William James's Pluralism: An Antidote for Contemporary Extremism and Absolutism explores extremism and the related problem of absolutism in the context of the psychology and philosophy of William James.

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 The Most Pregnant of All the Dilemmas of Philosophy

Some Characteristics of Monism

Some Characteristics of Pluralism

Understanding Singularity

Understanding the Drive toward Pluralism

The Way Forward

Notes

2 William James and the Tensions between the One and the Many

Family Background

Quest for a Career

James the Academic

Who Was William James?

Experience

Reality

Time

Individualism

Pragmatism

Radical Empiricism

¿The Man

Notes

3 Moral Monism and Pluralism

Abortion

Birth Control

Death with Dignity

A Culture of Life; a Culture of Death

Notes

4 Methodological Singularities

Religious Singularities

Critique of Religious Literalism as the Single Pathway to All Truth

Science as the Singular Pathway to Genuine Knowledge

Critique of Claims That Science Is the Singular Source of Truth

Singular Methodologies in Political Systems

Dangers of Singularities in Political Systems

The Pluralistic Alternative

Clash of Methodologies

Notes

5 The Single Cause: God, Free Will, and the Reflex

God Alone

Critique of Theological Determinism

Free Will

Critique of Free Will as a Singular Explanation

The Reflex

Critique of Reflexology

Critique of Monistic Theories of Causality

Notes

6 Ontological Monism and Pluralism

Materialism

Mechanistic Materialism

Emergent or Radical Materialism

Gestalt Psychology

Idealism

James's Ontology

Notes

7 James Quarrels with Monism as He Embraces Pluralism

James's Temperamental Affinities with Pluralism

Intellectualist Origins of Monism

Absolutism

Intimacy

Rigid Orthodoxies and Untenable Combinations

Problem of Evil

Determinism and Fatalism

Monism Fails to Fit with Human Experience

Monism and the Collapse of Time

The Pluralistic Alternative

Notes

Bibliography

Index