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William James (1842-1910) is often looked upon as one of America’s greatest philosophers. After attending Harvard Medical School followed by studying psychology in Germany, he was appointed Instructor of Physiology at Harvard in 1872. In 1875 he became the first Professor of Psychology and began writing the first textbook. The project grew ever larger as he wrote and in 1890 it became the two-volume “Principles of Psychology” – still in print today. His book established him as the leading psychologist of his day and he has held the title of the “father of psychology” ever since.
Simple Sensation?
His principles begin by stating psychology is the science of mental life, both of its phenomena and of their conditions. The phenomena are such things as feelings, desires, cognitions, reasonings, decisions and the like, on the “stream of thought.” He states that most books on the study of the mind start with sensations as the simplest mental functions. No one, he states, ever had a simple sensation by itself. It is astonishing the degree of havoc he wrought upon the world of psychology.
Stream of Thought
The first act for us then, as psychologists, is that thinking of some sort goes on. He declared that our thoughts are constantly changing yet seem to merge and carry on smoothly like the continuous flow of a stream. “In speaking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought of consciousness.” Yet at the same time, he points out it is very hard to actually define: “every thought is part of consciousness. To give an accurate account of it is the most difficult of philosophic tasks.”
Steering Awareness
James was influenced by European philosophers regarding the way experiences come together and combine into what was called the “unity of consciousness.” His most important point about consciousness is that it is a process rather than something that is constantly evolving. It is what the brain does to steer our awareness. It allows us to reflect upon the past, present and future, to plan and adapt to circumstances, to stay alive.
James-Lange Smile Theory
In his early research on consciousness James realized that emotions play an important role in our lives. He and Danish physiologist Carl Lange proposed a theory that emotions arise from your conscious mind’s perception of your physiological condition. In other words, emotions are the result of bodily changes, not the cause of them. You feel happy because you are conscious that you are smiling, not that you feel happy first, and then smile. This is known as the “James-Lange Theory of Emotion.” So smile more often.
Old and New Truths
Relating to his theories about consciousness is that we believe things to be true or we don’t, that truths emerge from facts but the facts may or may not be true. Truth is the function of the beliefs that start and end among facts. True beliefs are those that we find useful. James claimed that we are constantly testing “truths” against each other, and our conscious beliefs keep changing as “old truths” are modified and sometimes even replaced by “new truths.”
The Behaviorist Movement
In the years following James’ death there was a decline in interest relating to the subject of consciousness. At the same time there was a rise in the behaviorist movement, with the exception of the German-based gestalt movement, that the brain takes account of whole conscious experiences rather than individual pieces or separate events. This concept is the source of the gestalt phrase that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Technological Leap with Functional MRI
For the next seventy years, the study of emotions and feelings was regarded subjectively, surrounded by an aura of mysticism. This may explain why the study of the psychology of emotion has progressed so slowly. During the last twenty years of the twentieth century and the advent of Functional MRI, studies have led to renewed interest into the site, source and content of consciousness. The nature of the state of awareness in normal people compared to that of those suffering from a variety of neurological disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, as well as psychological conditions including depression, has been of particular interest.
Vague Definitions
Even with modern technology however, attempts to define consciousness have remained vague and difficult to apply. It has been over 100 years since William James’ death, and yet we are given definitions such as “the feeling of what happens” or “an organism’s awareness” by today’s leading neuroscientists. Much has yet to be explored.
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