Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
William James lived in the last decades of the eighteenth century (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910). He was the first American psychologist and philosopher and he was also the president of the Society for Psychical Research from 1894 to 1895. He wrote the first general text book on psychology, and he remains one of the most well-liked and famous of all psychologists.
He studied the function of the conscience and the mental processes. His monumental Principles of psycology describes the stream of thought. He theorized the stream of consciousness, to illustrate the way in which thoughts and sensations flow freely in the mind, just like a water stream in its river bed.
James William’s writings related to the philosophy of functionalism and pragmatism.
FUNCTIONSLISM:
- James is identified as its early spokesperson
- The functionalist approach analyzed the function and purpose of mind and behaviour
- Rather than the structure of the mind, functionalism was interested in mental processes and their relation to behaviour
- Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection was very influential on the establishment of functionalism.
- William James became the major proponent of the scientific changing of the function of mind and behaviour
- In the Principles of Psychology he elucidated his functionalist insight into such subjects as consciousness, habit, and emotion.
PRAGMATISM:
- The philosophy of pragmatism reveals the underpinnings of functionalism’s focus on practical applications and purposes in psychology
- Interests in the practical aim (reality) of a thought instead of its structure or its way to be
- Only studying the reality (not theory or contemplation) we can say something interesting about truth