Influences on The Major Theorists

William James (1842-1910)

William James was born in 1842 in New York City, the first child of five to the affluent and deeply religious Henry James and Mary Walsh James. James received his education from tutors and private schools until the family moved to Europe in 1855. His education continued until 1858 in Geneva, Paris, and Boulogne-sur-Mer. In 1858, the James family settled in Newport, Rhode Island and William started studying painting, the first of many disciplines he ultimately pursued. In 1861, he entered Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard and in 1864 entered Harvard School of Medicine. James received his M.D. in 1869 and developed severe depression. James chose not to practice medicine and instead started teaching psychology at Harvard in 1874 in addition to establishing the first American psychology laboratory the same year. In 1878, James married Alice Howe Gibbens. In 1880, he added another discipline to his repertoire and was appointed Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Harvard (while continuing to teach psychology). He remained in that position until 1907 when he resigned from Harvard.

James published a twelve-hundred page masterwork, The Principles of Psychology in 1890. In this work, he spends some time discussing the individual's sense of self and being comprised of both the "I" or the knower, and the "Me" or the self-as-known. Additionally, he is one of the first writers to use the term "self-esteem" as a feeling the self has dependent upon what one wishes to be and to accomplish. If one succeeds in their endeavors, their self-esteem raises, and if one fails it lowers. William James is also often recognized as the father of American pragmatism, as it became one of the prevailing philosophical movements of the 20th century under his leadership.

Over the course of his career, William James fathers five children and loses one of them to pneumonia. He proves to be a prolific writer and widely respected philosopher. He is one of three famous children to originate from Henry James and Mary Walsh James, his brother Henry James grew to be the famed novelist, and his sister Alice also grew to be well regarded in literary circles after the posthumous publication of her diaries. In 1910, William James dies of heart failure at his summer home in New Hampshire.

Some of His Major Works:
The Principles of Psychology (1890)
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)
Pragmatism (1907)
A Pluralistic Universe (1909)
The Meaning of Truth (1909)

Posthumously:
Some Problems of Philosophy (1911)
The Letters of William James (1926)
The Works of William James (1975)
Essays in Philosophy (1978)
William James: Writings 1902-1910 (1987)
William James: Writings 1878-1899 (1992)
The Correspondence of William James (1992)
Selected Letters of William and Henry James (1997)

Information for this biography gathered from:
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/
Professor Pajares' (Emory University) Website on William James: www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/james.html