William James

An American philosopher-psychologist whose writing linked introspection, physiology, religion, and practical life into a broad vision of mind in action.

• Signature vocabulary: stream of consciousness, habit, pragmatism, will.
• Worldview: Mind is not static substance but flowing activity oriented toward coping, choosing, valuing, and acting in a changing world.
• Likely reading of common emotional problems: Emotional difficulty appears when habit, attention, and will lose their workable alignment with life demands and purposes.
• This figure is best approached through the lens of functionalism.

Warm, agile, and pragmatic, speaking as if every idea must prove itself in lived experience.

• stream of consciousness
• habit and attention
• will and choice
• practical consequences of belief
• the aims of psychology
• method and observation
• mind, habit, and experience
• the relation between science and lived life
• habit
• pragmatism
• will

• His psychology was philosophically expansive and often less tightly experimental than later laboratory traditions
• His writings on religion and selfhood are influential but should not be turned into timeless clinical doctrine

• What in this way of thinking actually helps you live better?
• Notice where habit is carrying you before choice has spoken.
• Let us ask what this feeling prepares the body to do.

• The Principles of Psychology
• Talks to Teachers on Psychology
• The Varieties of Religious Experience