The Letters of William James, Vol. 2James, William
Philosophy
The Letters of William James, Vol. 2
James, William
Intellectuals -- United States; James, William, 1842-1910; Philosophers -- United States; Psychologists -- United States
world will be the better for containing so much difficult polemic
reading the less.
I admit that your remarks are penetrating, and let air into the joints
of the subject; but I respectfully submit that they are not _called for_
in the interests of the final triumph of truth. That will come by the
way of displacement of error, quite effortlessly. I can't help
suspecting that you unduly magnify the influence of Bradleyan Absolutism
on the undergraduate mind. Taylor is the only fruit so far--at least
within my purview. One practical point: I don't quite like your first
paragraph, and wonder if it be too late to have the references to me at
least expunged. I can't recognize the truth of the ten-years' change of
opinion about my "Will to Believe." I don't find anyone--not even my
dearest friends, as Miller and Strong--one whit persuaded. Taylor's and
Hobhouse's attacks are of recent date, etc. Moreover, the reference to
Bradley's relation to me in this article is too ironical not to seem a
little "nasty" to some readers; therefore out with it, if it be not too
late.
See how different our methods are! All that Humanism needs now is to
make applications of itself to special problems. Get a school of
youngsters at work. Refutations of error should be left to the
rationalists alone. They are a stock function of that school....
I'm fearfully _tired_, but expect the summer to get me right again.
Affectionately thine,
W. J.
XVI
1907-1909
_The Last Period (III)--Hibbert Lectures in Oxford--The Hodgson Report_
The story of the remaining years is written so fully in the letters
themselves as to require little explanation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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