The Thought and Character of William James

Vanderbilt Library of American Philosophy

by Ralph Barton Perry

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize when first published in two volumes in 1935, "The Thought and Character of William James" was widely acclaimed as furnishing a distinguished and scholarly account of William James, outstanding member of a characteristically American family of robust dissenters, energetic thinkers and doers. The general reader, rather than the professional philosopher, has been kept in mind in the preparing of this new edition - the intelligent reader with an interest in American ideas and American philosophy. The central core of the original 1600-page book has been preserved, and in this, as in the longer version, James speaks for himself through his letters and writings. But the technical apparatus and historical details of the two-volume work have been eliminated or reduced to a minimum, while practically all of the livelier portions, such as the chapters on James’s boyhood and youth, have been retained as originally printed. Some new material, including three letters of William James, has been added. Here, then, is a most readable account of one of the greatest of our philosophers and his beliefs.

Genres: Biography, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

an American philosopher.
He was educated at Princeton (B.A., 1896) and at Harvard (M.A., 1897; Ph.D., 1899), where, after teaching philosophy for three years at Williams and Smith colleges, he was instructor (1902–05), assistant professor (1905–13), full professor (1913–30) and Edgar Pierce professor of philosophy (1930–46). He was president of the American Philosophical Association's eastern division in the year 1920-21.
A pupil of William James, whose Essays in Radical Empiricism he edited (1912), Perry became one of the leaders of the New Realism movement. Perry argued for a naturalistic theory of value and a New Realist theory of perception and knowledge. He wrote a celebrated biography of William James, which won the 1936 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, and proceeded to a revision of his critical approach to natural knowledge. An active member among a group of American New Realist philosophers, he elaborated around 1910 the program of new realism. However, he soon dissented from moral and spiritual ontology, and turned to a philosophy of disillusionment. Perry was an advocate of a militant democracy: in his words "total but not totalitarian". In 1946-8 he delivered in Glasgow his Gifford Lectures, titled Realms of Value.
He married Rachel Berenson and they lived in Cambridge. Their son was Edward Barton Perry Jr. born at their home 5 Avon Street in Cambridge, 27 Sept. 1906. The son E. B. P. Jr. married in 1932 Harriet Armington Seelye (born Worcester, Massachusetts, 28 May, 1909, daughter of physician and surgeon Dr. Walker Clarke Seelye of Worcester and Annie Ide Barrows Seelye, formerly of Providence, Rhode Island.

Reviews

[Eslam · Rating 4 out of 5]

لغة محمد علي العريان الرائعة في الترجمة، شيء بديع.

[Lara Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It won a Pulitzer. Very well done, primarily letters from and to William James. What better way to really know someone. I'm looking forward to reading Pragmatism and Other Writings by William James. I'm still astounded to know that William and Henry James (Portrait of a Lady was wonderful!) were brothers. I would have loved to have been a member of that family.

[Frank Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've got the hardcover 2 volume edition; it's certainly all here

[شفيق]

ترجمة العريان ممتازة وشيقة وجيمس شخص برجماتي وعالم نفس متميز وانسان متواضع محب واجتماعي وفكرة المؤلف في اضافة الرسائل شئ بديع