by Paul J Croce
After considering alternatives, James simply called his notebook “Philosophizing . . .
&c” showing the combination of broad sweep and informality of these private
thoughts; also in MEN, 160–61; see chapter 4, note 70.
76. Schiller, “Gods of the Greeks,” 4. On the range of relations between science
and religion, see my introduction, note 18.
77. James, [Diary 1], April 11 [1868], 18; and VRE, 20.
78. ERE, 262; Kittelstrom, “Too Hidebound,” and The Religion of Democracy. On approaches to James showing his integration of mind and body, see my introduction,
note 19.
79. Kloppenberg, Uncertain Victory, 26, 25, 39; Dewey, “William James” (1910), and Experience and Nature (1925), 216.
80. Kloppenberg, “Pragmatism,” 111–12; Rorty, “Dewey between Hegel and
Darwin,” in Ross, Modernist Impulses, 54–55, 56, 61; Lindberg and Numbers, God and
Nature; Grassie, The New Sciences of Religion; Daston and Mitman, Thinking with
Animals; Stewart et al., Enaction; Damasio, Descartes’ Error, and Looking for Spinoza; Hughes, Consciousness and Society; Skrbina, Panpsychism in the West; and Eclipse, 3–17.
81. “The Sentiment of Rationality,” EPH, 33, 56; [Notebook 2], 20. On linguistic
and experiential approaches to pragmatism, see Misak, The New Pragmatists; and
Judith Green, Bern stein and the Pragmatist Turn.
82. PRG, 31; WB, 8; and James to Frances Morse, April 12, 1900, CWJ, 9:186.
83. James Turner, “William James Redraws the Map,” in Religion Enters the
Acad emy; and Albanese, American Spiritualities, Nature Religion in Amer i ca, and Reconsidering Nature Religion, 9, 6. On the rise of spirituality as it has emerged within
existing religions, in secular spheres, and in the development of new religious
movements, see Hedstrom, Rise of Religious Liberalism; Leigh Schmidt, Restless
Souls, 53; Christopher White, Unsettled Minds; Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the
American People, 2:528; Marty, Pilgrims in Their Own Land, 319; Albanese, Amer i ca, Religions, and Religion, 252; Wuthnow, After Heaven; Roof, Spiritual Marketplace and A Generation of Seekers; Albanese, A Republic of Mind and Spirit; Fuller, Spiritual but Not Religious; and Phillip Lucas, “New Religious Movements,” in Lippy and Williams,
Encyclopedia of Religion in Amer i ca. Even Charles Taylor, who criticizes this form of
religion grown separate from institutional affiliation, acknowledges the surging
growth of these spiritual trends since James’s time ( A Secular Age, 2–3, 510, 518, 535).
And on the role of James and pragmatism in these trends, see Bridgers, Con temporary
Va ri e ties of Religious Experience; Joan Richardson, A Natu ral History of Pragmatism; and Feffer, Chicago Pragmatists, 13, 69.
84. James to Thomas Ward, March [18]69, CWJ, 4:370–71. Michael Polanyi
notices James’s avoidance of sharply contrasting choices, in par tic u lar, in his views of
teleology; see note 78 in this chapter, and chapter 4, note 70.
85. James to Thomas Ward, March [18]69, CWJ, 4:370–71.
Chapter 4 • Crises and Construction
Epigraph. William to Henry James, Ju nior, Jan[uar]y 19, [18]70; May 7, [18]70, CWJ,
1:140, 158. Throughout his early years, James misspelled “necessary” (so did his
mother— e.g., Mary to William James, Nov[ember] 21, [1867], CWJ, 4:230).
Notes to Pages 188–191 303
1. William James to his parents, July 9, July 3, [18]68; to Katherine Temple
Emmet, Aug[ust] 3, [1864]; and to his parents, April 21, [1865], CWJ, 4:328, 327, 91,
100; [Diary 1], May 22, [1868], 54; [Diary 1], Feb[ruar]y 1, 1870, [79]; and William to
Robertson James, Jan[uar]y 2, [18[72], CWJ, 4:400.
2. See my introduction, notes 20–21, for the ways James has been understood
in diff er ent disciplinary fields. In short, biographical and historical evaluations of
James have emphasized his youth as a time of crisis; and most evaluations of James’s
well- known theories have included only a brief look at his “crisis” before moving on
to the mature James. Charlene Haddock Seigfried, however, takes steps toward the
integration of his youthful trou bles into his mature thought by organ izing her
William James’s Radical Reconstruction of Philosophy through his steps in response to
three major crises: before 1872, in 1895, and in 1908–9.
