Good Counsel: A Walking Dialogue with William James [Paperback]

William James is arguably Americas most important psychologist and intellectual. While a thriving literature on Jamesian thought exists,Good Counsel: A Walking Dialogue with William Jamesfills the gap between the passing paragraph or two about James in undergraduate textbooks and the dense academic literature of Jamesian scholars. By offering an interesting and inspiring introduction to James, this book brings a new generation of minds into the Jamesian conversation.
Written as a dialogue between William James and some of his famous students, such as Theodore Roosevelt, Gertrude Stein, and W. E. B. Du Bois,Good Counselprovides an introduction to the important elements of Jamesian thought and seeks to inspire students to explore further. While not a formal critique of James, this book does not shy away from highlighting potential weakness or challenges to his thought.
By the books end, readers should have a solid grasp of basic Jamesian concepts, including what he meant by radical empiricism, pluralism, experience (especially the stream of thought), attention, freedom, truth, reality, God, rational belief, moral claims, moral solitude, consciousness, sentiment (how it drives reason), mysticism, and pragmatism. Furthermore, they should understand the interconnections among these concepts and the objections or alternatives to them (e.g., monism, determinism, reductionism, idealism, rationalism, etc.).

The book is structured as a dialogue between the American intellectual William James and one of his famous students (Gertrude Stein, Theodore Roosevelt, W.E.B. Du Bois, etc.) discussing a topic.Matt J. Rossanois a retired Professor of Psychology. For more than thirty years, he taught at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is an evolutionary psychologist who has authored or co-authored scores of scholarly papers, book chapters, commentaries, reviews, and five previous books. His work has appeared in highly respectelC“