William James

American philosopher and psychologist (1842–1910), founder (with Peirce) of pragmatism and author of The Principles of Psychology (1890), The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), and Pragmatism (1907). In the wiki he enters as Bergson's pragmatist ally and correspondent: the James–Bergson letters of 1907 are included in the Landes edition of Creative Evolution, and James was writing an introduction to the first English translation of the book at the time of his death in 1910.

Key Points

  • "A death-wound upon Intellectualism." James's 1907 letter greets Creative Evolution as "a marvel": "the vital achievement of the book is that it inflicts an irrecoverable death-wound upon Intellectualism." He singles out Bergson's reduction of "finality," as usually taken, to "its status alongside of efficient causality, as the twin-daughters of intellectualism."
  • "Tychism" and "a really growing world." James reads CE as the strong form of his own commitment to a genuinely open, creative, indeterminate reality ("I feel that at bottom we are fighting the same fight, you a commander, I in the ranks").
  • A candid criticism. The élan vital is, James warns, "all contentless and vague as you are obliged to leave it... an easy substitute to make fun of"; and the discussion of nonentity (the idea of nothingness) seemed "somewhat overelaborated."
  • The truth question. James held "truth itself is mutable"; Bergson, in reply, "believe[s] in the mutability of reality rather than that of truth" — locating a real divergence between pragmatism and Bergsonism over the status of truth. (Bergson wrote the introduction to the 1911 French translation of Pragmatism.)
  • James "could not put down" Pragmatism's companion in Bergson; the mutual admiration is genuine, the philosophical differences real.

Connections

  • corresponded with henri-bergson — the 1907 letters; mutual admiration over Creative Evolution and Pragmatism.
  • is an ally-critic of elan-vital — endorses the anti-intellectualist thrust, faults the élan as "contentless and vague."
  • contrasts with henri-bergson on truth — "truth is mutable" (James) vs. "the mutability of reality rather than truth" (Bergson).
  • appears in bergson-1907-creative-evolution — the correspondence dossier.

Open Questions

  • The precise relation of Jamesian pragmatism to Bergsonism: allies against "intellectualism," but divided over whether truth (not just reality) is mutable. A fuller audit would need James's Pragmatism and Bergson's 1911 introduction to it (not in raw/).
  • Deleuze (1960) notes James "also tried to define philosophy as perception, but with the same flaws as other philosophers" — the Bergson/James relation as seen from the later French reception is untracked.

Sources

  • bergson-1907-creative-evolution — the James–Bergson correspondence (1907), included in the Landes edition: James's letter from Chocorua (June 13, 1907) and Bergson's reply (June 27, 1907).