William James on Morality

James yearned to weave science and religion into a popular philosophy useful for the everyday life of everyday people of faith. He saw that many were defenseless in an increasingly agnostic, even atheistic culture. "Thousands of innocent magazine readers lie paralyzed and terrified in the network of shallow negations which the leaders of opinion have thrown over their souls," he wrote in 1882. To which he added, "If I, . . . like the mouse in the fable, have gnawed a few of the strings of the sophistical net that has been binding down [the human heart's] lion strength, I shall be more than rewarded for my pains."

Were he to return, he would still be unhappy with the leaders of opinion but also with the responses of those who seek refuge in fundamentalist reliance on religious scriptures or who claim that religion is independent of modern 'scientific' discoveries.

Building on William James on Common Sense and William James on the Stream of Consciousness, this third and final volume will show how James in 2009 might weave ancient truths and modern discoveries into a philosophy that would even more completely reward him for his pains.