"Essays in Philosophy" brings together twenty-one essays, reviews, and occasional pieces published by James between 1876 and 1910. They range in subject from a concern with the teaching of philosophy and appraisals of philosophers to analyses of important problems.

Several of the essays, like "The Sentiment of Rationality" and "The Knowing of Things Together," are of particular significance in the development of the views of James's later works. All of them, as John McDermott says in his Introduction, are in a style that is "engaging and personal...witty, acerbic, compassionate, and polemical." Whether he is writing an article for the "Nation" of a definition of "Experience" for Baldwin's "Dictionary" or "The Mad Absolute" for the "Journal of Philosophy," James is always unmistakably himself, and always readable.

"It is absolutely the only philosophy with no humbug in it," an exhilarated William James wrote to a friend early in 1907. And later that year, after finishing the proofs of his "little book," he wrote to his brother Henry: "I shouldn't be surprised if ten years hence it should be rated as 'epoch-making, ' for of the definitive triumph of that general way of thinking I can entertain no doubt whatever--I believe it to be something quite like the protestant reformation."

Both the acclaim and outcry that greeted "Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking" helped to affirm James's conviction. For it was in "Pragmatism" that he confronted older philosophic methods with the "pragmatic" method, demanding that ideas be tested by their relation to life and their effects in experience. James's reasoning and conclusions in "Pragmatism" have exerted a profound influence on philosophy in this century, and the book remains a landmark.

This play, previously unknown, is here printed with an introduction and textual and illustrative notes by Bowers, who has made a very strong case for the Randolph authorship. The play is of unique interest because of the light that it throws on certain Randolph problems and because of the editor's exposition of the transcriber's methods of correction and revision as revealed in the manuscript itself. Originally published in 1942. A UNC Press Enduring Edition - UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Additional Contributors Include F. DeWolfe Miller, Ruth Hudson, Marvin B. Perry, Jr. And Others.

"The Will to Believe" addresses several of the most important and perplexing problems of philosophy. In ten lucid essays James deals with such subjects as causality and free will, the definition of the good life and the Good itself, the importance of the individual in society, and the intellectual claims of scientific method. Linking all these essays, most of which were delivered as lectures to popular audiences, is James's deep belief that philosophy does not operate in a vacuum but is influenced by our passional and volitional natures.

As Edward H. Madden points out in his substantial introduction, these essays, written over a span of seventeen years, represent not so much a fixed system of ideas as a patient searching, an organic development of James's thought in response to his own criticism and that of others.

This is the sixth volume to be published in "The Works of William James," an authoritative edition sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies.

Companion guide to the third volume of Dekker's plays, with introductions and commentary on The Roaring Girl, If this be Not a Good Play, the Devil is in it, Troia-Nova Triumphans, Match me in London, The Virgin Martyr, The Witch of Edmonton and The Wonder of a Kingdom.

This is the fifth volume in a ten-volume series of the critical old-spelling texts of the plays in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, in which the texts are established on modern bibliographical principles. Each play is introduced by a discussion of the text, has variant readings in footnotes, and is followed by full textual notes and lists of press-variants, emendations of accidentals and historical collations.

In "Pragmatism" James attacked the transcendental, rationalist tradition in philosophy and tried to clear the ground for the doctrine he called radical empiricism. The hook caused an uproar; it was greeted with praise, hostility, ridicule. Determined to clarify the pragmatic conception of truth, James collected nine essays he had written on this subject before he wrote "Pragmatism" and six written later in response to criticisms of that volume by Bertrand Russell and others. He published the collection under the title "The Meaning of Truth" in 1909, the year before his death.

"The Meaning of Truth" shows James at his best--clear and readable as always, and full of verve and good humor. Intent upon making difficult ideas clear, he is also forceful in his effort to make them prevail.

In May 1908 William James, a gifted and popular lecturer, delivered a series of eight Hibbert lectures at Manchester College, Oxford, on "The Present Situation in Philosophy." These were published a year later as "A Pluralistic Universe,"

During the preceding decade James, as he struggled with deep conflicts within his own philosophic development, had become increasingly preoccupied with epistemological and metaphysical issues. He saw serious inadequacies in the forms of absolute and monistic idealism dominant in England and the United States, and he used the lectures to attack the specific form that "vicious intellectualism" had taken.

In "A Pluralistic Universe" James captures a new philosophic vision, at once intimate and realistic. He shares with his readers a view of the universe that is fresh, active, and novel. The message conveyed is as relevant today as it was in his time.