3. Eclipse, 59–60; William James to Henry James, Ju nior, May 7, [18]70, CWJ, 1:159; and review of Fifth Report of the State Board of Health of Mas sa chu setts (1874),
ECR, 281.
4. [Diary 1], April 12, 1868, 18; review of Bernard, ECR, 222; to Henry James,
Ju nior, May 7, [18]70, CWJ, 1:159; books lists at the end of [Diary 1], with the date 1870
after the first few pages; and [Notebook 3], 1862–63, with extensive reading notes on
diverse books on science, religion, the ancients, and modern lit er a ture. Despite
standard interpretations about James’s youth as a time of trou bles, some commentators
have briefly acknowledged his constructive developments at this time. Émile
Boutroux, William James, even maintains that despite “his ill- health . . . he continued
to work to his fancy, assuming no professional obligations . . . [but with] intellectual
curiosity [and] eagerness for varied knowledge” (6). Boring, A History of Experimental
Psy chol ogy, in reporting on the invalidism of James’s youth, mentioned that it was a
time of “extensive systematic reading” (510). Bjork, William James, credits his mother
with realization that “although he is . . . far from well . . . he is full of mental activity
and vigor” (81). Lewis, The Jameses, insists that “it is always impor tant, in reading the
William James of these years, to take note of the comic or the wry as it interpen-
etrates the miserable or the desperate” (173). Feinstein, in “The ‘Crisis’ of William
James,” astutely observes that “what James meant by the term ‘crisis’ . . . is not a
conversion experience but a moment of intense emotion to be used for moral
improvement” (73).
5. Eclipse, 191–95; Galenson, Old Masters and Young Geniuses. James’s development also exhibits characteristics of the “growth mindset” in the attribution theory
of motivation; see Dweck and Leggett, “A Social- Cognitive Approach,” with their
distinction between attitudes adaptive because mastery- oriented in contrast with
attitudes maladaptive and helpless; and Dweck in Mindset differentiates the growth
mind- set that “allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in
their lives” (7), from the fixed mind- set that brings resignation to trou bles.
6. LWJ, 1:32; Alice to Henry James, Se nior, M[ar]ch 11, [1860], James Family
papers, bMS Am 1094 (1467); William James to Edgar Van Winkle, Sept[ember] 4,
1857; March 1, 1858; May 26, 1858, CWJ, 4:6, 11, 13, 16. Rousseau wrote, just before the
line James recorded, words that spoke directly to his condition: “Think about that,
young man; what are ten, twenty, thirty years to an immortal being”; Rousseau, Julie,
Letter XXII. On James’s childhood temperament, including his inquisitiveness and
304 Notes to Pages 191–199
his “groping toward science” through his education at home, with tutors, and at
schools in Boulogne, Geneva, and Bonn, see my introduction and Eclipse, 67–71. Also
see Grohskopf, “Boyhood Lette
rs of William James”; Bjork, William James, 22–32;
Simon, Genuine Real ity, 44–73; and Robert Richardson, William James, 11–40.
7. [Notebook 1], 3; [Notebook 2], 21–22; Emerson, “Persian Poetry,” in Letters and Social Aims, 245. I am grateful to Robert Richardson, who, in William James, 532,
points out James’s reading of Emerson for the source of these and other quotations I
had referred to without this context in Eclipse, 75–76. On conatus, see my introduc-
tion, note 19.
8. [Notebook 3], (October 1, 1862), [1]; The Holy Bible, King James Version, book of Ezekiel, 2:3–4, 3:17; Matthew, 26:64, 16:13.
9. [Notebook 3], [1]; Emerson, “Give All to Love” (1847), in Collected Poems and Translations, 72–73.
10. [Notebook 3], [1–2].
11. “Remarks on Spencer’s Definition of Mind as Correspondence,” EPH, 7;
“Sentiment of Rationality,” WB, 74–75. This portion of “Sentiment” first appeared as
“Rationality, Activity, and Faith,” Prince ton Review (July 1882), 71. Hollinger, “Tonic
Destruction”; Reuben, The Making of the Modern University, 97; and Eclipse, 187.
12. William James to Katharine Temple, August 3, [1864], CWJ, 4:91–92; Eclipse, 77–81; and Blake, “The Smile,” in The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake,
482–83. Kittelstrom, The Religion of Democracy, 4, also notices that James’s symp-
toms mingled physical and immaterial ele ments. On his study of Winslow, see my
chapter 1, note 37; and on his nonenlistment, see Croce, “Calming the Screaming
Ea gle.”
13. William to Alice James, March 5, [1865], CWJ, 4:97; Beard, A Practical
Treatise, 92. On neurasthenia, see my chapter 2, notes 69–71; and on Minny Temple,
see chapter 3, note 64.
