ABSTRACT
After reviewing what James meant by “mind” and “body,” this chapter reviews the three different stories that he tells in The Principles of Psychology regarding the relationship between mind and body. One story keeps mind and body apart in deference to methodological principle; the second depicts their interaction as a concession to common sense and linguistic convenience; and the third erases any clear-cut distinction between them as a result of close observations of experience. The latter story, whether seen as “proto-phenomenological” or “a maverick version” of “identity-philosophy,” points forward to James’s later radical empiricism, toward which he was already aiming even before he had determined all its consequences for an understanding of mind and body. The chapter also treats James’s discussion of aspects of the body and brain that are relevant to psychology, his views on the nature of mind or consciousness, and the role of consciousness as an “organ” of the body.
