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3.0 out of 5 stars
Ask your mother if you should read this, August 3, 2004
This review is from: Essays in Religion and Morality (Works of William James) (Hardcover)
William James is one of the most famous American philosophers to spend a considerable amount of time at Harvard University as a professor. This book has 173 pages of writings and speeches (he gave an address in Concord when it observed the centenary of the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson on May 25, 1903) by William James, followed on pages 177-334 by notes, ending with a note that the word dish-|washing was broken at the end of the first line on page 172 in `The Moral Equivalent of War' just as it was in the copy-text.
The James family had a number of famous writers, and some publisher is probably still selling novels and stories that William's brother Henry had not finished when he died, so I had not expected the first essay, `Introduction to The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James' to be about William's father Henry, author of SOCIETY THE REDEEMED FORM OF MAN, supposedly the confessions of Stephen Dewhurst, who is revealed here to be `an entirely fictitious personage.' (p. 3). William recognized the main emphasis of his father as theology and wrote, `Probably few authors have so devoted their entire lives to the monotonous elaboration of one single bundle of truths.' (p. 4). Regarding a huge source for his ideas, William reported, `Many disciples of Swedenborg, wielding high authority, say there is no warrant in the master's pages for Mr. James's views. It is certain, to say the very least, that Mr. James has given to the various elements in Swedenborg's teaching an extremely different accentuation and perspective relation to each other, from anything other readers have been able to find.' (p. 59).
Those who seek irony in divine appreciation of the human situation might like a few lines the older Henry James wrote about Jesus: `I find no trace of any other man who felt himself called upon by the tenderest human love to loathe and disavow the proud and yearning bosom that bore him. I find no other man in history whose profound reverence for infinite goodness and truth drove him to renounce the religion of his fathers, simply because that religion contemplated his own supreme aggrandizement; and whose profound love of man drove him to renounce . . ." (pp. 57-58).
The speech which follows, `Robert Gould Shaw: Oration by Professor William James,' on pages 64-74 describes the attack by the first Northern Negro regiment on Fort Wagner one evening, and his glory to be buried in a trench by the Confederates the next morning.
`Preface to Second Edition' for HUMAN IMMORTALITY follows that, then the original lecture on pages 77-101. Similar topics fill `Preface to Starbuck's PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION' (pp. 102-104), `Preface to Lutoslawski's WORLD OF SOULS' (pp. 105-108), and `Introduction to Fechner's LIFE AFTER DEATH' (pp. 116-119). War is the main topic of `Remarks at the Peace Banquet' (pp. 120-123), which strongly asserted `The plain truth is that people want war.' (p. 122). But William James still praises the country that `knows that between civilized countries a war is a crime against civilization.' (p. 123). Trying to distinguish `Reason and Faith' (pp. 124-128), William James still questions `what is the use of only half-killing your enemy?' (p. 125).
`The Energies of Man' (pp. 129-146) might be read to find the ways in which William James shared the same concerns as new age practices which became popular among baby boomers later in the twentieth century. `From time immemorial, by Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, or whatever code of practice it might be, Hindu aspirants to perfection have trained themselves, month in and month out, for years.' (pp. 136-137). James had more interest when `some unusual stimulus fills us with emotional excitement' (p. 132), as the letter James read describing the state of mind and body of Colonel Baird Smith during `the six weeks' siege of Delhi in 1857' (p. 134) in which `Colonel Baird Smith, needing to draw on altogether extraordinary stores of energy, found that brandy and opium were ways of throwing them into gear.' (p. 136). More generally, `There is no doubt that to some men sprees and excesses of almost any kind are medicinal, temporarily at any rate, in spite of what the moralists and doctors say.' (p. 136).
`The Powers of Men' (pp. 147-161) managed to repeat what is quoted above about Colonel Baird Smith, `that brandy and opium were ways of throwing them into gear.' (p. 155).
Finally, `The Moral Equivalent of War' (pp. 162-173) set the standard for Harvard professors hopping, skipping, and jumping around on this issue. War is `a sacred spiritual possession worth more than all the blood poured out.' (p. 162). History from the ancient Greeks and Romans to 1898 runs from `The cruelty of those times was incredible" (p. 164) to `The pliant politician McKinley was swept away by their eagerness, and our squalid war with Spain became a necessity.' (p. 164). Calling himself a `pacifist tho' I am,' (p. 165) he still had to admit, `All reflective apologists for war at the present day take it religiously. It is to them a sort of sacrament; . . .' (p. 165). James could imagine, with the help of a recent book, THE VALOR OF IGNORANCE by General Homer Lea, Japan claiming `the entire Pacific Ocean; and to oppose these deep designs we Americans have, according to our author, nothing but our conceit, our ignorance, our commercialism, our corruption, and our feminism.' (p. 167). James thought the argument could be met as a typical controversy in which, once a Harvard professor had managed to move the point, any logical opponent would follow wherever the discussion might lead. Grab onto Tolstoy's pacifism which `makes the fear of the Lord furnish the moral spur provided elsewhere by the fear of the enemy.' (p. 169). Would this work now that we need an argument better than Osama bin Laden, since having better bombs really doesn't seem to work?
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