14. William James to his parents, April 21, [1865], CWJ, 4:100–101.
15. William James to his parents and to Mary James, October 21, [1865]; Decem-
ber 9, [18]65, CWJ, 4:128, 131–32.
16. William James to Thomas Ward, June 8, [18]66; March 27, [18]66, CWJ, 4:139,
140, 137.
17. William to Alice James, December 25, [18]66, CWJ, 4:149. On his Eu ro pean
trip, see chapter 2.
18. William to Garth Wilkinson James, May 20, [1866]; to Alice James, April 27,
[1867]; to Thomas Ward, Jan[uar]y [7, 18]68; to Henry Bowditch, [October 14, 1868];
Nov[ember] 27, [1868], CWJ, 4:138, 158, 251, 348; William James, “The Energies of
Men” (1907), ERM, 131, 137, 136, 141. On the role of crises in water- cure and other
sectarian practices, see chapter 2; and on neurasthenia and James’s experiences with
this diagnosis, see chapter 2, notes 69–71.
19. William James to Thomas Ward, Dec[ember] 10, [18]68]; and to Henry James,
Ju nior, June 27, 1867, CWJ, 4:351, 1:16. Simon, Genuine Real ity, 97–102, describes
James’s depression emerging from failed relations with women with little attention
to his awkward hopes for marriage in the years before he met his future wife, Alice
Howe Gibbens.
Notes to Pages 200–211 305
20. William to Alice James, August 31, [1865]; and to Thomas Ward, March 27,
[18]66, CWJ, 4:118, 120, 137; and [Notebook 4], 115.
21. William to Mary James, June 12, [18]67; to his family, July 24, [18]67; to Henry James, Ju nior, Ap[ri]l 5, [18]68; to Alice James, Oct[ober] 17, [18]67, and to James
family, July 24, [18]67, CWJ, 4:176–77, 183, 215, 183; 1:45. Also see Giles Gunn,
introduction to CWJ, 4:ixx– xxiv, xli– xlii; Robert Coles, introduction to CWJ, 7:xxxiv;
George Garrison and Edward Madden, “William James— Warts and All”; Ross
Posnock, “The Influence of William James,” in Ruth Anna Putnam, The Cambridge
Companion to William James, 324; and Miller, “William James and Ethnic Thought.”
Also see my introduction, note 16, and chapter 1, notes 48–49.
22. William James to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ju nior, May 15, 1868, CWJ, 4:299,
300; and to Alice James, [February 18, 1867], Strouse, Alice James, 110.
23. William James to Thomas Ward, May 24, 1868, CWJ, 4:305; [Diary 1], May 22,
[1868], 54–55; and to Katharine Temple, August 3, [1864], CWJ, 4:91–92. He also used
the word “crisis” without urgency in July of that year: see chapter 2, note 59, and
chapter 4, note 1 in this chapter.
24. James, [Diary 1], May 22, [1868], 54–55; James to Thomas Ward, May 24, 1868,
CWJ, 4:306.
25. [Diary 1], May 27, [1868], 56–57, 53.
26. Ibid., May 22, [1868], 55.
27. Ibid., May 27, [1868], 57.
28. Ibid., 57–58.
29. Ibid., April 21, May 27, May 1, [1868], 37, 58, 51, 57, 51, 55; PU, 41.
30. Ibid., May 27, [1868], 58; William James to Thomas Ward, May 24, 1868, CWJ,
4:309; and PRG, 6, 1, 137.
31. William James to Thomas Ward, May 24, 1868; to Catherine Havens, June 17,
[18]68, CWJ, 4:306, 309, 320; and WB, 29. His letters to Havens continued until
December 22, 1877, CWJ, 4:507–8, 516–17, 520–22, 533–35, 539–40, 554–57, 573,
587–88.
32. Henry Bowditch to William James, Sept[ember]14, [1869]; James to Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Ju nior, May 15, 1868; William to Robertson James, Nov[ember] 14,
[18]69, CWJ, 4: 387, 302, 389–90; Larson, Sex, Race, and Science, 18–21; Reilly, The
Surgical Solution, 9–10; and Zenderland, Mea sur ing Minds. Lewis, The Jameses, mentions James’s “impulse to postpone the marriage relation as long as pos si ble”
(279) in reference to the exaggerated length of his courtship with Alice Gibbens in
1877–78, not to his vow not to marry starting in 1869.
