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Outline on James
on Pragmatism
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PRAGMATISM IS A DECISION MAKING PROCESS WHICH RESULTS IN ACTIONS
THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE IMMEDIATE, REAL WORLD |
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James tried to answer philosophical questions in pragmatic, that is,
practical terms |
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James believed that every difference in thinking must make a difference
to someone, somewhere |
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For pragmatists, for a decision to be made in pragmatic terms means
that the outcome must be measurable, important to someone, & relatively
short term |
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James published Pragmatism: A New Name for Old Ways of Thinking,
1907, where he summed up his epoch making theory of the method know as
pragmatism, a term first used by physicist Charles S. Peirce |
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James generalized the pragmatic method, developing it from a critique
of the logical basis of the sciences into a critique of all scientific
& common experience |
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Pragmatism is a general theory of theory criticism, as an attempt to
make clear what we are actually committed to by the theories / thoughts
we entertain |
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For James, pragmatism moves investigation beyond simple rationalism,
or logical inquiry, to include empirical investigation, i.e. the testing
of rational propositions |
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Pragmatism assumes that 'knowledge,' 'truth,' & 'meaning,' as well
as other objects of discourse or phil discussion must be explainable as
a natural process or as a functional medley or competition of natural processes |
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James sought meaning in experienced facts & plans of action |
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James looked to the concrete, immediate, practical level of experience
as the testing ground of our intellectual efforts |
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PRAGMATISM'S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE IS 'PERSPECTIVAL' |
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For James, pragmatism is based on empiricism, i.e. observation, but
it is not the pure empiricism which holds we can observe objectively, w/o
influence |
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For James pragmatism is not objective but perspectival because we should
recognized that the perspective of each observer in history does affect
their observation |
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The world is a plurality of temporal processes related in so many specifiable
ways that it cannot be accounted for by abstract speculation alone |
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Reality dictates the method by which it / truth may be known |
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Theories of knowledge & method, existing at a high level of abstraction,
are bent to the fact of experience breaking in upon us |
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James distinguished btwn rationalism & empiricism calling the former
tender minded temperament & the latter tough minded temperament |
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TRUTH IS JUDGED IN THE USEFULNESS OR ACTUAL CONSEQUENCES OF A THING
OR ACTION |
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The truth or validity of a proposition does not involve any correspondence
w/ a preexistent world, but only its ability to guide man to certain expected
experiences |
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If two theories differ, the difference becomes clear when we know: |
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a. how they differ over what the facts are |
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b. the difference in our behavior if we believe that one
or the other is true |
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For James the chief virtue of the pragmatic account of truth was that
it made phil speculation concrete & gave its adherents a creed to live
by |
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The value of ideas are found only in terms of their usefulness or actual
consequences |
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James took the practice of pragmatism into the social sciences by applying
it to social relationships |
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James held that the interrelations, whether they serve to hold things
together or apart, are just as real as the things themselves |
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WE HAVE FREE WILL IF WE MAKE DECISIONS & ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR
THE OUTCOMES |
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One person may claim that people are free & can make real choices |
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Another may claim that people are not free because all human decisions
& actions are determined by factors beyond their control |
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These claims cannot both be true |
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Therefore, according to James, we must find a way to decide between
them because our conduct depends on which we adopt |
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James proposed that we approach such questions by tracing the consequences
of each viewpoint |
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If we are free, we can make decisions & we are responsible for
our actions |
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We can regret some of our actions & can say that the world would
be better if such actions had not been carried out |
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If we are not free, we do not choose our actions & we are not responsible
for our actions, & it makes no sense to speak about something happening
differently from the way it did happen |
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BELIEF MATTERS BECAUSE IN INCREASES OUR POWER TO ACHIEVE REAL ENDS |
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James did not claim to have solved difficult philosophical problems
for all time |
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James was opposed to absolute conceptions & lectured polemically
against monism |
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James tried to put phil problems into a form that would make it easier
for people to solve the problems for themselves |
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All people, James believed, must make up their own minds on issues
of human life & destiny that cannot be settled on scientific grounds |
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James wrote a famous essay called 'The Will to Believe' (1896) |
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'The Will to Believe' states that if we believe in the possibility
of some future event taking place, this belief increases our power to help
make the event happen when the time comes for action |
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Thus, for James, the will to believe, in pragmatic terms, is useful
because it has observable outcomes |
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Internal
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Outline on James
on Pragmatic Truth
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THE TRUTH IS WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS OR EXISTS BASED ON EXPERIENCING
REAL OUTCOMES |
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James' pragmatism is an attempt ot formulate a metaphysics of truth
& meaning |
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By metaphysics James meant the quest for descriptions of either reality
as a whole or of some distinguishable part of it |
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The descriptions offered by metaphysics are continuous w/ those offered
by science, although their range & focus may differ |
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The distinction btwn science & metaphysics was not crucial for
James in that he saw the possibility of unrestricted discussion & cooperation
exactly where later thinkers are likely to see division & competition
for cognitive respectability |
