WILLIAM JAMES

•William James (born 11 January 1842 at Astor House in New York, died 26 August 1910)

•He was an American psychologist and philosopher

• William James’s most important theories are:

- Pragmatism;

- Functionalism;

- Stream of consciousness

EN

PRAGMATISM

Human thought is understood as a pratical problem – solving, which proceeds by testing rival hypoteses against experience, as a basis for action.

Pragmatism has value only if it is applied

James elaborated the concept of truth:

Beliefs are not true until they have been made true by verification

Truth is mutable

Thruth is relative to a conceptual scheme.

“Pragratism asks its usual question:”Grant an idea or belief to be true, what concrete diffrence will its being true make in anyone’s actual life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain in the belief were false? what., in short, is the truth’s cash-value in experiental terms?”

William James

FUNCTIONALISM

The primary interest is in the function if mental process, including consciusness

The term is used in two different ways

The study of how mental process

operates

The study of how mental process operates in the evolution of the species

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS“Like a bird fliying throught the air and then pearching for a meoment then taking wing again. Flight punctuated by moments of…”

William James

•The Stream of consciusness is a literary technique wich was elaborated at the beginning of 1900

• The Stream of consciusness is the expression of thoughts exactly as they pass through your mind

•In literature the stream of consciusness is written without the structure our thoughts have in formal writing

•The Stream of consciusness was elaborated for the first time in The Principles of Psychology

WORK MADE BY:

• MARGARIT Giacomo

• DE LELLIS Salvatore