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William James

William James Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous William James Quotes

“However inadequate our ideas of causal efficacy may be, we are less wide of the mark when we say that our ideas and feelings have it, than the Automatists are when they say they haven't it. As in the night all cats are gray, so in the darkness of metaphysical criticism all causes are obscure. But one has no right to pull the pall over the psychic half of the subject only . . . whilst in the same breath one dogmatizes about material causation as if Hume, Kant, and Lotze had never been born.”

IfsMayIdeasFeelingsNightCausesBornHalfDarknessSubjectsHavensMaterialsCatCriticismMarkBreathsWideGrayObscurePsychicsMetaphysicalInadequateEfficacyCausationHume
Book:The Principles of Psychology
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“Compared with men, it is probable that brutes neither attend to abstract characters, nor have associations by similarity. Their thoughts probably pass from one concrete object to its habitual concrete successor far more uniformly than is the case with us. In other words, their associations of ideas are almost exclusively by contiguity. So far, however, as any brute might think by abstract characters instead of by association of con cretes, he would have to be admitted to be a reasoner in the true human sense. How far this may take place is quite uncertain.”

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Author:William James
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“Even if matter could do every outward thing that God does, the idea of it would not work as satisfactorily, because the chief callfor a God on modern men's part is for a being who will inwardly recognize them and judge them sympathetically. Matter disappoints this craving of our ego, so God remains for most men the truer hypothesis, and indeed remains so for definite pragmatic reasons.”

IfsMenDoeIdeasMatterReasonModernJudgingEgoRemainsChiefsMaterialismDefiniteHypothesisCravingDisappointPragmaticModern ManTheism
Book:The Meaning of Truth: Human Understanding
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“Pragmatism asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false? What, in short, is the truth's cash-value in experiential terms?”

IfsIdeasDifferentTruthValuesAsksBeliefTermDifferencesTruth IsBeing TrueGrantsUsualCashConcretePragmatismActual Life
Book:Pragmatism
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“So you see that the process of education, taken in a large way, may be described as nothing but the process of acquiring ideas or conceptions, the best educated mind being the mind which has the largest stock of them, ready to meet the largest possible variety of the emergencies of life. The lack of education means only the failure to have acquired them, and the consequent liability to be 'floored' and 'rattled' in the vicissitudes of experience.”

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Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
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“If, then, you wish to insure the interest of your pupils, there is only one way to do it; and that is to make certain that they have something in their minds to attend with, when you begin to talk. That something can consist in nothing but a previous lot of ideas already interesting in themselves, and of such a nature that the incoming novel objects which you present can dovetail into them and form with them some kind of a logically associated or systematic whole.”

IfsWayMindKindIdeasPhilosophyWholeFormCertainLiteratureWishInterestInterestingNovelObjectsEducationalOne WayPupilsSystematicIf Then
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
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“You perceive now, my friends, what your general or abstract duty is as teachers. Although you have to generate in your pupils a large stock of ideas, any one of which may be inhibitory, yet you must also see to it that no habitual hesitancy or paralysis of the will ensues, and that the pupil still retains his power of vigorous action.”

MayStillsIdeasPhilosophyActionLiteratureTeacherDutyMy FriendsEducationalPerceiveAbstractPupilsVigorousHabitualParalysis
Book:Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals
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“To begin with, our knowledge grows in spots. The spots may be large or small, but the knowledge ever grows all over... What you first gain from them is probably a small amount of new information, a few new definitions, or distinctions, or points of view. But while these special ideas are being added, the rest of your knowledge stands still, and only gradually will you 'line up' your previous opinions with the novelties I am trying to instil, and modify to some slight degree their mass.”

TryingMindFirstsStillsIdeasSometimesBeliefGrowsProcessLinesViewsOpinionSpecialInformationAmountWords Of WisdomDegreesMassGainsDefinitionsEducationalPoint Of ViewSpotsDistinctionNoveltyInstillSmall AmountsNew Information
Author:William James
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