SUCCESS AND WILLIAM JAMES

First, this reference note, taken from my Webster’s Biographical Dictionary:

“James, William. 1842-1910. Son of Henry James [American philosopher] (1811-1882); brother of Henry James [American novelist] (1843-1916). American psychologist and philosopher, born in New York City. Grad. Harvard Medical School (1869). Taught anatomy, physiology and hygiene at Harvard (from 1872); professor of philosophy (1881). Known esp. as one of the founders of pragmatism. Author of The Principles of Psychology (1890), The Will to Believe and Other Essays (1897), The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), Pragmatism (1907), The Meaning of Truth (1909), A Pluralistic Universe (1909), Essays in Radical Empiricism (1912).”

Bertrand Russell dedicates a whole chapter to William James in his classic History of Western Philosophy. He is obviously of the highest opinion of the man, and here is how he introduces him in his seminal book:

“William James (1842-1910) was primarily a psychologist, but was important in philosophy on two accounts: he invented the doctrine which he called ‘radical empiricism,’ and he was one of the three protagonists of the theory called ‘pragmatism’ or ‘instrumentalism.’ In later life he was, as he deserved to be, the recognized leader of American philosophy.”

Apart from these references, there is of course the authoritative Atlantic Monthly List of the Most Influential Figures in American History, where William James takes the very high rank of #62:

“62. William James. The mind behind Pragmatism, America’s most important philosophical school.”

Having thus established William James’s gloriously shining bona fides, and adding to these that I do have a very large, yet unposted, properly philosophical entry on William James under the title Radical Empiricism As An American Experience, I shall now proceed with the limited subject of the present entry, which focuses on one particular quote from the great man.---

In my days as a Soviet citizen, there was a well-traveled propagandist byword, They say it themselves! This very effective tool has nothing to be ashamed of, even if used for propaganda purposes: its legitimacy is not questioned, as long as their quotes are quoted correctly, which, as a rule, they were.

In my case for this entry, William James’s invective against material success, identifying it as an American disease, is taken from his letter to Herbert G. Wells, dated 10 July 1906. It is indeed a severe condemnation of America’s materialistic values, and a tribute to William James himself, who, by exposing America at her worst, thus represents America at her best. Alas, William James has now been dead for a whole century and the failure of a new crop to take his place in the new millennium represents the Twilight’s Last Gleaming, as I call modern America’s decline, in my American section.

And now, the title treat of this entry, Success And William James:

“…The moral flabbiness born of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word success is our national disease.”

My hat is off to you, William James! As for you, my reader, please take it not from me, but from America’s preeminent psychologist and philosopher. Ipse dixit!