Download or read book William James Moral Philosophy and the Ethical Life written by Jacob L. Goodson and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-12-20 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtue theory, natural law, deontology, utilitarianism, existentialism: these are the basic moral theories taught in “Ethics,” “History of Philosophy,” and “Introduction to Philosophy” courses throughout the United States. When the American philosopher William James (1842 – 1910) find his way into these conversations, there is uncertainty about where his thinking fits. While utilitarianism has become the default position for teaching James’s pragmatism and radical empiricism, this default position fails to address and explain James’s multiple criticisms of John Stuart Mill’s formulaic approach to questions concerning the moral life. Through close readings of James’s writings, the chapters in William James, Moral Philosophy, and the Ethical Life catalogue the ways in whichJames wants to avoid the following: (a) the hierarchies of Christian natural law theory, (b) the moral calculus of Mill’s utilitarianism, (c) the absolutism and principle-ism of Immanuel Kant’s deontology, and (d) the staticity of the virtues found in Aristotle’s moral theory. Elaborating upon and clarifying James’s differences from these dominant moral theories is a crucial feature of this collection. This collection, is not, however, intended to be wholly negative – that is, only describing to readers what James’s moral theory is not. It seeks to articulate the positive features of James’s ethics and moral reasoning: what does it mean to an ethical life, and how should we theorize about morality?
Download or read book William James on Ethics and Faith written by Michael R. Slater and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-09-10 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new interpretation of James's ethical and religious thought focusing on the prominent role these views played in his philosophy.
Download or read book The Ethics of Energy written by Sergio Franzese and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William James's moral philosophy is neither a remaking of utilitarianism nor it is a theory of values as it is assumed by the majority of his interpreters. Instead James offers an ethical view consistently arising out of valorization of energy of his days, and effecting a counter-tendency to the two great popular scientific currents of the 19th century: the universalizing of Darwinism and the pessimistic ideologies of social entropy. James's ethics moves away from the traditional idealistic or utilitarian grounds and takes place against the background of an up-and-coming philosophical anthropology hinged on the primacy of action. Human activity, however, needs to be understood in relation to Energy as the fabric of the universe pervading the whole spectrum of being in a continuum in which humanity and divinty are strictly intertwined.
Download or read book The Will to Believe written by William James and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Essays in Religion and Morality written by William James and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays in Religion and Morality brings together a dozen papers of varying length to these two themes so crucial to the life and thought of William James. Reflections on the two subjects permeate, first, James's presentation of his father's Literary Remains; second, his writings on human immortality and the relation between reason and faith; third, his two memorial pieces, one on Robert Gould Shaw and the other on Emerson; fourth, his consideration of the energies and powers of human life; and last, his writings on the possibilities of peace, especially as found in his famous essay "The Moral Equivalent of War." These speeches and essays were written over a period of twenty-four years. The fact that James did not collect and publish them himself in a single volume does not reflect on their intrinsic worth or on their importance in James's philosophical work, since they include some of the best known and most influential of his writings. All the essays, throughout their varied subject matter, are consistently and characteristically Jamesian in the freshness of their attack on the problems and failings of humankind and in their steady faith in human powers.
Download or read book The Soul of Classical American Philosophy written by Richard P. Mullin and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soul of Classical American Philosophy is an introduction to the thought of William James, Josiah Royce, and Charles Sanders Peirce, particularly in terms of the ethical and the spiritual. Writing for the nonspecialist in a straightforward style, Richard P. Mullin brings together the central ideas of these three key figures of classical American Pragmatism and explores their engagement with issues of truth, the meaning of self, free will, moral values, community, scientific thinking, and the relationship with the transcendent. He also addresses the growing international interest in American philosophy and sheds light on a defining movement in its history.
Download or read book The Energies of Men written by William James and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Toward a Pragmatist Metaethics written by Diana Heney and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-20 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In our current social landscape, moral questions—about economic disparity, disadvantaging biases, and scarcity—are rightly receiving attention with a sense of urgency. This book argues that classical pragmatism offers a compelling and useful account of our engagement with moral life. The key arguments are first, that a broader reading of the pragmatist tradition than is usually attempted within the context of ethical theory is necessary; and second, that this broad reading offers resources that enable us to move forward in contemporary debates about truth and principles in moral life. The first argument is made by demonstrating that there is an arc of theoretical unity that stretches from two key founders of pragmatism—Charles Sanders Peirce and William James—through the work of John Dewey and Clarence Irving Lewis. The second argument is made by engaging with contemporary debates concerning the truth-status of the judgments and assertions made in ordinary moral discourse, as well as the role and nature of moral principles. Toward a Pragmatist Metaethics will be of interest to scholars of American philosophy, American intellectual history, and moral and political theorists, as well as anyone interested in the contours and demands of shared moral discourse.