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James' view of truth is the same as, for example, geology's description
of continental drift |
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Truth is the characterization of natural processes which attempts to
portray what actually happens or exists as measured by experienced real
outcomes |
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WE OUGHT TO BELIEVE WHAT ACTUALLY MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN REAL LIFE |
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For James, people have always unwittingly followed the 'pragmatic method' |
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A purely theoretical illumination like pragmatism will indeed clarify
practice & improve it |
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Pragmatism discusses truth w/o falling into the epistemological frame
of mind as the philosophers had done |
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James' description of actual processes rejects the usual question of
what we ought to believe |
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If there is something we ought to believe, the authority of the 'ought'
itself must be explained concretely |
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There is no authority which is merely formal / theoretical & therefore
the justification of truth's prestige is in terms of the practical consequences
in the world |
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The function of phil ought to be to find out what definite difference
it will make to you & me, at definite instances of our life, if this
world formula or that world formula be the true one |
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TRUTH'S AUTHORITY LIES IN IT'S USEFULNESS IN ASSISTING SURVIVAL |
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Truth is what we must take acct of if we are not to perish |
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People cannot in the long run believe what is false not because truth
extracts from them a categorical imperative in its own behalf but because
reality compels people in spite of themselves & it is from this that
the authority of truth is derived |
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Agreement w/ reality as a criterion of truth cannot be taken to indicate
any fixed structural relation such as the copy / mirror conception of truth
because the pragmatist views truth changing over time, just as does reality |
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Truth is characterized not by stasis but by the fluid resourcefulness
of functional harmony |
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The character of the harmony itself may be anything that is compatible
w/ survival |
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James recognized that in the Darwinian world, there is more than one
way to survive |
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TRUTH ONLY MATTERS TO HUMANS; THERE IS NO TRANSCENDENT TRUTH |
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Raw compulsion may acct for the authority of truth, but truth is more
than trial & error |
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People create truth & truth is so much the result of human activity
that James' view has been called humanism |
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Central to James' humanism is the distinction btwn ideas & objects,
btwn what takes acct of, & what is taken acct of, the subject &
the object |
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Objects are the 'unhumanized fringe' yet to be conceptualized |
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Truth & falsity apply not to objects but only our ideas of objects |
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Our ideas of objects are changeable in the sense that we can modify
ideas or replace one idea by another |
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THERE ARE DEGREES OF TRUTH |
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Ideas like all judgments fall btwn the ideal limits of complete good
& complete bad & there are the limits & degrees btwn the limits
of complete truth & complete falsity |
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Truth is one species of the good & good is interpreted as a plurality
of 'good fors' |
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Ideas are instruments for taking acct theoretically, practically, aesthetically,
& so on, of reality |
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TRUTH IS AN 'INVENTION' IN THAT IT IS A TOOL TO ASSIST US |
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Bergson suggest in The Creative Mind that truth is to be described
as an invention rather than a discovery |
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There are causal / relational connections btwn inventions like electricity
& light bulbs, just as there are connections btwn things in reality
in general, just as there are connections btwn truths |
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Inventions are conventional but not arbitrary |
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They are not arbitrary because they must somehow take acct of reality,
they are conventional because they embody one way among alternatives for
that taking acct |
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TRUTH IS A TOOL FOR HUMAN SUCCESS BASED ON NATURAL PROCESSES WHICH
PEOPLE EXPERIENCE |
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Two processes w/in experience constitutes truth, including:
a. the inventive process or activity or proposing, of
framing propositions
b. the particular chain of natural processes w/ which
the proposition in question is concerned |
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The emphasis on the truth relation as a relation w/in experience &
totally constructable in terms of 'positive experienceable operation' is
one example of James' position that all relations are w/in experience |
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Experience forms a cohesive, self explanatory whole |
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Experience 'hangs together' in that it does not need transcendental
connectives or supports visa vie Kant |
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TRUTH IS PRACTICAL, NOT TRANSCENDENT |
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Truth was taken by James' contemporaries as transcending experience,
as an absolute that encompassed all reality for all time |
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James' pragmatic truth is based on his 'radical empiricism' where we
rely on experience / observation while realizing that our theories impact
what & how we observe |
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True ideas are those that we observe to have the practical consequences
in that they work, they lead, they satisfy, they bring success, they make
a practical difference, they have 'cash value' |
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The phrase 'cash value' which James used to describe one type of pragmatic
outcome shocked some of his followers |
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The practical consequences of working, leading, success, difference,
value are all concepts which James carefully explored & explained |
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The practical consequences of truth are functional rather than static |
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JAMES' CONCEPTION OF PRAGMATIC TRUTH SEEMS TOO NARROW TO SOME PEOPLE |
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Some see the functional definition of truth as vague, but this is not
insurmountable |
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Some have criticized pragmatism as embracing a narrow notion of commercial
efficiency but this is a misrepresentation |
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James saw the tendency to idolized success as a weakness in the American
character |
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James believed that meaningful ideas should make a difference |
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Belief divorced from action is morally weak |
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Belief divorced from action is theoretically corrupt for we cannot
know / experience things w/o action |
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James' quest was not the development of a formula which would rouse