Supervised by a team of scholars, each a specialist in his field, "The Works of William James" fills the long-standing need for an authoritative, standard edition of the philosopher's works. The General Editor and supervisor of the project is Frederick Burkhardt. Mr. Burkhardt, formerly a professor of philosophy and then a college president, is President Emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies. The Textual Editor, Fredson Bowers, Linden Kent Professor of English at the University of Virginia, is in charge of the establishment of the text and its production according to standards of the Center for Editions of American Authors. Gold Medalist of the Bibliographical Society, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Corresponding Fellow of The British Academy, Mr.Bowers is the author of two books on the theory and practice of textual criticism and editor of several multivolume critical editions. Ignas K. Skrupskelis, the Associate Editor, contributes the substantive notes. He is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and has conducted extensive research in the James collection.

A pioneer in early studies of the human mind and founder of that peculiarly American philosophy called Pragmatism, William James remains America's most widely read philosopher. Generations of students have been drawn to his lucid presentations of philosophical problems. His works, now being made available for the first time in a definitive edition, have a permanent place in American letters and a continuing influence in philosophy and psychology.

The essays gathered in the posthumously published "Essays in Radical Empiricism" formulate ideas that had brewed in James's mind for thirty years as he sought a way out of the philosophical dilemmas generated by the new psychology of the late nineteenth century. They constitute the explanatory core of his doctrine of radical empiricism, a doctrine that charts his course between the absolute idealism he could not accept and, at the other extreme, the law of associationism, which reduces knowledge to sheer contiguity of ideas. In his introduction John J. McDermott describes the historical background and the genesis of James's theory and considers the objections raised by its opponents.

Originally published in 1953, this was the first edition of Dekker's plays to appear in print since the late nineteenth century. Thus, for many years prior, Dekker had been the least accessible of the prominent Elizabethan dramatists, with the result that his anthologized plays had received undue attention at the expense of other highly readable works of the second rank. Professor Fredson Bowers here presents a critical old-spelling text of the ordinarily accepted canon, together with a few works not collected previously but which seem to merit inclusion in an edition of Dekker's plays. The text of the complete plays is in four volumes and a complementary four-volume set contains detailed introductions and notes to all the plays. In a general textual introduction Professor Bowers sets forth a reasoned account of his editorial method and procedures for a critical edition according to bibliographical principles.

This was the first edition of Dekker's plays to appear in print since the late nineteenth century. Thus, for many years prior, Dekker had been the least accessible of the prominent Elizabethan dramatists, with the result that his anthologized plays had received undue attention at the expense of other highly readable works of the second rank. Professor Fredson Bowers here presents a critical old-spelling text of the ordinarily accepted canon, together with a few works not collected previously but which seem to merit inclusion in an edition of Dekker's plays. The text of the complete plays is in four volumes and a complementary four-volume set contains detailed introductions and notes to all the plays. In a general textual introduction Professor Bowers sets forth a reasoned account of his editorial method and procedures for a critical edition according to bibliographical principles. Separate introductions provide textual analyses of the individual plays, including the circumstances of publication and of textual transmission. Apparatus for each play consists of textual notes, tables of press-variants derived from collation of a substantial number of copies of original editions, lists of editorial emendations to the copy-text, and historical collations of all early editions.

Volume III of the Cambridge Dekker contains The Roaring Girl, If this be not a Good Play..., Troia-Nova Triumphans, Match me in London, The Virgin Martyr, The Witch of Edmonton and The Wonder of a Kingdom. Professor Bowers's edition is recognized as a model critical old-spelling text, where the techniques of strong textual and bibliographical study have been methodically applied to one of the least accessible of the Elizabethan dramatists. The introductions to each play provide textual analyses which set out the circumstances of publication and transmission. The critical apparatus gives press variants derived from collations, editorial emendations to the copy-text and other textual notes.

The final volume of the Cambridge Dekker contains The Welsh Ambassador, The Noble Spanish Soldier, Lust's Dominion, The Sun's Darling, London's Tempe and Britannia's Honour. Professor Bowers's edition is recognized as a model critical old-spelling text, where the techniques of strong textual and bibliographical study have been methodically applied to one of the least accessible of the Elizabethan dramatists. The introductions to each play provide textual analyses that set out the circumstances of publication and transmission. The critical apparatus gives press variants derived from collations, editorial emendations to the copy-text and other textual notes.

