Western Philosophy PDF EPUB

A Pluralistic Universe

Pages: 176

Read online EPUB Download Save

About this book

Delivered as the Hibbert Lectures at Oxford in 1908, this late work finds James arguing against the tidy monism of absolute idealism, the belief that reality forms one seamless whole governed by a single Absolute. In its place he defends a pluralistic view: a universe still in the making, loosely connected, genuinely open to chance and human effort. He engages closely with Hegel, Fechner, and especially Bergson, and reaches toward a philosophy that treats experience as continuous and lived rather than frozen into concepts. The lectures are personal and conversational, closer to thinking aloud than to building a system. This free PDF and EPUB edition gathers one of the clearest statements of James's mature metaphysics.

About the author

William James

William James (1842-1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist, a founder of pragmatism and modern psychology, whose vivid, accessible writing made him one of America's most influential thinkers.