33. William to Robertson James, Nov[ember] 14, [18]69; and to Thomas Ward,
March 14, [18]70, CWJ, 4:390, 391, 403; and Beard, A Practical Treatise, 128. On
James’s sexual references, see Simon, Genuine Real ity, 103; Strout, “William James
and the Twice- Born Sick Soul,” 1067; Sander Gilman, Disease and Repre sen ta tion,
74–78; Lewis, The Jameses, 201; Capps, “ ‘That Shape Am I,’ ” in The Strug gle for Life, 91; Townsend, Manhood at Harvard, 52; and see Paul Croce, “Mannered Memory” for
evaluation of these interpretations.
34. William James, review of Horace Bushnell, Women’s Suffrage: The Reform
against Nature and John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women, ECR, 251, 247, 248,
306 Notes to Pages 211–220
252, 255, 251, 255, 250. On James and gender, see note 90 in this chapter; my introduc-
tion, note 17; and chapter 1, note 32.
35. Henry James, Ju nior, to Elizabeth Boott, Jan[uary] 24, [1872], Complete Letters of Henry James, 2:429, 431; and William James to Henry Bowditch, Aug[ust] 12, [18]69,
CWJ, 4:384.
36. Alice Gibbens to William James, [June 26, 1898]; William James to John Jay
Chapman, Sept[ember 26], 1904; to Pauline Goldmark, Oct[ober] 20, 1906; Feb[ruary]
8, 1906; Sept[ember] 16, 1905, CWJ, 8:380; 10:480; 11:279, 171, 11:99. Also see Bjork,
William James, 91–106; Lewis, The Jameses, 268–88; Simon, Genuine Real ity, 151–67; Robert Richardson, William James, 349–53; Fisher, House of Wits, 326–32, 347–50,
362–67; and Gunter, Alice in Jamesland.
37. William to Robertson James, Sept[ember] 24, [18]72; June 22, [18]72; July 25,
[18]70; June 22, [18]72, CWJ, 4:430, 423–24, 408, 422; PPS, 1053; Fragments of Early
Cours
es (1875–85), ML, 124–25; Beard, A Practical Treatise, 101, 103, and Sexual
Neurasthenia, 23. Fisher, House of Wits, 578, 313–14, proposes, without references,
that James “suffered off and on from impotence,” but he does not refer to spermator-
rhœa and its relation to diagnoses about depleted energy.
38. Robertson to William James, April 6, [1873]; William to Robertson James,
Ap[ri]l 20, [1873, CWJ, 4:433, 434.
39. William James to Catherine Havens, Feb[ruar]y 24, [18]69 (my translation of
the French original); and to Thomas Ward, March [18]69, CWJ, 4:369, 370–71; and
Hadot, Inner Citadel, 101. On James’s relation to Stoicism, see chapter 3.
40. [Diary 1], Dec[ember] 21, [1869], [75–76].
41. William to Mary James, June 12, [18]67 (with the phrase repeated in a letter to Alice James, July 10, 1867); to Henry James, Se nior, Sept[ember] 5, [18]67; to Thomas
Ward, Nov[ember] 7, [18]67; Jan[uar]y, [7, 18]68; to Alice James, March 16, [18]68; and to
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ju nior, May 15, 1868, CWJ, 4:175, 179, 194, 224, 248, 265, 300, 304.
42. William James quoting Heinrich Heine, letter to Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Ju nior, Jan[uar]y 3, [18]68 (my translation of the German original); to Thomas Ward,
Sept[ember 10], 1867; Jan[uar]y [7, 18]68; May 24, 1868; Oct[ober] 9, [1868]; and to
Henry James, Ju nior, May 7, [18]70, CWJ, 4:244, 198, 251, 310, 347; 1:159, 160.
43. William James to Henry Bowditch, May 22, [1869], CWJ, 4:378.
44. William James to Henry Bowditch, Aug[ust] 12, [18]69; and to Henry James,
Ju nior, Oct[ober] 25, [1869], CWJ, 4:383, 1:114; Pascal, Pensées [Thoughts], no. 411;
“Vacations” (1873), ECR, 3–7; Kolakowski, God Owes Us Nothing; and Wetsel, Pascal
and Disbelief.
45. William James to Henry Bowditch, Aug[ust] 12, [18]69; and to Henry James,
Ju nior, Oct[tober] 2, [18]69, CWJ, 4:383, 1:100; Beard, American Ner vous ness, 210; and
[Diary 1], c. 1870.
46. VRE, 341; Pomfret notes, c. 1869–70, in TCJ, 1:301; and Robert Richardson,
William James, 124. Perry says the notes were written about August 1869 (TCJ, 1:301);
Richardson, William James, 544, suggests the following year. Few other commenta-
tors mention Pomfret or these notes.
47. Pomfret notes, (my translation of the French original), in TCJ, 1:301.