people to civic virtue or efficiency of some peculiarly American sore |
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James' purpose was to find out what it means to believe, what it means
to entertain ideas which amy be meaningful & true |
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Internal
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Outline on James
on Description
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SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY BEGINS W/ DESCRIPTION & CLASSIFICATION |
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James' Principles of Psychology, 1890, is primarily a descriptive
work in that he gathers facts that that never appeared in either psych
or phil |
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For James, pure description in the manner of phenomenology is impossible |
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Description cannot be other than conceptual |
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Concepts are tools of classification that have inexpugnable, conventional,
& theoretical elements |
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Concepts do not passively mirror; they select according to human interests
& purposes |
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Assumptions estb themselves in the very descriptions of phenomenal
facts Naive phenomenology attempts to eliminate assumptions from descriptive
statements |
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Eliminating assumptions is an impossible task because every allegedly
assumption free phenomenology must itself make doubtful assumptions, including
the assumption that there can be description w/o classification |
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James examined the assumptions involved in all descriptions making
those assumptions, & gave an articulate acct of them before letting
them pass |
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Pragmatism in Principles is the spelling out what claims theories
& assumptions make for us & in eliminating elements which are superfluous
elements that can be eliminated w/o changing what we want to say |
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JAMES CRITICIZES PURE LOGIC & PURSUES ACTIVE EXPLORATION VISA
VIE NATURAL SCIENCE |
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Because pure description is impossible, James proceeds to develop the
science of social science by treating it more as a natural science than
as the metaphysical theories from which it arose |
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James explored the distinction btwn a priori, or pure theorizing /
logical inquiry & a posteriori or experimental or pragmatic testing
& determines that the first is not science at all |
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The simple logical inquiry which had been popular in phil for so long
is, for James, metaphysics |
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The Principles is anti metaphysical where metaphysics means
'socialistic rational psychology' or 'philosophical psychology' |
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JAMES' CAVEAT FOR NAT SCIENCE IS THAT KNOWLEDGE IS PROVISIONAL,
NOT ABSOLUTE |
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A posteriori exploration is continuous w/ science & like science
is both descriptive & theoretical |
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Explanation must become more complete & more comprehensive even
if it cannot become total & absolute |
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Positivistic science is embraced, but it is provisional rather than
dogmatic & final |
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If the assumptions of science are left unquestioned, it is able to
accumulate a mass of factual details which lead to an appearance of the
enrichment & 'thickening' of content |
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The danger of leaving the assumptions of science unquestioned is thinness,
impoverishment of content, & abstraction |
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Internal
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Outline on James
on Mind - Body Dualism, Willpower, & Habit
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CONSCIOUSNESS IS TO BE AWARE OF THE SELF, TO SENSE, TO EMOTE, TO
THINK IN SYMBOLS |
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The basic assumption of the Principles of Psychology, 1890,
is the existence of mental states |
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The first task of psychology, i.e. of any science is classification,
which in this case is to describe mental states w/ as much detail &
completeness as possible |
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James begins w/ defining mentality or consciousness |
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Mentality or consciousness in a phenomenon can be observed by the pursuit
of future ends & the choice of means to achieve them |
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In humans, consciousness takes place by means of symbols, in animals,
by trials & errors in the here & now by failures, by new trials
& errors |
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Consciousness is the inward sensing of one's own existence, sensations,
cognition, feeling, etc. |
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To be conscious is to known one's self, to feel, to deliberate |
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James argued that there can be no adequate definition of reason which
ignores the feeling or rationality, the ultimate sense of logical fit |
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MIND BODY DUALISM HOLDS THAT THE MIND & CNS IMPACT EACH OTHER |
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In the mind, actions involving symbolized ends & means may be regarded
as manifestations of mind |
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James' conception of the mind & consciousness presupposes the brain
& the nervous system |
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Nerve centers are organs of consciousness |
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The Principles is an examination of the ways in which various
brain states condition various mental states |
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The search for conditions among bodily experiences generally &
brain experiences particularly is the only alternative to treating mental
states as frankly miraculous |
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James, the evolutionary naturalist, had to maintain that mental states
grow out of physical states |
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Our nervous system prefers some of the sensations it experiences to
others, & if it can remember the preferred sensations it experiences,
& if it can remember the preferred sensations in their absence, they
must be the ends of desire |
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For James, all nerve centers have one essential function, intelligent
action |
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Nerve centers feel, they prefer one thing to another, & they therefore
have 'ends' |
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Since mental states, in addition to arising from physical antecedents,
themselves give rise in all cases to changes in the physical world, it
is impossible to create any kind of dualistic ontological chasm btwn the
2 processes, mental & physical |
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Even Freud acknowledged that all mental states would be, he thought,
reduced to an understanding of physical / biological processes, in the
future, when the tech became available |
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The possibility of reductionism in science does not mean that this
is the most useful type of explanation, & therefore for James one should
guard against the reduction of mental phenomena to nothing but physical
phenomena |
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WILL POWER IS POWER OVER THE PHYSICALITY OF OUR BEING |
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Throughout his career James was concerned w/ the big questions of phil,
& he pursued these through the scientific, pragmatic, methods of social
psychology |
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Two of the big phil questions which concerned James were the nature
of free will & the seemingly deterministic nature of the mechanistic
