Browsing by Subject "William James"
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Item Pragmatic enchantment : William James, psychical research, and the humanities in the American Research University, 1880-1910(2017-05) Sussman, Sarah Gail; Bremen, Brian A.; Kevorkian, Martin W; Wojciehowski, Hannah; Abzug, Robert; Henderson, LindaPragmatic Enchantment juxtaposes the histories of two intellectual movements from the fin de siècle that could not appear more different on their surfaces: pragmatism, or the philosophical approach that predicates the truth value of a belief or theory based on the success of its practical application, and psychical research, the scientific investigation of telepathy and allied phenomena. This study makes the argument that beneath the surface, psychical research was a major formative influence on pragmatism. The intertwinement of the two has been obscured because of the unlikely comparison between what is largely deemed a pseudo-science and the pristine reputation of a cornerstone of American intellectual life. In confluence, this study argues, these two intellectual movements played a contributory role in defending the state of humanistic inquiry in late-nineteenth century research universities. For William James, among the most famous of psychical researchers, I argue that his philosophy of pragmatism as it exists throughout his corpus from The Principles of Psychology to Pragmatism was rooted in his grappling with the need for personally meaningful or “live hypotheses” through the field of psychical research. First-generation pragmatists Charles Peirce, F.C.S. Schiller, and Henri Bergson were all involved in psychical research, and an examination of their writings in this arena reveals its influence on their contributions to pragmatism. At the same time, rescaling psychical research’s place in history through a networked view unveils its connection to changes in higher education, particularly its programmatic relevance to American research universities which were swiftly turning towards an emphasis on the STEM fields. The professionalization of psychical research led to the establishment of programs at institutions like the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University. These programs created lines of scholarly communication through investigations undertaken collaboratively by both science and humanities professors. While the development of research universities would seem to support Max Weber’s popular thesis of secularization and Entzauberung (disenchantment) in the wake of late-nineteenth century scientific progress, this study argues to the contrary: psychical research propounded the very pragmatism of enchantment. It carried a humanistic raison d’etre for bringing “live hypotheses” into the investigative spirit of American research universities.Item Psychologizing about conversion: A comparison of three contemporaries(2014) Cregg, David RobertIn this project I compare and contrast the methods of three pre-eminent psychologists who completed work on the psychology of religion, with particular emphasis on their views of religious conversion: Sigmund Freud, William James, and Carl Jung. Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, took a reductionistic, cynical approach to investigating religious phenomena. James utilized a descriptive method, in which he simply described and categorized the varieties of religious experiences without making value judgments of them. Jung, a student of Freud, represents an orientation that is somewhere between a reductionistic, psychoanalytic approach and the more descriptive method used by James. In contrasting the writings of these three men, I consider their respective legacies and the enduring impact they have on the perception of religion in modern culture.Item Returning civil religious rhetoric to American political participation(2015-08) Gaddis, Benjamin Robert; Stroud, Scott R.; Jarvis, SharonPolitical participation in America has taken numerous forms over the years, from voting to volunteering. However, many people in the United States lack an overarching belief that full participation in a democracy is worthwhile. It is the goal of this thesis to examine the driving force behind political participation, or the lack thereof, in the United States. This examination of how the United States resembles organized religion in form and function, and how this resemblance entreats its citizens to act, reawakens the study of civil religion in America. Civil religion, as a theoretical lens, attempts to identify the particular values and beliefs of a nation through examining the rituals, symbols, and ceremonies practiced. Civil religion compares citizens to the followers of religion and equally observes how various religions influence particular cultural practices, both legal and civil. Given the limited use of pragmatism in the field of rhetorical studies, this project is among the first to use a pragmatic paradigm in rhetorical analysis. This project utilizes William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience as a framework to understand how civil religion can possibly be experienced in connection to voters and how they view the act of voting. This thesis concludes with the notion that understanding a person's civil religious beliefs is a crucial part of the process of the American political system. Understanding how people view and experience the act of participation, especially casting a ballot, in the United States is critical to the overall health of civil religion in America.