Robert J. O'Connell
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823217274
- eISBN:
- 9780823284962
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823217274.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter explores what William James has written about the various strata of the passional, and suggests ways in which his central thesis can be salvaged from the shipwreck of epistemological ...
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This chapter explores what William James has written about the various strata of the passional, and suggests ways in which his central thesis can be salvaged from the shipwreck of epistemological irresponsibility. James points out that, between one person and another, there are varieties of the passional nature: there are different temperaments, mental tempers, emotional constitutions, and they guide the “whole man” to “insist upon being spoken to by the universe” in some particular key. These differences in people's individual passional natures, in other words, prod them toward different attributions of interest and importance, and therefore toward different over-beliefs.Less
This chapter explores what William James has written about the various strata of the passional, and suggests ways in which his central thesis can be salvaged from the shipwreck of epistemological irresponsibility. James points out that, between one person and another, there are varieties of the passional nature: there are different temperaments, mental tempers, emotional constitutions, and they guide the “whole man” to “insist upon being spoken to by the universe” in some particular key. These differences in people's individual passional natures, in other words, prod them toward different attributions of interest and importance, and therefore toward different over-beliefs.
