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- Author: John Kaag
- Full Title: American Philosophy
- Category: #books
- At the end of his life, he begrudgingly admitted that evidence was “yet lacking to prove ‘spirit-return.’” He therefore “[left] the matter open” with the hope that science would one day have more than just an inkling of the supernatural, would understand what James called the “dramatic possibilities of nature,” the possibility that the deceased are never irretrievably gone. Under the watchful eyes of Agnes Hocking, as I read James’s scribblings about ghosts and ancient Asian traditions, I wondered whether, for me, that day had finally come. Because William James was right in front of me exactly a century after his death.
- The point of American philosophy is not to have a specific, rock-solid point, but rather to outline a problem, explore its context, get a sense of the whole experiential situation in which the problem arises, and give a tentative yet practical answer.