Some modern day students of religion (e.g., Hood) speak positively about James's interest in phenomena that challenged the natural science approach to psychology. Here's one presentation in which Hood articulates that view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qeLfh7E9mA Jim Jim Clark Professor & Chair of Psychology University of Winnipeg 204-786-9757 Room 4L41A (4th Floor Lockhart) www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark<http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark> From: Christopher Green [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: October-22-16 10:41 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Would William James Attend? On Oct 21, 2016, at 12:54 PM, Michael Scoles <[email protected]<mailto:[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]<mailto:[email protected]> http://www.yorku.ca/christo ....................................... On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 10:09 AM, Mike Palij <[email protected]<mailto:[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]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&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-49747-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-49747-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- 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=49749 or send a blank email to leave-49749-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
