WJ's correspondence "arrestingly profound": Emma Sutton

"...My favorite work in American philosophy is the twelve-volume collection of The Correspondence of William James. For me his landmark publications, The Principles of Psychology, The Varieties of Religious Experience, and Pragmatism etc., are like the studio photographs of his era; they preserve one moment in his thinking, carefully staged and curated for public viewing; but his letters are more akin to home movies, less polished and professional but also more revealing. Owing to their frequency and intimacy, they capture James’s philosophy in motion and, crucially, in context; the juxtapositions of his comments and ideas are frequently gossipy, humorous, and mundane but at the same time arrestingly profound.

In place of recommended reading, I’d like to propose some recommended viewing! I recently watched this video of a talk by James scholar Ariel Dempsey. She’s a medic and dancer who is currently carrying out research for her PhD on James’s ideas about living with uncertainty, with the aim of enriching medical approaches to end-of-life care. (Her focus on the difficulties of coping with uncertainty also, I’d suggest, has practical applications within the field of mental health more generally.)

She performs some of her own choreography as part of her presentation, and this type of embodied philosophical enactment is appealing on many levels, not least its valuable public engagement potential. In his essay on the “The Gospel of Relaxation,” James himself began unpacking the links between emotion, body and gesture, and his embedding of emotion and feeling into the project of philosophy is well known. It seems to me that there is much to be gained, in practice and pedagogy, from moving beyond text and brain-based conceptions of philosophy and into a realm of whole-body thinking." 

--Emma Sutton

https://american-philosophy.org/i-am-an-american-philosopher-emma-sutton/

William James Society - A Note from the President

 Now, to work on that Presidential Address in D.C. in March...

William James Society

A Note from the President: Happy New Chapter!

Welcome to the William James Society, members old, new, and prospective. I greet you at the dawn of the next quarter-century of our organization’s history. I was honored to be here in the beginning as an inaugural board member, and am humbled to be here now as president in 2025-6.

On behalf of the society I invite you to (re-)join our growing, pluralistic community. We reflect various backgrounds, disciplines, and traditions. Some are institutionally affiliated scholars, others are independent. But all share the belief that William James’s philosophical and humanistic legacy offers something crucial our time desperately needs.

The future is (as ever) uncertain but, we Jamesians believe, is also malleable and at least partly, potentially responsive to our most thoughtful and committed exertions in the present. “The really vital question for us all,” he said, “is What is this world going to be? What is life eventually to make of itself?”

James also liked to say life feels like a “real fight,” not a mere game of inconsequential “private theatricals from which one may withdraw at will.” That rings at least as true in 2025 as it must have in 1884, when in Dilemma of Determinism he sought to rally his peers to the spirit of “meliorism”–of trying to improve the human prospect, without any advance guarantees of success.

But because James was a happy fighter, a seeker and celebrant of what he called our “springs of delight,” I think an organization devoted to promoting his distinctive mode of thought and action must also court joy, hope, and a resolute resilience in the face of whatever hard challenges await us.

And because he was a pluralistic humanist, we should also embrace his philosophy of ‘co’: “The pluralistic form [of philosophy] takes for me a stronger hold on reality than any other philosophy I know of, being essentially a social philosophy, a philosophy of ‘co’…”

As so, my fellow James Society cohorts, we can afford neither of the twin luxuries of excessive optimism or pessimism in these challenging times. Neither of those attitudes can summon our best efforts. Let us get on with doing our small bit to try and build a better world.

The great essayist E. B. White said “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” Hard, sure. But a Jamesian will insist on both.

So let us be meliorists. And let us have a good time doing it.

Happy New Year!

Phil Oliver
President, William James Society

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About WJS

Membership in the Society is open to anyone interested in issues related to the thought and character of William James, and joins you to a growing community of scholars and others with related academic interests.

The William James Society (WJS) is a multidisciplinary professional society which supports the study of, and communication about, the life and work of William James (1842-1910) and his ongoing influence in the many fields to which he contributed.

The William James Society was founded in 1999 by Randall Albright and quickly grew to include members from across the USA and around the world. In 2001, the Society ratified an organizational constitution, held its first annual meeting, and elected executive offices. For many years, WJS published the in-house newsletter and scholarly outlet Streams of William James. In 2006, the society shifted gears and began publishing the academic, peer reviewed, online journal William James Studies.

Joining the Society helps to fund the following:The offering of the annual WJS YOUNG SCHOLAR PRIZE.
Co-hosting academic panels at:The American Philosophical Association
The American Academy of Religion
Society for the Advancement of Philosophy
European Pragmatism Conference
Making and making freely available our online journal: William James Studies.

If you are also interested in the life and work of William James, we hope that you will consider joining us in our endeavors.

https://wjsociety.org/