I have in mind Henry and William James, two immensely creative brothers from Boston back around the turn of the 20th Century. Henry settled down right off to become a very creative and well-known literary author of such books as The Americans, The Europeans, The Portrait of a Lady, Daisy Miller, The Wings of the Dove, and my favorite short stories “The Turn of the Screw” and “The Rocking Horse Winner”.
William, on the other hand, took quite some time to find himself as a first-rate American philosopher. After having spent several years in South America as part of an archaeological team he dove into, and actually helped create the field known today as psychology. He then studied and taught medicine at Harvard University and eventually became the initial professor of philosophy there. He is most well-known for writing the first real textbook in psychology, Principles of Psychology. Finally, James settled down as a professor of philosophy at Harvard.
Indeed, he is even more well-known for his “invention” of the first real American school of philosophy called “Pragmatism”, and for his highly influential book by that name. James drew on the work of one C.S. Peirce and inspired the great American philosopher and educational theorist, John Dewy. James was an outspoken and robust thinker who loved to hike in the mountains of new England. He travelled all over the world spreading his particular American way of doing philosophy.
The heart of James’ philosophical approach was to focus on the meaning of the Greek term “pragma”, which means “things accomplished.” In his view the real significance of any thought is to be found in what it actually leads to in action. If one wants to understand what an idea means one must look to the actions to which it leads. James likened knowledge to a long hallway off of which there are numerous rooms, various fields of study. The hallway itself, however, is simply the search for what difference any given idea makes in any of these fields. Pragmatism insists that the meaning and truth of any idea lies in the difference it makes in life.
If, for instance, one wants to know the meaning of the term ‘hot’, or whether a given item is itself hot, the only way to really find out is to put it to the test of practical experience, namely measure or touch it. If two ideas, for instance, turn out to have the same practical results, then they mean the same thing. If one wants to understand an idea or theory one must put it to the test by experiencing it. If one wants to know if this key is the key to a given door, then one must try it and find out. If it opens the door, if it “works”, then for all practical purposes it is the key, it is “true”, and if not, it is not the key, it is “false.”
James became keenly interested in testing his theory on what we call psychic phenomena, especially those that pertain to the possibility of life after death and religious experience. He helped found and fund organizations which explored such phenomena and did so himself in limited ways. Although ralph Waldo Emerson can lay some claim to being the first American philosopher, it may be more truthfully said that William James was indeed America’s first real philosopher. Indeed, “Pragmatism” is generally thought to be America’s first, and perhaps, its only genuine original contribution to the field of philosophy. Thus, William James would seem to be its first genuine philosopher.