As mentioned in a previous post, I am co-teaching a course this fall (entitled Philosophical Psychology) in which we have adopted William James' (1890) Principles of Psychology as our chief text.  In preparation, I am working my way through the entire book this summer.  This reading project is guided by three questions:

1) How does James conceive the discipline of psychology? 

2) In a NYT article (that Gregg forwarded to members of this listserv), David Brooks included William James on his list of "personalists."   If personalism "is a philosophic tendency built on the infinite uniqueness and depth of each person" (Brooks), in what respect(s) does The Principles of Psychology offer a personalistic account of the human organism?  

3) Is there an ethics implicit in Principles of Psychology?   [If so, how might it be characterized?]

Chapter 1 of The Principles of Psychology offers a sketch of James' conception of psychology as a scholarly discipline.  I consider this chapter to be a self-standing document (even as I imagine that subsequence sections of the text will enrich his opening reflections).  My outline of this introductory material is included in the attachment entitled "Principles of Psychology Chapter 1"

My approach to studying the remainder of the text will not take the form of a page-by-page outline.  Rather, what I'm trying to do is identify the conceptual "seeds" that seem most likely to bear fruit (in light of the concerns guiding my reading).  The second attachment (labelled "An Exploration of James' Principles of Psychology") represents my attempt to highlight those aspects of James' discussion in chapters 2-8 that seem most relevant to the questions posed above.  This document does not presume familiarity with The Principles of Psychology.   I make heavy use of quotations from James' text and I try to clarify passages that strike me as obscure (yet important).   Participants on this listserv might be especially interested in (a) James' distinction between knowledge of acquaintance and knowledge-about (p. 2), and (b) the discussion of sources of error in psychology, including (1) the misleading influence of language (p. 3), and the so-called Psychologist's Fallacy (pp. 3-6).  

Please note that this is a work in progress (subject to revision based on feedback from others and my continued study of the text).   

My reading schedule for the remainder of the summer is as follows: 

P.S., The complete text of The Principles of Psychology is available online here: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/index.htm

I am using the following print edition: