Lexington Books
Pages: 430
•
Trim: 6½ x 9¼
978-1-4985-0514-7 • Hardback • December 2017 • $147.00 • (£113.00)
978-1-4985-7108-1 • Paperback • October 2019 • $57.99 • (£45.00)
978-0-7391-9014-2 • eBook • December 2017 • $55.00 • (£42.00)
Jacob L. Goodson is assistant professor of philosophy at Southwestern College.
AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I. Moral Interpretations of The Principles of Psychology1. Guy Axtell, “Emotions and Morals in The Principles of Psychology”2. Gregory Eiselein, “Ethics and Emotion in William James’s The Principles of Psychology”3. Jacob L. Goodson, “Love and Sex in William James’s Principles of Psychology”Part II. James’s Early Writings on Moral Philosophy4. Amy Kittelstrom, “Blindnesses in James’s Day—and Beyond”5. D. Micah Hester & Joseph D. John, “To See or Not to See?”—That Is the Question: James’s “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings”6. Jacob L. Goodson, “Horny Hands and Dirty Skin: Courage, Humility, Patience, and Tolerance in William James’s Ethics”Part III. Moral Interpretations of James’s “Popular Essays”7. Roger Ward, “The Cries of the Wounded: Transformative Moral Interpretation in James, Royce, and Peirce”8. John R. Shook, “The Moral Life as the Basis for Moral Philosophy”9. Neal A. Tognazzini, “Regretting the Impossible”Part IV. The Morality and Immorality of James’s “The Will-to-Believe” Argument10. Scott F. Aikin & Robert B. Talisse, “The Will-to-Believe is Immoral”11. Scott R. Stroud & Jaishikha Nautiyal, “Stoic Rhetoric and the Ethics of Empowered Individualism: “The Will to Believe” as Moral Philosophy”Part V. The Moral Implications of James’s Lectures on Human Immortality 12. Anthony Karlin, “William James on Human Immortality” 13. Ermine L. Algaier IV, “A Radical Empiricist Defense of Irrationality”Part VI. Moral Interpretations of The Varieties of Religious Experience 14. G. Scott Davis, “Understanding the Warrior Spirit:William James on Nature, Virtue, and the Will to Empire”15. Eric Silverman, “William James and Thomas Aquinas on the Fruits of Love and Saintliness”16.Lee Yearley,“William James as Virtue Ethicist: The Heroic Virtue of Voluntary Poverty”Part VII. Moral Interpretations of James’s Pluralism and Pragmatism 17. Frederick J. Ruf, “Is James an Existentialist?”18. Sami Pihlström, “The Cries of the Wounded in Pragmatism: The Problem of Evil and James’s Pragmatic Method as an Ethical Grounding of Metaphysics” 19. Guy Axtell, “James on Pragmatism and Religion”20. Seth Vannatta, “Leaping into the Gap: Religion and the Moral Life”21. Gary S. Slater, “The Moral Framework of A Pluralistic Universe”Part VIII. James’s Later Writings on Moral Philosophy22. Pamela Crosby, “The Education of Moral Character: A Comparison of James and Aristotle”23. David O’Hara, “Is War Evil? Reflections on William James’s ‘The Moral Equivalent of War’”About the Contributors
William James (1842–1910) is best known for his groundbreaking work in the study of consciousness, psychology of emotions, and philosophy of religion and for the development of the philosophy of pragmatism. His moral philosophy and beliefs about the ethical life have received far less attention and are more difficult to categorize. Was James a Stoic? a utilitarian? a deontologist? an existentialist? a virtue ethicist? Distinguishing between early James and late James, this collection provides an illuminating and welcome map of where things stand in James’s moral and ethical thought as they relate to the history of moral and ethical philosophy. Goodson (Southwestern College) organizes the essays in roughly chronological order according to James's writings. This allows readers to see the evolution and development of James’s ideas in moral and ethical philosophy over the course of his life. This volume is required reading for anyone interested in exploring the distinctive contributions James made to moral and ethical thought.
Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.
— Choice Reviews