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
What with the Jubilee and the Congress, dear Flournoy, I fear that your
own summer will not yield much healing repose. "Go through it like an
automaton" is the best advice I can give you. I find that it is
possible, on occasions of great strain, to get relief by ceasing all
voluntary control. _Do_ nothing, and I find that something will do
itself! and not so stupidly in the eyes of outsiders as in one's own.
Claparède will, I suppose, be the chief executive officer at the
Congress. It is a pleasure to see how he is rising to the top among
psychologists, how large a field he covers, and with both originality
and "humanity" (in the sense of the omission of the superfluous and
technical, and preference for the probable). When will the Germans learn
that part? I have just been reading Driesch's Gifford lectures, Volume
II. Very exact and careful, and the work of a most powerful intellect.
But why lug in, as he does, all that Kantian apparatus, when the
questions he treats of are real enough and important enough to be
handled directly and not smothered in that opaque and artificial veil? I
find the book extremely suggestive, and should like to believe in its
thesis, but I can't help suspecting that Driesch is unjust to the
possibilities of purely mechanical action. Candle-flames, waterfalls,
eddies in streams, to say nothing of "vortex atoms," seem to perpetuate
themselves and repair their injuries. You ought to receive very soon my
report on Mrs. Piper's Hodgson control. Some theoretic remarks I make at
the end may interest you. I rejoice in the triumph of Eusapia all along
the line--also in Ochorowicz's young Polish medium, whom you have seen.
It looks at last as if something definitive and positive were in sight.
I am correcting the proofs of a collection of what I have written on the
subject of "truth"--it will appear in September under the title of "The
Meaning of Truth, a Sequel to Pragmatism." It is already evident from
the letters I am getting about the "Pluralistic Universe" that that book
will 1st, be _read_; 2nd, be _rejected_ almost unanimously at first, and
for very diverse reasons; but, 3rd, will continue to be bought and
referred to, and will end by strongly influencing English philosophy.
And now, dear Flournoy, good-bye! and believe me with sincerest
affection for Mrs. Flournoy and the young people as well as for
yourself, yours faithfully,
Wm. James.
_To Miss Theodora Sedgwick._
CHOCORUA, _July 12, 1909_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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