A Pluralistic Universe

William James's Pluralistic Universe

William James is best-known for his development of the American philosophy of pragmatism and for his pioneering work in psychology. But in addition to pragmatism, which he described as a method and as a theory of truth, James expounded a broad philosophical doctrine which he called radical empiricism (pluralism). Radical pluralism, as James explained it, constituted a metaphysical position -- one describing the nature of reality -- rather than a method. In his book, "Pragmatism", James maintained that his commitment to radical empiricism was separate from his commitment to pragmatism; but in the Preface to his book, "The Meaning of Truth", James maintained that the success of the pragmatic account of truth was vital to making radical empiricism prevail.

James's fullest development of the theory of radical empiricism was in his book "A Pluralistic Universe" published in 1908. This book consists of the text of eight lectures James delivered in that year at London and at Harvard. In common with James's other works, "A Pluralistic Universe" attacks the monistic idealism derived from Hegel and followed by many of James's contemporaries in England and the United States, such as his colleague, Josiah Royce. But James goes much further than he had in his earlier writings. He offers a critique of logic, conceptual thinking and what he describes as "intellectualism" in philosophy. He urges a return to immediate experience as the basis for philosophical thinking. He develops a philosophy which is pluralistic and contingent -- which leaves room for chance, surprise, and moral action -- and which is essentially idealistic. The driving force behind the philosophy is spiritual, as James argues for panpsychism, pantheism, a finite god (or gods) and the possibility of growth.

James gives two philosophers a great deal of attention in developing his position. The first is the German thinker Gustav Fechner (Lecture IV in "A Pluralistic Universe"), who developed a theory of earth-soul holding that everything in the universe was alive with mind. Fechner's work became the basis of James's pansychism and of his theory of compounding consciousness -- that mind could grow from one thing to another and that there was an interrelationship between the human mind and the mind of a finite god. The second major influence on "A Pluralistic Universe" was the French philosopher Henri Bergson (Chapter VI). From Bergson, James described his critique of intellectualism and conceptual thinking. James argued that concepts were useful in understanding reality for limited purposes, (here James seems to be downplaying his own pragmatism) but that they ultimately distorted reality. Reality was a flow, a stream, in which one moment glided imperceptibly into the next and arose from a past moment. In this view of perception and reality, James rejected the atomistic, sensationalist view of experience of the British empiricists, describing this view as conceptualist in its own right. His view of consciousness was similar to that of another German philosopher, Edmund Husserl, who admired James greatly.

James best sets out the goal and the heart of his teaching in his opening lecture, "The Types of Philosophic Thinking." In this chapter, he stresses the importance of vision in philosophy -- the presentation of a convincing and inspiring view of life -- and downplays the importance of the arguments that are brought to bear in support of the vision. He also limits carefully the scope of his discussion. James at the outset rejects philosophies of materialism or scientism in favor of a philosophy that teaches that "the intimate and human must surround and underlie the brutal." He describes this teaching as the "spiritual" way of thinking.

James next distinguishes between a theistic conception of spiritualism which posits God as a creator separate from the universe and a pantheistic version, which argues that God is immanent as "the indwelling divine rather than the external creator, and of human life as part and parcel of that deep reality." James rejects the theistic position and opts instead for a pantheistic view of spirituality. It is important to see these self-imposed limitations on James's thought and to see as well how close James was to the absolute idealism of his day even when he criticized it severely. Hegel and Royce have, in spite of the criticisms he leveled at them, a large role in James's thought.

In the final lecture of "A Pluralistic Universe" James resumes themes he had raised earlier in "The Varieties of Religious Experience." He argues that accounts of individual religious experience suggest a way of approaching reality broader and more profound than anything that "paganism, naturalism, and legalism pin their faith on and tie their trust to." James argues that "the drift of all the evidence we have seems to me to sweep us very strongly towards the belief in some form of superhuman life with which we may, unknown to ourselves, be co-conscious. We may be in the universe as dogs and cats are in our libraries, seeing the books and hearing the conversation, but having no inkling of the meaning of it all." James distinguishes his position from absolute idealism by working from the bottom up -- from individual, plural consciousness rather than from the top down -- from an abstract, intellectually conceived absolute. He advocates a philosophy of meliorism and activity in which individual persons work to bring the good to pass.

This book, James's last sustained work in philosophy, moves towards its own unique form of idealism and establishes James as a thinker in a large manner. The book seems to me to rest uneasily with his pragmatism at many places. "A Pluralistic Universe" is a provocative and moving work by a major American thinker.

Robin Friedman