Intellectual Circles


Photograph

WJ. [Notebook 18] Autograph manuscript, ca. 1905. Outlines of lectures given at Wellesley, Chicago, and Glenmore on radical empiricism, pragmatism, and pluralism. b MS Am 1092.9 (4512)

Many of James’s most influential works, including Varieties and Pragmatism, began as lectures. “The Will to Believe” was an address before the Philosophical Clubs of Yale and Brown Universities. “Human Immortality” was the Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard; lectures to school teachers in Cambridge resulted in a volume about education, habit, and attention. “The Gospel of Relaxation” was addressed to students at several women’s colleges; “The Energies of Men” was James’s Presidential Address to the American Philosophical Association.