explored and then applied to contemporary practical issues such as abortion, birth control, and death with dignity legislation. These perspectives are furthermore applied to more theoretical issues, such as causality, values, and methods or ways of investigating the world. Within William James’s Pluralism, these theories are investigated in a comprehensive philosophical and psychological examination of the human experience.
Written in a nontechnical manner to appeal to the general public—just as William James hoped for his pluralistic philosophy—this book is additionally of considerable interest to academics and students across many fields such as psychology, philosophy, history, and sociology.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 The Most Pregnant of All the Dilemmas of Philosophy
Some Characteristics of Monism
Some Characteristics of Pluralism
Understanding Singularity
Understanding the Drive toward Pluralism
The Way Forward
Notes
2 William James and the Tensions between the One and the Many
Family Background
Quest for a Career
James the Academic
Who Was William James?
Experience
Reality
Time
Individualism
Pragmatism
Radical Empiricism
The Man
Notes
3 Moral Monism and Pluralism
Abortion
Birth Control
Death with Dignity
A Culture of Life; a Culture of Death
Notes
4 Methodological Singularities
Religious Singularities
Critique of Religious Literalism as the Single Pathway to All Truth
Science as the Singular Pathway to Genuine Knowledge
Critique of Claims That Science Is the Singular Source of Truth
Singular Methodologies in Political Systems
Dangers of Singularities in Political Systems
The Pluralistic Alternative
Clash of Methodologies
Notes
5 The Single Cause: God, Free Will, and the Reflex
God Alone
Critique of Theological Determinism
Free Will
Critique of Free Will as a Singular Explanation
The Reflex
Critique of Reflexology
Critique of Monistic Theories of Causality
Notes
6 Ontological Monism and Pluralism
Materialism
Mechanistic Materialism
Emergent or Radical Materialism
Gestalt Psychology
Idealism
James’s Ontology
Notes
7 James Quarrels with Monism as He Embraces Pluralism
James’s Temperamental Affinities with Pluralism
Intellectualist Origins of Monism
Absolutism
Intimacy
Rigid Orthodoxies and Untenable Combinations
Problem of Evil
Determinism and Fatalism
Monism Fails to Fit with Human Experience
Monism and the Collapse of Time
The Pluralistic Alternative
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Author(s)
Biography
Wayne Viney is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Emeritus University Distinguished Teaching Scholar at Colorado State University, USA. He has served as President of the Society for the History of Psychology and as President of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association. He is the author of numerous papers on the psychology and philosophy of William James.