James, William (1842-1910), American philosopher and psychologist, who developed the philosophy of pragmatism. James was born in New York City. His father, Henry James, Sr., was a theologian; one of his brothers was novelist Henry James. William James attended private schools in the United States and Europe, the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University, and the Harvard Medical School, from which he received a degree in 1869. He later taught at Harvard. Before finishing his medical studies, he went on an exploratory expedition in Brazil with Swiss-American naturalist Louis Agassiz and also studied physiology in Germany.James's first book, Principles of Psychology (1890), established him as one of the most influential thinkers of his time. The work advanced the principle of functionalism in psychology, thus establishing psychology among the sciences based on experimental method. In the next decade James examined philosophical and religious issues. He explored the questions of the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, free will, and ethical values by referring to human religious and moral experience as a direct source. His book The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) is a sympathetic psychological account of religious and mystical experiences.
In philosophy, James maintained that the meaning of ideas is found only in terms of their possible consequences. He held that most metaphysical theories are meaningless, because they entail no testable predictions and do not deal with problems that arise in experience. --Encarta Encyclopedia
