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== Career == He interacted with a wide array of writers and scholars throughout his life, including his godfather [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], his godson [[William James Sidis]], as well as [[Charles Sanders Peirce]], [[Bertrand Russell]], [[Josiah Royce]], [[Ernst Mach]], [[John Dewey]], [[Macedonio FernΓ‘ndez]], [[Walter Lippmann]], [[Mark Twain]], [[Horatio Alger]], [[G. Stanley Hall]], [[Henri Bergson]], [[Carl Jung]], [[Jane Addams]] and [[Sigmund Freud]]. James spent almost all of his academic career at Harvard. He was appointed instructor in [[physiology]] for the spring 1873 term, instructor in [[anatomy]] and physiology in 1873, assistant professor of psychology in 1876, assistant [[Harvard University Department of Philosophy|professor of philosophy]] in 1881, full professor in 1885, endowed chair in psychology in 1889, return to philosophy in 1897, and emeritus professor of philosophy in 1907. James studied medicine, physiology, and biology, and began to teach in those subjects, but was drawn to the scientific study of the human mind at a time when psychology was constituting itself as a science. James's acquaintance with the work of figures like [[Hermann Helmholtz]] in Germany and [[Pierre Janet]] in France facilitated his introduction of courses in scientific psychology at [[Harvard University]]. He taught his first [[experimental psychology]] course at Harvard in the 1875β1876 academic year.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Duane P. Schultz |author2=Sydney Ellen Schultz |date=March 22, 2007 |title=A History of Modern Psychology |publisher=Cengage Learning |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ge36EniJWwQC&pg=PA185 |pages=185β |isbn=978-0-495-09799-0}}</ref> During his Harvard years, James joined in philosophical discussions and debates with [[Charles Sanders Peirce|Charles Peirce]], [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.|Oliver Wendell Holmes]], and [[Chauncey Wright]] that evolved into a lively group informally known as [[The Metaphysical Club]] in 1872. [[Louis Menand]] (2001) suggested that this Club provided a foundation for American intellectual thought for decades to come. James joined the [[American Anti-Imperialist League|Anti-Imperialist League]] in 1898, in opposition to the United States annexation of the Philippines. [[File:WilliamJames JosiahRoyce ca1910 Harvard.png|thumb|William James and [[Josiah Royce]], near James's country home in Chocorua, New Hampshire in September 1903. James's daughter Peggy took the picture. On hearing the camera click, James cried out: "Royce, you're being photographed! Look out! I say ''Damn the Absolute!"'']] Among James's students at Harvard University were [[Boris Sidis]], [[Theodore Roosevelt]], [[George Santayana]], [[W. E. B. Du Bois]], [[G. Stanley Hall]], [[Ralph Barton Perry]], [[Gertrude Stein]], [[Horace Kallen]], [[Morris Raphael Cohen]], [[Walter Lippmann]], [[Alain Locke]], [[C. I. Lewis]], and [[Mary Whiton Calkins]]. Antiquarian bookseller [[Gabriel Wells]] tutored under him at Harvard in the late 1890s.<ref>{{cite web |last=Schmidt |first=Barbara |title=A History of and Guide to Uniform Editions of Mark Twain's Works |publisher=twainquotes.com |url=http://www.twainquotes.com/UniformEds/UniformEdsCh29.html |access-date=October 1, 2014}}</ref> His students enjoyed his brilliance and his manner of teaching was free of personal arrogance. They remember him for his kindness and humble attitude. His respectful attitude towards them speaks well of his character.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thorndike |first=Edward |year=1910 |title=Communications and discussions: William James |journal=Journal of Educational Psychology |volume=1 |issue=8 |pages=473β474 |doi=10.1037/h0075718}}</ref> Following his January 1907 retirement from Harvard, James continued to write and lecture, publishing ''Pragmatism'', ''A Pluralistic Universe'', and ''The Meaning of Truth''. James was increasingly afflicted with cardiac pain during his last years. It worsened in 1909 while he worked on a philosophy text (unfinished but posthumously published as ''Some Problems in Philosophy''). James sailed to Europe in the spring of 1910 to take experimental treatments for his heart ailment that proved unsuccessful, and returned home on August 18. His heart failed on August 26, 1910, at his home in [[Chocorua, New Hampshire]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Capps |first=Donald |year=2015 |title=The Religious Life: The Insights of William James |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MxLsCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 |via=Google Books |isbn=978-1-4982-1994-5}}</ref> He was buried in the family plot in Cambridge Cemetery, [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]. He was one of the strongest proponents of the school of [[Functional psychology|functionalism]] in psychology and of [[pragmatism]] in philosophy. He was a founder of the [[American Society for Psychical Research]], as well as a champion of alternative approaches to healing. In 1884 and 1885 he became president of the British Society for Psychical Research for which he wrote in ''[[Mind (journal)|Mind]]'' and in the ''[[Psychological Review]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sommer |first=Andreas |date=April 1, 2012 |title=Psychical research and the origins of American psychology |journal=Hist Hum Sci |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=23β44 |doi=10.1177/0952695112439376 |pmc=3552602 |pmid=23355763}}</ref> He challenged his professional colleagues not to let a narrow mindset prevent an honest appraisal of those beliefs. In an empirical study by Haggbloom et al. using six criteria such as citations and recognition, James was found to be the 14th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Haggbloom, S. J. |year=2002 |display-authors=etal |title=The 100 Most Eminent Psychologists of the 20th Century |journal=Review of General Psychology |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=139β152 |url=http://htpprints.yorku.ca/archive/00000064/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060429015400/http://htpprints.yorku.ca/archive/00000064/ |archive-date=April 29, 2006 |doi=10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139 |s2cid=145668721}}. Haggbloom ''et al.'' combined 3 quantitative variables: citations in professional journals, citations in textbooks, and nominations in a survey given to members of the [[Association for Psychological Science]], with 3 qualitative variables (converted to quantitative scores): [[National Academy of Sciences]] (NAS) membership, American Psychological Association (APA) President or recipient of the APA Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, and surname used as an eponym. Then the list was rank ordered.</ref>
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