William James

William James was born in 1842 at the Astor House hotel in New York City into a wealthy family. His father, Henry James Sr., was a theologian, his brother Henry became a famous novelist, and his sister Alice became known for her diary. The family travelled often to Europe, and he became fluent in German and French. William first wanted to be a painter and studied in the studio of William Morris Hunt, but he turned to science and entered Harvard Medical School. In 1865 he joined the naturalist Louis Agassiz on an expedition up the Amazon River. He earned his medical degree in 1869 but never practised; instead he taught anatomy at Harvard and then psychology and philosophy. He was the first teacher to offer a psychology course in the United States. In 1878 he married Alice Howe Gibbens, and they had five children. His Principles of Psychology became a groundbreaking text. In The Varieties of Religious Experience and Pragmatism he explored religious experience and argued that ideas should be judged by their practical results. He retired from Harvard in 1907 and died in 1910.

William James is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Faith not well documented; he studied religious experience in The Varieties of Religious Experience. Source: Wikipedia