Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life

by John Kaag

Overview

From the author of American Philosophy: A Love Story, a compelling introduction to the life-affirming philosophy of William James

In 1895, William James, the father of American philosophy, delivered a lecture entitled “Is Life Worth Living?” It was no theoretical question for James, who had contemplated suicide during an existential crisis as a young man a quarter century earlier. Indeed, as John Kaag writes, “James’s entire philosophy, from beginning to end, was geared to save a life, his life”—and that’s why it just might be able to save yours, too. Sick Souls, Healthy Minds is an absorbing introduction to James’s life and thought that shows why the founder of pragmatism and empirical psychology can still speak so directly and profoundly to anyone struggling to make a life worth living.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691216713
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	03/02/2021
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	476,143
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

John Kaag, the author of American Philosophy: A Love Story and Hiking with Nietzsche, is professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Twitter @JohnKaag

Table of Contents

Prologue: "A Disgust for Life" 1

1 Determinism and Despair 11

2 Freedom and Life 42

3 Psychology and the Healthy Mind 68

4 Consciousness and Transcendence 94

5 Truth and Consequences 126

6 Wonder and Hope 169

Acknowledgments 185

Notes 187

Suggested Reading 197

Index 201

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Not since Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance have I read such a mesmerizing confluence of personal experience and formal thought as John Kaag's American Philosophy: A Love Story. That combination is on display again in his Sick Souls, Healthy Minds—a brief and powerful book about one of America's most profound minds, William James, and what he can teach us about what makes life worth living."―Robert D. Richardson, author of William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism

"In this beautifully written book, which is filled with bracing insights, John Kaag shows why William James has had a deep, life-altering, therapeutic effect on his readers over the past century—and can continue to have the same effect on new readers today."—Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, author of American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Ideas

Editorial Reviews

Finalist for the PROSE Award in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers

One of Next Big Idea Club's Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books of Spring

From the Publisher

"Earnest, accessible. . . . As [John] Kaag traces [William] James’s intellectual path away from determinism and depression, he both clarifies thorny academic questions and offers dashes of self-help, showing how today’s anxious souls might apply James’s principles and learn how to 'be not afraid of life'."

New Yorker

"An engaging book, especially for William James fans."

Paradigm Explorer

2019-12-02
A biography and exegesis of William James that serves as self-help for the philosophically inclined.

In his latest, Kaag (Philosophy/Univ. of Massachusetts, Lowell; Hiking With Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are, 2018, etc.) notes that he began this book worse off than during his two previous philosophical memoirs. He was in the middle of a divorce, "had just watched my estranged, alcoholic father die," and was spending much of his time in bed sleeping and reading James. That activity, however, isn't a symptom of depression the way reading Schopenhauer might be. For Kaag, it proved to be a vital salve. "I think William James's philosophy saved my life. Or, more accurately, it encouraged me to not be afraid of life." If so, it wouldn't be the first life James saved. His entire philosophy, writes the author, "from beginning to end, was geared to save a life, his life." In this brief treatise, Kaag seeks to "offer the reader James's existential life preserver." This represents something of a formal departure for Kaag. Whereas American Philosophy and Hiking With Nietzsche were philosophical memoirs, this book is self-help philosophy that draws selectively from autobiography. This inversion makes it a more demanding text than its predecessors. If readers are to gather solace from James, it will come only from joining Kaag in thinking through his philosophy: responding to the challenge of scientific determinism; reflecting on the paradox of James' famous assertion that "my first act of free will shall be to believe in free will"; and attempting to pluck the thorn of relativism from pragmatism's side. Luckily, Kaag's reading of James is as elucidating as readers have come to expect from him. Once again, he writes in a clear, focused, and winningly self-aware style that makes friends of James and himself for anyone who wonders if life is worth living.

A book in which Kaag further carves out his niche in philosophy: personal, practical, and crucial.

Kirkus Reviews