Metaphysics in James, Its Limits, and the Implication for Religion

In “Chapter 2: Metaphysics in James, Its Limits, and the Implication for Religion,” I explore the concept of metaphysics as presented by James across his published works, starting from Psychology: Briefer Course (1892) to The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897), and extending into the early 1900s with Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907). I examine how Pragmatism relates to his Essays in Radical Empiricism, which he developed and presented between 1904 and 1906. This analysis clarifies James’s critique of representational metaphysics and how this critique informs his philosophy of religion, rooted in radical empiricism and a pragmatic approach to resolving conflicts. I differentiate between a vision of the whole of metaphysics and a partial vision of the whole metaphysics, noting that radical empiricism exemplifies the latter in James’s interpretation of metaphysics.