Four of the plays in this volume are based on important source materials, so that the relationship of plays to sources looms large in Cyrus Hoy's introductory essays. There is an extensive account of the relation of The Shoemakers' Holiday to Deloney's Gentle Craft. The Introduction to Old Fortunatus relates in detail that play's relationship to the German Volksbuch, and to the German Comoedia von Fortunate und seinem Seckel und Wunschhutlein (1620), a redaction of Dekker's play. The Introduction to Patient Grissil relates Dekker, Chettle and Haughton's play to the tradition of the Griselda story generally. The chronicle-history sources (Foxe, Grafton, Stow, Holinshed) of Sir Thomas Wyatt are surveyed in the Introduction, in his Introduction also, Professor Hoy considers the play's relationship to the lost play, Lady Jane, by Dekker, Chettle, Heywood, Webster and W. Smith. Satiromastix has no known source, but as Dekker's contribution to the stage quarrel of Marston and Jonson, this is a play that has always had particular interest for the student of Elizabethan theatrical history, and Professor Hoy therefore bestows on it the most elaborate Commentary in all these four volumes.

Companion guide to the second volume of Dekker's plays, with introductions and commentary on The Honest Whore Pt 1, The Honest Whore Pt 2, The Magnificent Entertainment Given to King James, Westward Ho, Northward Ho and The Whore of Babylon.

Companion guide to the fourth volume of Dekker's plays, with introductions and commentary on The Sun's Darling, Britannia Honour, London's Tempe, Lust's Dominion, The Noble Spanish Soldier, The Welsh Ambassador.

A critical old-spelling edition of the complete works of Marlowe edited on the principles that Professor Bowers more than any other scholar has established. Through a choice of copy-texts that stand nearest in direct line to the lost manuscripts, the works are presented in as near the original form as can be recovered, in respect of spelling, punctuation, capitaliSation and the actual words themselves. The edition contains a substantial critical apparatus in the form of textual introduction and notes, a historical collation and a list of emendations for each work, of both substantives and accidentals.

A critical old-spelling edition of the complete works of Marlowe edited on the principles that Professor Bowers more than any other scholar has established. Through a choice of copy-texts that stand nearest in direct line to the lost manuscripts, the works are presented in as near the original form as can be recovered, in respect of spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and the actual words themselves. The edition contains a substantial critical apparatus in the form of textual introduction and notes, a historical collation and a list of emendations for each work, of both substantives and accidentals.

This is the eighth volume in a ten-volume series of the critical old-spelling texts of the plays in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, in which the texts are established on modern bibliographical principles. This volume contains the texts of five plays and one composite Fours Plays in One, written by Fletcher and his collaborators, Nathan Field and Philip Massinger. Each play is introduced by a discussion of the text, has variant readings in footnotes, and is followed by full textual notes and lists of press-variants, emendations of accidentals and historical collations.

This is the third volume in a ten-volume series of the critical old-spelling texts of the plays in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, in which the texts are established on modern bibliographical principles. Each play is introduced by a discussion of the text, has variant readings in footnotes, and is followed by full textual notes and lists of press-variants, emendations of accidentals and historical collations.

This is the first volume in a ten-volume series of the complete dramatic works of Beaumont and Fletcher, published under the general editorship of Fredson Bowers. Each volume contains several plays accompanied by a textual introduction and critical apparatus. The plays of Beaumont alone are published first, followed by those by Beaumont and Fletcher together, Beaumont and Fletcher revised by Massinger, Fletcher alone and finally Fletcher with his numerous collaborators.

This is the tenth and final volume in a ten-volume series of the critical old-spelling texts of the plays in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, in which the texts are established on modern bibliographical principles. This volume contains the texts of six plays written by Fletcher and his collaborators, Nathan Field, Philip Massinger, Ben Jonson, George Chapman, John Ford and John Webster. Each play is introduced by a discussion of the text and authorship, has variant readings in footnotes, and is followed by full textual notes and lists of press-variants, emendations of accidentals and historical collations. At the back of this concluding volume there is a useful index showing how the plays are distributed between the volumes, and a table giving the authorship of the plays.

This is the second volume in a ten-volume series of the critical old-spelling texts of the plays in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, in which the texts are established on modern bibliographical principles. Each play is preceded by detailed notes on the text of the play, and is followed by textual notes, lists of variants, emendations of accidentals, and an historical collation. A general note of the principles on which the text of this edition was established is contained in Volume I.