The Philosophy of William James

Steps on the way up to a healthy religious outlook.

What is real?

God wants helpers.

That's right--religion is empirical.

"I believe in the finite God."

Our minds may touch the mind of God.

Real empiricists don't exclude the bit of experience they don't like.

Is there a mind above ours, but not separate from ours?

Now there's an idea!

A is B, even if not exactly 100% the same thing as B. Or something like that. I think.

Things are different. Things are connected. #ThingsThatCanBeTrueAtTheSameTime.

Ideas are great, but they serve real life, and NOT VICE VERSA!

Change is real. The world as we experience it is real. So there.

Reality comes in drops.

Not the easiest bit of philosophy I've ever tackled. If you don't already know better than I do, try this analysis until you learn better!

How do different states of consciousness overlap? Is this how we can understand ourselves? Is this how we can understand God?

Is this the right way to think about all reality being divine? This video itself might be a great example of what James is talking about. I couldn’t go into it with a ready-made summary of what’s going on in Lecture IV. I had to build up to it until it came together in my head in the end—the big perspective made from and including (but not necessarily limited to) all the parts I’d been working on throughout!

One gets strong Kierkegaard vibes here.

What if God is real and FINITE, not real and INFINITE?

It's rational in some ways, but not in every way.

The God of real religion is not the God of the philosophers! (Silly philosophers.)

So long, Hegel.

James can't claim to understand Hegel, but that won't stop him from critiquing the method he gets the impression Hegel uses.

So this Hegel guy--he's sort of an empiricist. Sort of. Ok, not really. But he starts with some empirical observations.

Hegel, "that strange and powerful genius"!