world; & the nature of the mind - body dualism |
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James developed a view of physical nature at large which was a radical
departure form the familiar, deterministic, mechanical model |
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James' treatment of the will as irreducible to antecedent mech factors
creates a dualistic chasm btwn natural processes & characteristically
human processes |
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Thus for James, will power could not be reduced to physical processes,
because it could & did oppose physical processes |
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The duality of will & the physical, the mind & the brain would
be maintained if James had a traditional view of the mechanistic nature
of reality |
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James would sooner have conceived of all nature as willful, than of
people's will as an exception to nature |
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HABIT: CHARACTERISTIC OR CUSTOMARY CONDITION, CONSTITUTION,
OR MODE OF BEING |
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A habit is characteristic, i.e. is a disposition or tendency constantly
shown to act or think in a certain way esp as acquired by frequent repetition
of the act or thought |
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A habit is a learned, non instinctual pattern form as we contend w/
reality |
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Pierce, Mead, & James all recognize the importance of habits in
understanding human behavior |
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Our plasticity is our human characteristic that makes people capable
of forming a variety of habits |
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Plasticity is a human characteristic, a structure that is weak enough
to yield to influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once |
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Our central nervous system (CNS) is highly plastic, so habit is made
possible by the plasticity of the CNS |
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The CNS grows capacities which have been exercised, just as muscles,
skills, & other human capabilities do |
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HABITS MAKE THOUGHT & BEHAVIOR EASIER & MORE EFFECTIVE |
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As we increase a behavior so that it becomes a habit, the automatic
character of a habit allows us to simplify the action & effort required
to achieve a given result |
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A habit makes a given result more accurate, effective, & reduces
fatigue |
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The effects of habits work for physical activities as well as mental
activities in that if we practice singing, it becomes more second nature,
& if we practice concentration, that too becomes more second nature |
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Without habits, humans would be confined to only a few deeds &
few advancements could take place in our development because each act,
physical or mental, would require relearning, a higher level of effort,
etc. |
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Habit diminishes conscious attn w/ which our acts are performed |
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A strictly voluntary, non habitual act has to be guided by consciousness,
perception, & volition |
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Habit is 'second nature' or automatic |
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Habits are necessary in order to make our nervous system most efficient,
automatic, & repetitive as necessary |
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The more details of daily life we hand over to the effortless custody
of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind are set free |
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WE CAN BREAK BAD HABITS & ESTB GOOD HABITS |
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Since there are bad habits as well as good, James discusses the principle
of breaking a bad habit by 'tapering off' |
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Tapering off is less effective than an abrupt break w/ the past combined
w/ the acquisition of a new good habit |
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New habits can be kept alive by exercising it every day |
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We establish a hell for ourselves by habitually fashioning our character
in the wrong way |
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WE CAN TUNE OUT OUR HABITS & THE ENV |
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For Simmel blase includes such phenomenon in the env as constant noise |
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We have the ability to not even be aware of our own habitual thinking
or activity such as when we are fretting or drumming our fingers &
do not even notice it until someone pts it out to us |
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We can tune out our habits & the env & yet we are aware at
some level of all that goes on |
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An example of tuning habits out while retaining an ultimate awareness
can be seen in the parent sleeping w/ a sick child who is coughing &
wheezing all night, & yet when they give out a unique cry, cough, or
other sound, the parent snaps to wakefulness |
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THE MIND IS ALWAYS ACTIVE |
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By noting our ability to tune in & / or tune out, James demonstrates
that the mind is always active |
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Even in sleep, people have the ability to maintain awareness of a child,
of danger, or of the time, in that most of us can wake at a given time
if we are trained to |
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The constant activity of the mind lead James to 2 important propositions
including that: |
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a. sensibility & reason could not be broken down into
elementary units |
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b. the best metaphor for understanding consciousness was
as a stream of consciousness, not as unitary thoughts |
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Internal
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Outline on Mentality
& Thought
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External
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FEELINGS ARE THE SEEDS OF THOUGHTS |
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The mind has cognitive & emotional relations to other thoughts
& objects & as it knows them, it either welcomes them or rejects
them |
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We have knowledge of acquaintances & knowledge about thoughts &
objects |
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Feelings & thought are opposites |
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Through feelings we become acquainted w/ things |
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Through thoughts we know about things |
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Feelings are the germs & starting pts of cognition, & thoughts
are the developed tree |
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The mental states are usually distinguished as feelings or the emotions,
& the sensations we get from skin, muscles, viscous, eye, ear, nose,
& palate |
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The thoughts are the conceptions & judgments |
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MENTALITY EXISTS WHEN WE HAVE AN EXPERIENCE
& A DECISION |
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The border line of what is or is not mental is vague |
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Mentality exists wherever we find the choice of means for the attainment
of future ends |
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Mental life is purposive in a way which involves the overcoming, through
suitable invention & appropriation of any obstacles lying in the way
of its purpose |
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The mind is a tactical power which reveals itself in the struggle w/
its env |
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The only world where minds can develop is where success is neither
