ABSTRACT
In 1873 James became instructor in anatomy and physiology at Harvard, but his main focus of attention was already turning in the direction of psychology and philosophy. In 1875 he offered his …rst course in psychology at Harvard and established the …rst psychology research laboratory in America (1875 was also the year that Wundt established the …rst psychology research laboratory in Europe). In 1876 James became assistant professor of physiology. He married Alice Gibbons in 1878, and over the following years the husband and wife raised …ve children. In 1878 also James wrote a treatise on psychology. In 1879 he offered his …rst course in philosophy. It was also in 1879 that he published the paper, “The Sentiment of Rationality” in which psychology and philosophy are closely intertwined. After 1879 James’s attention was totally absorbed by psychology and philosophy. In 1880 he became assistant professor of philosophy at Harvard. By 1885 he had become full professor of philosophy. In 1890 James’s …rst major published work appeared: The Principles of Psychology. In 1892 he published Psychology: the Briefer Course, which soon became known as “the Jimmy” on account of its ability to open up the meaning of the earlier and much larger book. Soon James was as hard at work on philosophy as was on empirical psychology. The Will to Believe and Other Essays on Popular Philosophy was published in 1897. In 1899 his interest in education resulted in Talks to Teachers. In 1901 and 1902 James gave the Gifford Lectures in Edinburgh. These lectures were published as The Varieties of Religious Experience. In 1906 he gave the Lowell Lectures at Harvard; these were published as Pragmatism. In 1908 at Oxford he gave the Hibbert Lectures, which were published as A Pluralistic Universe. In 1909 he attempted to clarify his much criticized – and in James’s view much misunderstood – ideas about truth in Pragmatism by publishing a new work on truth called The Meaning of Truth. James died of heart disease on August 26, 1910.
