Perspective

William James is an academic writer, who held a faculty position at Harvard University, as well as an appointment as Gifford Lecturer on Natural Religion at the University of Edinburgh. He is acquainted with some of the other great thinkers of the time such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edwin Starbuck, Canning Schiller, and John Dewey. In the book, James gives an account of his personal experience with illness and how it is subsequently cured through using mental techniques. This passage gives insight into two of his most important positions with regard to psychology, religion, and philosophy. The first position states that there is as much or more value to individual subjective experience of the world as there is to collective objective experience. The second position is that by understanding and manipulating the way we think, we may be able to effect our own happiness and even physical healing...