A Pluralistic Universe

A Pluralistic Universe

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Title: A Pluralistic Universe Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the Present
Situation in Philosophy
Author: William James
Release Date: April 10, 2004 [EBook #11984]
Language: English
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A PLURALISTIC UNIVERSE
Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the Present Situation in Philosophy
BY WILLIAM JAMES

1909

CONTENTS
LECTURE I
THE TYPES OF PHILOSOPHIC THINKING 1
Our age is growing philosophical again, 3. Change of tone since 1860, 4. Empiricism and
Rationalism defined, 7. The process of Philosophizing: Philosophers choose some part of
the world to interpret the whole by, 8. They seek to make it seem less strange, 11. Their
temperamental differences, 12. Their systems must be reasoned out, 13. Their tendency to
over-technicality, 15. Excess of this in Germany, 17. The type of vision is the important
thing in a philosopher, 20. Primitive thought, 21. Spiritualism and Materialism:
Spiritualism shows two types, 23. Theism and Pantheism, 24. Theism makes a duality of
Man and God, and leaves Man an outsider, 25. Pantheism identifies Man with God, 29.
The contemporary tendency is towards Pantheism, 30. Legitimacy of our demand to be
essential in the Universe, 33. Pluralism versus Monism: The 'each- form' and the

'all-form' of representing the world, 34. Professor Jacks quoted, 35. Absolute Idealism
characterized, 36. Peculiarities of the finite consciousness which the Absolute cannot
share, 38. The finite still remains outside of absolute reality, 40.
LECTURE II
MONISTIC IDEALISM 41
Recapitulation, 43. Radical Pluralism is to be the thesis of these lectures, 44. Most
philosophers contemn it, 45. Foreignness to us of Bradley's Absolute, 46. Spinoza and
'quatenus,'47. Difficulty of sympathizing with the Absolute, 48. Idealistic attempt to
interpret it, 50. Professor Jones quoted, 52. Absolutist refutations of Pluralism, 54.
Criticism of Lotze's proof of Monism by the analysis of what interaction involves, 55.
Vicious intellectualism defined, 60. Royce's alternative: either the complete disunion or
the absolute union of things, 61. Bradley's dialectic difficulties with relations, 69.
Inefficiency of the Absolute as a rationalizing remedy, 71. Tendency of Rationalists to fly
to extremes, 74. The question of 'external' relations, 79. Transition to Hegel, 91.
LECTURE III
HEGEL AND HIS METHOD 83
Hegel's influence. 85. The type of his vision is impressionistic, 87. The 'dialectic' element
in reality, 88. Pluralism involves possible conflicts among things, 90. Hegel explains
conflicts by the mutual contradictoriness of concepts, 91. Criticism of his attempt to
transcend ordinary logic, 92. Examples of the 'dialectic' constitution of things, 95. The
rationalistic ideal: propositions self-securing by means of double negation, 101.
Sublimity of the conception, 104. Criticism of Hegel's account: it involves vicious
intellectualism, 105. Hegel is a seer rather than a reasoner, 107. 'The Absolute' and 'God'
are two different notions, 110. Utility of the Absolute in conferring mental peace, 114.
But this is counterbalanced by the peculiar paradoxes which it introduces into philosophy,
116. Leibnitz and Lotze on the 'fall' involved in the creation of the finite, 119. Joachim on
the fall of truth into error, 121. The world of the absolutist cannot be perfect, 123.
Pluralistic conclusions, 125.
LECTURE IV
CONCERNING FECHNER 131
Superhuman consciousness does not necessarily imply an absolute mind, 134. Thinness
of contemporary absolutism, 135. The tone of Fechner's empiricist pantheism contrasted
with that of the rationalistic sort, 144. Fechner's life, 145. His vision, the 'daylight view,'
150. His way of reasoning by analogy, 151. The whole universe animated, 152. His
monistic formula is unessential, 153. The Earth-Soul, 156. Its differences from our souls,
160. The earth as an angel, 164. The Plant-Soul, 165. The logic used by Fechner, 168.
His theory of immortality, 170. The 'thickness' of his imagination, 173. Inferiority of the
ordinary transcendentalist pantheism, to his vision, 174.
LECTURE V
THE COMPOUNDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS 179 The assumption that states of mind
may compound themselves, 181. This assumption is held in common by naturalistic
psychology, by transcendental idealism, and by Fechner, 184. Criticism of it by the
present writer in a former book, 188. Physical combinations, so-called, cannot be invoked
as analogous, 194. Nevertheless, combination must be postulated among the parts of the
Universe, 197. The logical objections to admitting it, 198. Rationalistic treatment of the
question brings us to an impasse, 208. A radical breach with intellectualism is required,

212. Transition to Bergson's philosophy, 214. Abusive use