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
Angina pectoris and such minor ailments as are only too likely to
afflict a man of sixty-five years and impaired constitution interrupted
the progress of reading and writing more and more. Physical exertion,
particularly that involved in talking long to many people, now brought
on pain and difficulty in breathing. But James still carried himself
erect, still walked with a light step, and until a few weeks before his
death wore the appearance of a much younger and stronger man than he
really was. None but those near to him realized how often he was in
discomfort or pain, or how constantly he was using himself to the limit
of his endurance. He bore his ills without complaint and ordinarily
without mention; although he finally made up his mind to try to
discourage the appeals and requests of all sorts that still harassed
him, by proclaiming the fact that he was an invalid. As his power of
work became more and more reduced, frustrations became harder to bear,
and the sense that they were unavoidable oppressed him. When an
invitation to deliver a course of lectures on the Hibbert Foundation at
Manchester College, Oxford, arrived, he was torn between an impulse to
clutch at this engagement as a means of hastening the writing-out of
certain material that was in his mind, and the fear, only too
reasonable, that the obligation to have the lectures ready by a certain
date would strain him to the snapping point. After some hesitation he
agreed, however, and the lectures were, ultimately, prepared and
delivered successfully.
In proportion as the number of hours a day that he could spend on
literary work and professional reading decreased, James's general
reading increased again. He began for the first time to browse in
military biographies, and commenced to collect material for a study
which he sometimes spoke of as a "Psychology of Jingoism," sometimes as
a "Varieties of Military Experience." What such a work would have been,
had he ever completed it, it is impossible to tell. It was never more
than a rather vague project, turned to occasionally as a diversion. But
it is safe to reckon that two remarkable papers--the "Energies of Men"
(written in 1906) and the "Moral Equivalent of War" (written in
1909)--would have appeared to be related to this study. That it would
not have been a utopian flight in the direction of pacifism need hardly
be said. However he might have described it, James was not disposed to
underestimate the "fighting instinct." He saw it as a persistent and
highly irritable force, underlying the society of all the dominant
races; and he advocated international courts, reduction of armaments,
and any other measures that might prevent appeals to the war-waging
passion as commendable devices for getting along without arousing it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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