Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Kaag, John (1979-....)
Titre(s) : Sick souls, healthy minds [Texte imprimé] : how William James can save your life / John Kaag
Publication : Princeton (N. J.) : Princeton university press, 2020
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (210 p.) : portr. ; 21 cm
Note(s) : Bibliogr. p. [187]-196. Index
"In his diaries, the American philosopher and psychologist William James, for whom
the personal and the philosophical were never far apart, recounted how in his late
twenties he was confronted with existential despair regarding the issue of free will:
do humans have the capacity to act freely and meaningfully? James famously decided
that his "first act of free will is to believe in free will," and declared that, "if
you can change your mind, you can change your life." This belief in the efficacy of
ideas on our practical beliefs and actions would lead to James becoming one of the
founders of the first truly distinctively American philosophy, Pragmatism. In this
book philosopher John Kaag offers an account of the life, thought, and relevance of
James's philosophy for today. He argues that his brand of pragmatism was first and
foremost a philosophy geared towards saving a life; namely, James's own, but with
important resources and lessons for saving ours as well. James believed that philosophy
was meant to articulate, and help answer, a single existential question, one which
lent itself to the title of one of his most famous essays: "Is life worth living?"
Through examination of an array of existentially loaded topics covered in his works-truth,
God, evil, suffering, death, and the meaning of life-James concluded that it is up
to us to make life worth living. He said that our beliefs, the truths that guide our
lives, matter-their value and veracity turn on the way they play out practically for
ourselves and our communities. For James, philosophy was about making life meaningful,
and for some of us, liveable. This is the core of his "pragmatic maxim," that truth
should be judged on the bases of its practical consequences. Kaag shows how James
put this maxim into use in his philosophy and his life and how we can do so in our
own. In his perhaps most famous and enduring work, The Varieties of Religious Experience,
James devoted two chapters to exploring what he saw as two distinct types of personality,
"the sick-souled" and "the healthy-minded." James himself, as Kaag shows, tended more
toward the sick-souled side of the spectrum. But both types fascinated James and he
thought both provided important sources for understanding not just religious experience,
but for how we can think about our own orientation to the world and perhaps reorient
ourselves in the process"
Sujet(s) : James, William (1842-1910) -- Critique et interprétation
Pragmatisme (philosophie)
Existence (philosophie)
Indice(s) Dewey :
144.3 (23e éd.) = Pragmatisme
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9780691192161. - ISBN 0691192162. - ISBN 9780691200934 (erroné)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb46529821x
Notice n° :
FRBNF46529821
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
