I wasn't objecting to anything, but was making a reference to his pragmatism. It reminds me of a discussion here, long ago, about the notion that science is based on faith. I had mentioned a point made by Bernard Davis (and probably others), that science isn't based on faith, because it is tested every time it is applied. If science stopped working, we would stop using it. Someone mentioned that the same could be said about faith.
On Sat, Oct 22, 2016 at 10:41 AM, Christopher Green <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Oct 21, 2016, at 12:54 PM, Michael Scoles <[email protected]> wrote: > > I can't find the page number from Principles where he says, "Whatever > floats your boat." > > > I’m not sure what you’re objecting to here, Michael. James was a well > known and ardent advocate of spiritualism — an early joiner of the Society > for Psychical Research (in Britain) and the virtual founder of the American > Society for Psychical Research. He conducted extensive questionnaire > studies of people’s experiences of the paranormal. He visited a variety of > “mediums,” commenting publicly on their putative authenticity. He was so > outspoken about it that other psychologists of the era (1) begged him to > tone it down for the good of the psychology (Cattell), (2) actively strove > to demonstrate the frauds perpetrated by his favoured spiritualists > (Münsterberg, Jastrow, Hall, or (3) just publicly denounced him (Witmer > (in)famously dubbed him the “spoiled child of psychology”). > > All that said, James’ peculiar version of philosophical pragmatism might, > to a first approximation, be summed up as “whatever floats your boat” (if > floating a boat is taken to be doing something that seems to help the boat > to “work”). :-) > > Best, > Chris > ….. > Christopher D Green > Department of Psychology > York University > Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 > Canada > 43.773895°, -79.503670° > > [email protected] > http://www.yorku.ca/christo > ………………………………... > > On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 10:09 AM, Mike Palij <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/we-tried-to-talk-to-the >> -dead-at-new-yorks-only-spirit-church >> >> Some things never change. >> > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=357701. > a768e95c4963686e69b47febf8aa657a&n=T&l=tips&o=49747 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to leave-49747-357701.a768e95c4963686e69b47febf8aa65 > [email protected] > > -- Michael T. Scoles, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology & Counseling University of Central Arkansas Conway, AR 72035 501-450-5418 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=49748 or send a blank email to leave-49748-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