automatic nor impossible |
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An interesting consequence of James' view is that an omnipotent god
could not have a mind; neither could a purely contemplative duty |
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The mind as an instrument w/in the struggle of purpose & resistance
to purpose, a notion which has justly been called 'biological' & Darwinian |
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The relationship of the mind, its env, & the struggle of the mind
over its env is a pragmatic understanding of the relationship btwn will
power & a mechanistic world because it an expression of what we observe
& the outcomes of what we observe |
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Although it is necessary to consider mental states as temporal events
arising in the ordinary course of nature w/ emphasis of their natural antecedents
& results, it is also necessary to consider mental states in themselves
as realities to be described as they are found w/ their generic particularity
& variety intact |
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The acceptance of mental conditions as having physical antecedents,
& yet maintaining an explanation of mental states which is not reductionist
emphasizes James reluctance to offer merely a phenomenology of the mind,
i.e. pure description & his pursuit of an explanation which had meaning,
pragmatic meaning, for people |
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THOUGHT IS PRAGMATIC WHEN IT FOSTERS EFFECTIVENESS |
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The stream of consciousness cannot be evaluated from a simple empirical
pt of view |
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What is described & how it is described are determined by markedly
theoretical affinities & avoidances |
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Though functions to assist us to achieve & sustain satisfactory
relations w/ our surroundings |
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The values of ideas, beliefs, & conceptual dealings is to be determined
accordingly by their effectiveness & efficiency as the means of carrying
us from any one part of our experience to any other part, linking things
satisfactorily, working securely, simplifying, saving labor |
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Our thoughts lead us to what: |
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a. effects of a practical kind we may have about an object |
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b. sensations we are to expect form the object |
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c. reactions we must prepare |
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Thought has the trait that: |
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a. it tends to be part of personal consciousness |
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Thought is not experienced as simply a thought, but as my
thought |
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And indeed, if I speak the same thing as you do, & we believe we
have exactly the same thought, that is highly unusual |
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b. Thought is always changing |
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c. W/in each personal consciousness, thought is sensibly
continuous |
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d. Thought deals w/ objects independent of itself |
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e. Thought is selective & has interests |
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For James, thought is partially determined & partially self determined,
that is centered or focused & essentially temporal |
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Although James' analysis of thought is focused on that process alone,
Whitehead applies a similar structure to all of reality |
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James came to believe that all of reality must be describable
in terms like those used for human experience |
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The entire universe can be seen & understood from a human pt of
view |
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JAMES' PRAGMATISM REFUTES CLASSIC PHIL IDEAS |
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Each of the five pts. James makes about thought repudiates some important
phil position |
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James refutes the classic academic which marshals instances of mental
phenomena according to a priori canons of clarity & rationality, i.e.
is based solely on logic |
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In opposing the classic academic of his time, James is opposing the
spectator theory of knowledge where people are passive in simply retrieving
knowledge from the env |
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For James, we need to actually experience as much as we can, in that
knowledge is based on logic, empiricism / observation, & as direct
experience as possible |
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OUR EXPERIENCE OF A OBJECT IS THE TOTAL REALITY OF THE OBJECT |
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Our experiences of an object, our perception of the outcomes, the effects
is for us the whole of our conception of the object |
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James is solidly in the tradition of empiricism, but he also advances
it |
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Empiricism in the classic British form is essentially an epistemological
position which regards experience as an exclusive witness before a cognitive
tribunal in which other sources of evidence are ruled out of court as uncertain
or unreliable |
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The genius of James' empiricism lies precisely in ruling nothing out
of court |
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James' theory of experience is the first theory which is cosmological,
rather than strictly epistemological, in intention & logical form |
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BELIEFS ARE PRAGMATIC WHEN THEY HAVE A BENEFIT |
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When for a person P,
a belief B answers or satisfies a compelling need
(of P to see or interpret the world in a certain way),
the 'vital good; supplied by B in the life of P
(the difference it makes as a beneficial causal condition in the psychl
& physical behavior of P)
justifies B |
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James argued for the value of a belief only when: |
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a. the choice of B or not B is, for a given individual
at a given time, 'live,' 'forced,' & 'momentous' |
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b. the evidence for or against B is equal or admits of
no rational adjudication of one over the other |
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c. the effect or consequences of B are a 'vital benefit' |
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CONSCIOUSNESS IS AN AWARENESS OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD
& ONE'S OWN MENTAL PROCESSES, THOUGHTS, FEELINGS, & SENSES |
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Psychologists, psychiatrists, & philosophers have held many views
on the nature of the mind, & even today, they still disagree |
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Wundt attempted study the modes of consciousness along the dimension
of intensity but his work ultimately was too subjective |
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Wundt experienced consciousness through introspection |
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James recognized that consciousness is always changing, even for individual,
& thus developed the concept of a stream of consciousness |
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James experienced consciousness like a flowing river of a mental activity,
but you never dip your foot in the same place twice |
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James view of a stream of consciousness was rejected by behaviorists
who believe that consciousness was a mere side effect of human behavior
& mentality |
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Your immediate thoughts, sensations, memories, emotions, & environment
are powerful impacts on consciousness |
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We have some control over consciousness, as when we choose to focus
