THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



4*3 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



WILLIAM JAMES 

 Is there left to us in this land a 

 man so great as William James? If 

 the list of our leaders is scanned, men 

 eminent in philosophy, science, art or 

 letters, in education, law, politics or 

 business, is there a single one to be 

 placed beside him? He excelled in so 

 many ways, in science, in philosophy, 

 in letters, as a teacher, as a leader in 

 good causes and lost causes, before all 

 as a man — kind and generous beyond 

 measure, of remarkable individuality 

 and distinction. 



The " Principles of Psychology," 

 published in 1890, is a scientific and 

 literary classic. No one can foretell 

 whether it will be permanently in the 

 group of philosophical masterpieces, 

 beginning with the dialogues of Plato, 

 but "Miere is no contemporary Amer- 

 ican work and possibly no European 

 work since the " Origin of Species," 

 which has an equal chance. 



Wilhelm Wundt and William James 

 are the founders of psychology, a sci- 

 ence which in a single generation has 

 assumed a place coordinate with the 

 other leading sciences. Both men — 

 like their forerunners, Lotze and von 

 Helmholtz — had an education in medi- 

 cine and the natural sciences, with 

 strong natural interests in philosophy 

 and metaphysics. They established 

 laboratories of psychology at about the 

 same time, neither of them did experi- 

 mental work of consequence, both pre- 

 pared treatises which to a remarkable 

 extent established the lines of develop- 

 ment for a science. Wundt's " Thysi- 

 ologische Psychologie " is more sys- 

 tematic than James's " Principles of 

 Psychology"; it is more of an en- 

 cyclopedia. For that reason it could 

 be brought out in various editions, 

 corrected and enlarged. James's 



*' Psychology " is more of a work of 

 art, exhibiting the subject as he left 

 it twenty years ago. 



It is truly a remarkable book, com- 

 bining physiology, pathological psy- 

 chology, comparative psychology, ex- 

 perimental psychology, introspective 

 psychology and philosophy into one 

 whole which has dominated the sci- 

 ence. The author is always accurate 

 in his scientific material and clear in 

 his statements, but frank in his criti- 

 cism and daring in his conclusions. 

 His own contributions on the stream 

 of thought, the perception of things 

 and of space, the emotions, instinct, 

 habit and in many other directions are 

 of fundamental importance. The work 

 has an extraordinary vitality and in- 

 viduality which make it a work of art 

 and a classic. 



In his "Talks to Teachers" and 

 " Varieties of Religious Experience," 

 James extended the field of psychology 

 in two important directions. Nearly 

 all his work was done in a somewhat 

 opportunistic fashion. He made an 

 engagement to give lectures, perhaps 

 cancelled it or tried to do so, felt he 

 could not prepare them and finally 

 produced a masterpiece. " The Will to 

 Believe" was a collection of addresses; 

 the volume on " Religious Experience " 

 was Gifford lectures, the "Prag- 

 matism" Lowell lectures, "A Plural- 

 istic Universe" Hibbert lectures. 



Although the interest in problems of 

 philosophy and the pluralism, prag- 

 matism and empiricism may be traced 

 backward to his earlier publications, 

 they were given full and vigorous ex- 

 pression only in these later volumes, 

 when James had passed the age of 

 sixty and was already suffering from 

 disease of the heart. It would be idle 



