Good Counsel : A Walking Dialogue with William James

William James is arguably America’s most important psychologist and intellectual. While a thriving literature on Jamesian thought exists, Good Counsel: A Walking Dialogue with William James fills the gap between the passing paragraph or two about James in undergraduate textbooks and the dense academic literature of Jamesian scholars. By offering an interesting and inspiring introduction to James, this book brings a new generation of minds into the Jamesian conversation.

Written as a dialogue between William James and some of his famous students, such as Theodore Roosevelt, Gertrude Stein, and W. E. B. Du Bois, Good Counsel provides an introduction to the important elements of Jamesian thought and seeks to inspire students to explore further. While not a formal critique of James, this book does not shy away from highlighting potential weakness or challenges to his thought.

By the book’s end, readers should have a solid grasp of basic Jamesian concepts, including what he meant by radical empiricism, pluralism, experience (especially the stream of thought), attention, freedom, truth, reality, God, rational belief, moral claims, moral solitude, consciousness, sentiment (how it drives reason), mysticism, and pragmatism. Furthermore, they should understand the interconnections among these concepts and the objections or alternatives to them (e.g., monism, determinism, reductionism, idealism, rationalism, etc.).