on our big toe, or a significant person in our life, or the temperature
in the room |
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EARLY THEORIES OF MIND HELD THAT HUMAN BEINGS WERE MADE OF
TWO DIFFERENT SUBSTANCES: MIND & MATTER |
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Matter was something that could be seen & felt; matter occupied
space & had weight while the mind was a substance present in a person,
but it took up no space & could not be weighed, seen, or touched |
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The mind may be divided into several faculties, such as will, reason,
emotional center, & memory |
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Some people thought that the mind, like the muscles, developed through
exercise, & thus, the way to strengthen the mind was to give the faculties
work to do |
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SUM OF CONSCIOUSNESS THEORY VIEWED THE MIND AS A MASS OF
THOUGHTS,
MEMORIES, FEELINGS, & EMOTIONS |
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Some psychologists & philosophers who questioned the mind substance
idea offered the view that mind was the sum total of all a person's conscious
states |
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At any given moment, there would be only a few things in a person's
consciousness, the things to which a person was giving attn; & there
would be some other things of which a person was aware w/o thinking about
them, somewhat as we see things "out of the corner of our eye" |
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Below this level of consciousness would be a whole vast mass made up
of all the conscious states an individual had experienced since birth |
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Whenever a new idea or impression made its way into a person's consciousness,
all earlier impressions like it or in some way related to it were supposed
to rise up into consciousness & welcome the newcomer & in this
way, the mind kept growing & rearranging itself |
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EARLY EXPERIMENTATION BEGAN TO CLARIFY WHAT THE MIND WAS & WAS
NOT |
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During the 1800s, psychologists began to try out some conceptions of
the nature of mind |
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In the 1800s as an experiment, one man set himself the task of memorizing
nonsense syllables over a period of time, & checking how long it took
him each time he tried |
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The memory tester reached the conclusion that a person could memorize
& memorize w/o in any way improving his memory |
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Other psychologists began to ask why it was, if mind & matter were
separate substances, that drugs or illness or a blow on the head could
so greatly disturb a person's mind |
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Early on in the mind brain discussion, scientists wondered why the
mind seemed to fail as people grew very old |
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EXTREME BEHAVIORISM VIEWED THE MIND AS A PURELY
PHYSICAL PHENOMENON, & SCIENTISTS COULD GAIN BY STUDYING THE PHYSICAL
ASPECTS OF THE MIND & IGNORING CONSCIOUSNESS |
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Some of these psychologists, esp behaviorists, went so far as to suggest
that perhaps everything a person did could be explained in terms of the
body, w/o using such ideas as mind or consciousness at all |
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These psychologists held that actual physical movements of the brain
& central nervous system could account for all the events we speak
of as "mental," if only we knew enough about them |
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This theory, sometimes called extreme behaviorism, made rapid headway
among psychologists because of the appeal of focusing on physical aspects
of mentality & psychology |
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The limitations of extreme behaviorism soon became apparent & many
modifications of the original viewpoint have been made resulting in the
behaviorism, cognitive psych, neuro psych, & neuro bio psych we know
today |
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EMERGENT MIND THEORY HOLDS THAT THE CONSCIOUSNESSEMERGES
AS ARE RESULT OF THE PROCESS OF MIND & THE EXTERNAL ENV |
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Another view began to develop, which may be call the emergent mind
theory; it holds that mind, like matter, is just something that happens,
& is not a separate, identifiable thing |
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For example, everyone knows that water is we, but atoms of hydrogen
& oxygen are not wet, & neither are the energy charges that make
them up |
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We can say that wetness is a quality that comes into being when energy
charges, organized in the form of hydrogen & oxygen atoms, are brought
together to form water |
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If we break water down into its parts, the wetness is gone, & so
is the water itself |
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In the same way, mind is a quality that comes into being as people
interact w/ the world around them |
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According to this theory, mind, like wetness, is something that emerges
or comes into being when organisms reach a certain level of complexity
in development |
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TODAY NO SCIENTISTS SEPARATE THE MIND & BODY |
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Most people believe that a practical separation btwn mind & body
is impossible |
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The mind can move the body, as when people decide to flex their muscles |
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Almost any human reaction has both physical & mental sides, so
that people smile w/ pleasure, frown in anger, or quiver w/ fear |
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Physicians tell us that mental states can produce heart disease, kidney
trouble, & other diseases |
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THE BODY MIND CONNECTION IS POWERFUL BUT NOT ALWAYS AS DIRECT
AS ONE MIGHT SUPPOSE |
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The body also affects the mind |
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People can note the difference in their mental state when they are
hungry or well fed, cold or warm, sick or well |
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Certain body movements have been documented to change our mental states
as in the relationship where smiling makes one feel better / happy |
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An example of the body mind connection is that stretching relaxes us |
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It is known also that certain glands have a profound effect upon emotions,
attitudes, & behavior |
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INTERACTION THEORY HOLDS THAT EACH HUMAN BEING IS COMPOSED
OF BOTH BODY & MIND |
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The influence of the mind & the body on each other is difficult
to explain |
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Some people explain it by discarding the mind while others discard
matter in order to explain it |
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A more common-sense view insists that they both exist & interact |
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However, the body & mind are incomplete until they form a unity
called a person, or ego |
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A human being is a single composite substance made up of two distinct
principles . |
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A human being is the person who thinks & remembers, not the mind,
& not the body |
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Outline on James
on Animal Consciousness
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ANIMALS POSSESS CONSCIOUSNESS |
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Animals posses consciousness, i.e. a cognitive capacity, autonomy,
will, & habits |
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James, following Darwin, recognizes that there is no good reason to
