the varieties of human experience by william james

Psychology aside, this is an odd book in many ways, especially for its unorthodox approach to the precepts of organised religion. His only concern about religion is what it tells us about 'what goes on in the single private man' Like his brother, he was obsessed by the problem of expressing individual consciousness through language this is just one of the principal themes of The Varieties of Religious Experience. When he turned these talks into a book, James, a Harvard psychologist and the author of The Principles of Psychology, placed himself at the crossroads of psychology and religion to articulate an approach to religious experience that would help liberate the American mind at the beginning of the 20th century from its puritan restrictions by advancing a pluralistic view of belief inspired by American traditions of tolerance. He responded to the cultural and social ferment of the late 19th century with the Gifford lectures, given in Edinburgh during 1900-02. William James, brother of the more famous Henry, was a classic American intellectual, a brilliant New Englander and renowned pragmatist – a celebrity in his time who coined the phrase “stream of consciousness”. In moments of change, its finest writers have often found new forms of expression and ideas that both illuminate the American story and help to redefine it. T he United States is a society, first described in Thomas Jefferson’s revolutionary words in 1776, that constantly rewrites its narrative – in law, philosophy, economics and belief, as well as through poetry, drama and fiction.

The varieties of human experience by william james