Download or read book Is Life Worth Living written by William James and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Ethics of Belief By William K Clifford A Paper Read Before the Metaphysical Society written by and published by . This book was released on 1876 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book From Psychology to Morality written by John Deigh and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-02 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this collection belong to the tradition of naturalism in ethics. The tradition goes back to the beginnings of moral philosophy in ancient Greek thought. Its program is to explain moral thought and action as wholly natural phenomena. Its aim, in other words, is to explain such thought and action without recourse to either a reality separate from that of the natural world or volitional powers that operate independently of natural forces. Its greatest exponent in ancient thought was Aristotle. In modern thought Hume and Freud stand out as the most influential contributors to the tradition. All three thinkers made the study of human psychology fundamental to their work in ethics. All three built their theories on studies of human desires and emotions and assigned to reason the role of guiding the actions that spring from our desires and emotions toward ends that promise self-fulfillment and away from ends that are self-destructive. The collection's essays draw inspiration from their ideas. Its twelve principal essays are arranged to follow the lead of Aristotle's and Hume's ethics. The first three survey and examine general theories of emotion and motivation. The next two focus on emotions that are central to human sociability and that contemporary Anglo-American philosophers discuss under the rubric of reactive attitudes. Turning to distinctively cognitive powers necessary for moral thought and action, the sixth and seventh essays discuss the role of empathy in moral judgment and defend Bernard Williams's controversial account of practical reason. The final five essays use the studies in moral psychology of the previous chapters to treat questions in ethics and social philosophy. The treatment of these questions exemplifies the implementation of a naturalist program in these disciplines.
Download or read book William James Moral Philosophy written by Guy Axtell and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume demonstrates that a virtue-centered approach to the ethical life is a consistent feature of William James's moral reasoning from the 1880s until his death. Yet, little else remains constant within his writings on these subjects, and this inconstancy furthers interest in his work over a century later.
Download or read book Communities of Memory written by William James Booth and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Memory has fueled merciless, violent strife, and it has been at the core of reconciliation and reconstruction. It has been used to justify great crimes, and yet it is central to the pursuit of justice. In these and more everyday ways, we live surrounded by memory, individual and social: in our habits, our names, the places where we live, street names, libraries, archives, and our citizenship, institutions, and laws. Still, we wonder what to make of memory and its gifts, though sometimes we are hardly even certain that they are gifts. Of the many chambers in this vast palace, I mean to ask particularly after the place of memory in politics, in the identity of political communities, and in their practices of doing justice."—from the Preface W. James Booth seeks to understand the place of memory in the identity, ethics, and practices of justice of political communities. Identity is, he believes, a particular kind of continuity across time, one central to the possibility of agency and responsibility, and memory plays a central role in grounding that continuity. Memory-identity takes two forms: a habitlike form, the deep presence of the past that is part of a life-led-in-common; and a more fragile, vulnerable form in which memory struggles to preserve identity through time—notably in bearing witness—a form of memory work deeply bound up with the identity of political communities. Booth argues that memory holds a defining place in determining how justice is administered. Memory is tied to the very possibility of an ethical community, one responsible for its own past, able to make commitments for the future, and driven to seek justice. "Underneath (and motivating) the politics of memory, understood as contests over the writing of history, over memorials, museums, and canons," he writes, "there lies an intertwining of memory, identity, and justice." Communities of Memory both argues for and maps out that intertwining.
Download or read book John Dewey s Ethics written by Gregory Pappas and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2008-07-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Dewey, widely known as "America's philosopher," provided important insights into education and political philosophy, but surprisingly never set down a complete moral or ethical philosophy. Gregory Fernando Pappas presents the first systematic and comprehensive treatment of Dewey's ethics. By providing a pluralistic account of moral life that is both unified and coherent, Pappas considers ethics to be key to an understanding of Dewey's other philosophical insights, especially his views on democracy. Pappas unfolds Dewey's ethical vision by looking carefully at the virtues and values of ideal character and community. Showing that Dewey's ethics are compatible with the rest of his philosophy, Pappas corrects the reputation of American pragmatism as a philosophy committed to skepticism and relativism. Readers will find a robust and boldly detailed view of Dewey's ethics in this groundbreaking book.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of William James written by Alexander Mugar Klein and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This Handbook provides a structured overview of William James's intellectual work. James was a pioneer of the "new" physiological psychology of the late nineteenth century. He was also a founder of the pragmatist movement in philosophy and made influential contributions to metaphysics and to the study of religion as well. This Handbook's chapters are organized either around major themes in James's writing or around his conversations with interlocutors"--
Download or read book The Story of Philosophy written by Will Durant and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Writings of William James written by John J. McDermott and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-02-06 with total page 1388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive collection of writings by the legendary philosopher, whose sweeping body of work influenced our ideas about psychology, religion, free will, and pragmatism. In his introduction to this collection, John McDermott presents James's thinking in all its manifestations, stressing the importance of radical empiricism and placing into perspective the doctrines of pragmatism and the will to believe. The critical periods of James's life are highlighted to illuminate the development of his philosophical and psychological thought. The anthology features representative selections from The Principles of Psychology, The Will to Believe, and The Variety of Religious Experience in addition to the complete Essays in Radical Empiricism and A Pluralistic Universe. The original 1907 edition of Pragmatism is included, as well as classic selections from all of James's other major works. Of particular significance for James scholarship is the supplemented version of Ralph Barton Perry's Annotated Bibliography of the Writings of William James.
