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Principles of Psychology

Time Out with William James and The Principles of Psychology

In a course I teach with a philosopher, we’ve reached a long stretch of William James’ Principles of Psychology. My philosopher friend has never read much James and not The Principles. He found James a little maddening. James picks, chooses, and then quotes certain long passages in different philosophers without bothering too much with their larger positions. In a given chapter, for example, Locke and Spinoza might come off thick as thieves if you didn’t know any better. Nearly all of our students don’t know any better, nor should they be required to know any better, so we decided to Read more