Overview

In this insightful new book on the remarkable William James, the American psychologist and philosopher, Krister Dylan Knapp provides the first deeply historical and acutely analytical account of James's psychical research. While showing that James always maintained a critical stance toward claims of paranormal phenomena like spiritualism, Knapp uses new sources to argue that psychical research held a strikingly central position in James's life. It was crucial to his familial and professional relationships, the fashioning of his unique intellectual disposition, and the shaping of his core doctrines, especially the will-to-believe, empiricism, fideism, and theories of the subliminal consciousness and immortality. Knapp explains how and why James found in psychical research a way to rethink the well-trodden approaches to classic Euro-American religious thought, typified by the oppositional categories of natural vs. supernatural and normal vs. paranormal. He demonstrates how James eschewed these choices and instead developed a tertiary synthesis of them, an approach Knapp terms tertium quid, the third way. Situating James's psychical research in relation to the rise of experimental psychology and Protestantism's changing place in fin de siecle America, Knapp asserts that the third way illustrated a much broader trend in transatlantic thought as it struggled to navigate the uncertainties and religious adventurism of the modern age.

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9781469668758

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A well-written and detailed account of the place and trajectory of psychical research in James's thought.--The Journal of American History An impressively researched and clearly written analysis that examines neglected ways that James's psychical research influenced his philosophical, scientific, and religious ideas.--American Historical Review Brilliantly solidifies James's stature as a philosophical psychologist who pioneered the understanding of 'exceptional mental states.' Highly recommended.--Choice Essential reading for anyone who wishes to have a thorough understanding of James's work in psychology and philosophy, or to assess his substantial contributions to psychical research.--Fortean Times If the reader is interested in James or psychic phenomena this book has a lot to offer; and if the reader is interested in both, it is an essential guide to the profound relationship between James and psychical research.--Self & Society Knapp offers a thoughtful and well-argued analysis of the increasing centrality of subjectivity that permeates James's thought, informed his vision of reality as flexible and fluid, and defines him as a proto-modernist.--Bulletin of the History of Medicine Knapp painstakingly demonstrates just how much time James devoted to psychical research (perhaps more than to any other individual endeavor) and how the lessons James drew from that subject informed several of his key doctrines.--Reading Religion

A well-written and detailed account of the place and trajectory of psychical research in James's thought.""--The Journal of American History If the reader is interested in James or psychic phenomena this book has a lot to offer; and if the reader is interested in both, it is an essential guide to the profound relationship between James and psychical research.""--Self and Society An impressively researched and clearly written analysis that examines neglected ways that James's psychical research influenced his philosophical, scientific, and religious ideas.--American Historical Review Brilliantly solidifies James's stature as a philosophical psychologist who pioneered the understanding of 'exceptional mental states.' Highly recommended.--Choice Essential reading for anyone who wishes to have a thorough understanding of James's work in psychology and philosophy, or to assess his substantial contributions to psychical research.--Fortean Times Knapp offers a thoughtful and well-argued analysis of the increasing centrality of subjectivity that permeates James's thought, informed his vision of reality as flexible and fluid, and defines him as a proto-modernist.--Bulletin of the History of Medicine Knapp painstakingly demonstrates just how much time James devoted to psychical research (perhaps more than to any other individual endeavor) and how the lessons James drew from that subject informed several of his key doctrines.--Reading Religion

If the reader is interested in James or psychic phenomena this book has a lot to offer; and if the reader is interested in both, it is an essential guide to the profound relationship between James and psychical research.--Self & Society A well-written and detailed account of the place and trajectory of psychical research in James's thought.--The Journal of American History An impressively researched and clearly written analysis that examines neglected ways that James's psychical research influenced his philosophical, scientific, and religious ideas.--American Historical Review Knapp offers a thoughtful and well-argued analysis of the increasing centrality of subjectivity that permeates James's thought, informed his vision of reality as flexible and fluid, and defines him as a proto-modernist.--Bulletin of the History of Medicine Knapp painstakingly demonstrates just how much time James devoted to psychical research (perhaps more than to any other individual endeavor) and how the lessons James drew from that subject informed several of his key doctrines.--Reading Religion Brilliantly solidifies James's stature as a philosophical psychologist who pioneered the understanding of 'exceptional mental states.' Highly recommended.--Choice Essential reading for anyone who wishes to have a thorough understanding of James's work in psychology and philosophy, or to assess his substantial contributions to psychical research.--Fortean Times

Author Information

Krister Dylan Knapp is senior lecturer in the department of history at Washington University in St. Louis.

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