deny to animals a practical intelligence or problem solving, cognitive
capacity |
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In terms of Darwin's 'natural selection, the possession of consciousness
by animals exists because it is effective in the struggle for existence |
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Consciousness in humans & animals is an emergent quality that evolved
& became what it is owing to its usefulness in helping a species survive |
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In the absence of conscious intelligence in animals, they would be
incapable of distinguishing btwn 'useful' & 'hurtful' or 'friend' or
'foe' |
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CONSCIOUSNESS PURSUES SPECIFIC ENDS |
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With consciousness, real ends now appear in that every actually existing
consciousness exists to be a fighter for its ends |
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The conscious powers of cognition are mainly subservient to a beings'
ends |
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Consciousness discerns which facts further its ends & which do
not |
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Consciousness, knowing which possibilities lead to a given goal, will
reinforce the favorable possibilities of that thought & parallel action
& repress the unfavorable or indifferent thoughts & actions |
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Habitual actions achieve their ends w/ little or no need for
the assistance of mind |
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Where new challenges face us, & where indecision is great, consciousness
is intense |
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In his exploration of religion, James deduces that god has no consciousness
as we are familiar w/ it because god, by definition, does not pursue any
goals |
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ANIMALS ARE MORE HABITUAL THAN PEOPLE |
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Animals have a higher level of habitual thought & action than people
& in fact the great advantage of human consciousness is the ability
to reflect on, & if necessary, overcome habits |
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Animals either do not overcome habits & perish, or they overcome
them based on negative reinforcement which encourages them to taper off,
or based on positive reinforcement which encourages them to estb new habits |
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Humans are also subject to the 'behaviorist' relationship to habits,
but we have the cognitive ability to foresee these negative & positive
consequences w/o actually having to experience them |
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Outline on James:
Stream of Consciousness
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CONSCIOUSNESS IS BEST DESCRIBED AS A CONTINUOUS STREAM W/ NO DISCERNIBLE
BREAKS |
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In psychology James is best known for the "stream of consciousness"
approach to mental phenomena which he held in opposition to the then dominant
structuralism, atomism, associationism, empiricism, etc. |
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In his Principles of Psychology, 1890, James broached a new,
radical empiricism |
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James' theory on the stream of consciousness was developed in contrast
to structuralism |
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James believed that mental processes ought to be studied as processes
& not as static bits of consciousness as the structuralists had suggested |
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For James, thought: |
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1. is always changing |
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2. is sensibly continuous |
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3. appears to deal w/ objects independent of itself |
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4. takes interest in some objects to the exclusion of
others |
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5. chooses among objects |
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6. is a sequence of different thoughts & feelings |
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EMPIRICISM IS WRONG BECAUSE THOUGHT IS NOT A GROUP OF UNITARY IDEAS |
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James rejects the empiricist view that complex thoughts are made up
of simple, unit, ideas |
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Locke, for example, tried to explain concepts like 'infinity' as mental
adding of space to space to space, ad infinitum |
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Locke tried to explain the concept of 'eternity' as the adding ot time
to time to time adinfinitum |
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Adding finite entities in the way Lock suggest can only produce another
finite entity |
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Locke refused to credit the mind w/ the creativity it possesses, enabling
every human being to grasp complex, abstract concepts |
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Locke should have known that no human being has grasped infinity or
eternity by adding simple, unit ideas |
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Traditional epistemological problems evaporated when one no longer
began w/ atomistic sensations that somehow had to be glued together to
constitute a world, but w/ a holistic world that people subsequently cut
up into analytical parts according to their purposes |
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All reductionist & conceptual materialist or idealist ontologies
are only retrospective characterization of an experiential continuum, a
position further develop by Dewey |
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CONSCIOUSNESS IS CONTINUOUS NOT DISJOINTED |
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Consciousness is like Hearclitus' 'river,' i.e. it is constant flux |
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James refutes the empiricist, atomistic view which supposes that our
higher states of consciousness are all built up out of unchanging, simple,
unit ideas |
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There is no such thing as a permanently existing, simple idea that
appears & reappears in our consciousness |
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Hume was wrong to suppose that our thought is composed of separate
parts & not a continuous stream |
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Consciousness is a continuous process in which there are not breaches,
cracks, or divisions |
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In direct perception before classification by any concepts, James found
an unbroken stream of consciousness containing a multicolored world full
of relationships |
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The changes from one moment to another in the quality of consciousness
are never abrupt |
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Our sense of 'parts,' even if we discern parts, is that they are inwardly
connected, belonging together, because they are parts of a common flowing
whole |
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The self, I, myself, me give the 'parts' a unity & create a common
whole |
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Consciousness never appears to itself chopped up in bits |
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Consciousness is not disjointed because it flows |
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For James, 'river' & 'stream' are the best metaphors w/ which to
describe consciousness |
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FEELING & THOUGHT MAY BE INATTENTIVE, I.E. WE HAVE PSYCHIC OVERTONES |
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The concept of psychic overtone, or fringe, denotes that the brain
makes us aware of relations & objects |
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We only dimly perceive many relations & objects, & often we
must choose what to focus our attn on |
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While we are acquainted w/ things via our feelings, & we know about
things via our thoughts, another distinction btwn feelings & thoughts
is the dominance of psychic overtones in feelings & the lack of psychic
overtones in thoughts |
