Abstract

The goal of this dissertation is to explicate and analyze William James's views on the nature of man as they develop throughout his forty years of work as a physiologist, psychologist, physical researcher and philosopher. What James says about man appears at times radically incoherent unless what he says is grasped in terms of its development. He begins his work with the view that man is merely an organism which has evolved from infra-human ancestors, and he ends his long career with the view that man is an integral part of God. The task of this dissertation is to explicate and analyze James's theories on man and the grounds of those theories as they develop and unfold in his works.