“I think that yesterday was a crisis in my life. I finished the first part of Renouvier’s second Essais and see no reason why his definition of free will — ‘the sustaining of a thought because I choose to when I might have other thoughts’ — need be the definition of an illusion. At any rate, I will assume for the present —until next year— that it is no illusion. My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.” –William James
Although pragmatism really isn’t something I can get behind, William James’ neuroticism has always been something I could identify with. I feel like if James had lived in 2012, he would definitely have had a blog. So, I think that due to the intended nature of this blog, William James is a good person to dedicate my first post about. Hopefully I can capture some of his thoughtfulness in my writing, and not just imitate his neurotic tendencies.
February 19th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
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