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Acquaintance w/ a thing is limited to the bare impressions which it
makes |
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Knowledge about a thing is knowledge of its relations to other relations
& objects |
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In acquaintance, we are only aware in a shadowy, nascent way of a 'fringe'
of unarticulated affinities about it |
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Many things slip by our consciousness & either a almost random
feeling or thought may draw our attention to it |
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ATOMISM IS FLAWED BECAUSE THOUGHT IS ACTIVE, NOT MECHANISTIC / PASSIVE |
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James' consideration of the stream of consciousness refuted atomism,
aka associationism, elementarism, empiricism, etc. |
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Atomism as developed by Locke held that abstract concepts like infinity
were arrived at by putting together unit ideas like space |
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James Mill proposed that the idea of an army consists of unit ideas
of an indefinite number of men formed into one large idea |
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For James, such associationist psych was in error because even when
an object is made up of many elements, the thought itself is not made up
as just as many ideas |
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James agrees w/ Kant in his refutation of the empiricist, associationist
view which held that thought was mechanistic & passive |
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Kant & James demonstrated that the mind is active & creative
& quite capable of grasping abstract objects of thought holistically |
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However, James does not accept Kant's notion of a transcendental ego |
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Outline on James:
Consciousness of Self
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THE SELF HAS COMPONENTS BUT IS USUALLY PERCEIVED AS A WHOLE |
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James understood the 'self' as a unitary whole w/ various forms including
the material, social, spiritual, etc. selves |
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A 'core' self, a self of selves was the one we identified w/ because
we do not see ourselves as a group of selves |
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It is the active element in all consciousness, the source of effort
& attn which appears to emanate from one's will |
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The 'core' is permanent as opposed to changing |
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Some would call this core the soul |
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The core of the self is felt in that we have a direct, sensible familiarity
w/ it |
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The self strives w/ & against our senses |
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THE SPIRITUAL SOUL CAN BE NEITHER PROVEN NOR DISPROVEN |
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James demonstrates that their is no spiritual or idealist type of soul |
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James does not deny the existence of a spiritual soul but contends
that this form of soul is unnecessary for understanding the actual subjective
phenomena of consciousness |
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In place of the soul, James posits a stream of thoughts, each different
from the rest, but cognitive of the rest & appropriative of each other's
content |
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In opposition to the spiritual view of the soul, James sees thought
as an active 'agent,' but only as a transient moment in the Heraclitean
stream |
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The spiritualists believe there is something in the stream that governs
or organizes its flow |
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But since James sees no such organizer in the stream of consciousness
because there is a constant flux of thoughts & feelings |
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The spiritual soul has not been disproven, it simply is not substantiated
by the info available |
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IN CONSCIOUSNESS WE EXPERIENCE BOTH ATOMISM & UNITY |
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The associationist atomistic view of the empiricists is in error because
Hume's claims that our distinct perceptions are distinct existences w/o
our perceiving any real connection among them is wrong because thought
possesses both connection & separation in that we can view things as
distinct or as part of a whole |
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Hume's classic proposition related to how we view events & causality |
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We see a cue ball strike another ball, which strikes a third &
we experience each as a distinct event |
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For Hume, when we see billiard balls striking, or some sequence of
distinct events, that is all that is experienced by our senses, but then
the mind, through imagination adds causality to the bare sensory experience |
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For Hume, we are the most sure of our sensory experience of seeing
the event even though illusions abound |
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For Hume, when we see an event we are less sure of the causality we
imply in the event because a third, unknown factor could intervene |
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Because of the possibility of unknown factors, causality can never
be proven |
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James regards the Humean view, which denies the unity to the succession
of perceptions, thoughts, & feelings of consciousness, as metaphysical
& unfounded |
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For James the unity of the experience is just as real as the separation |
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Both connection & separation are ways in which past thought appear
to the present thought |
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The effect of Hume's radical relativism is to unjustifiable chop up
the stream of consciousness |
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James is agreeing that events can be separated, but they can also be
unified |
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THE SELF IS NOT A TRANSCENDENTAL 'SOUL,' IT IS A PRODUCT OF SYMBOLIC
& SOCIAL INTERACTION |
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For James, there is no organizing principle or entity in the stream
of consciousness |
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For James, a present thought is not as a knife edge present, but a
significant, transient moment |
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Kant denies the transience of the thought moment & described consciousness
as a large number of distinct thought which are sensed as chaotic |
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| |
Thoughts are given unity by a hypothetical synthesizing agent which
Kant called the transcendental ego |
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| |
The transcendental ego consists of the higher faculties of intuition,
apprehension, imagination, understanding, & perception |
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| |
For James the transcendental ego is a fictitious unnecessary mechanism
for the self |
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The transcendental ego provides the unifying factor that Kant sought
in relation to our endless thoughts |
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For James, Dewey, & Mead, the awareness of self is implied in all
experiences of 'I,' 'me,' 'I think,' etc. & thus is an integral part
of the stream of consciousness |
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The existence of self awareness gives us consciousness itself |
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The self is no mere function of Kant's higher facilities, but rather
the self is a social accomplishment |
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The self is a product of symbolic & social interaction |
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