Book Reviews

One year's painting produced work that was far from amateurish, but once William was convinced that he was no genius in oils he switched to science at Harvard preparatory to medical school. There was a blessed A STROLL WITH WILLIAM JAMES 759 interlude in his medical training when he hiked off to the Brazilian jungle to study the fauna of the Am azon with the naturalist Louis Agassiz. Barzun treats all this back ground in hop-skip-jump fashion, and is then on to a most intensive study of James's pioneer work in psychol ogy. Reading everything that fol lows is a dense but fascinating and rewarding experience. What Barzun has done is to provide us with a trea tise on the origins of the modern mind, using James's books as the guiding line to an understanding of every last current of thought that has taken us out of the Victorian world into the permissive present. Pragmatic Pluralism Barzun doesn't admire many manifestations of the world that has been built on the shifting sands of pragmatic choice, but he blames our shortcomings-the collapse of our educational system, for example-on misguided disciples whose theories definitely do not stand up to any in telligent definition of what "works."

As a psychologist James had first called attention to the stream of consciousness. He had, in his work on "radical empiricism," disposed of the "heart-and-mind dichotomy." The ancient quarrel of the nominalists and the realists had no meaning for him; in his world both the chair and the idea of the chair were equally parts of nature. In religion he was personally inclined to a vague form of Deism, but he cherished both the right and the will to believe. Though he was no Freudian, he explored the subconscious mind, hoping for dis closures that would tell him more about religion, genius and psycho pathology. He was a pluralist for quite practical reasons in a world that had witnessed entirely too many atrocities stemming from monists who thought they had unique access to the truth. Jamesian pluralism is well adapted to democracy, which pre supposes that no right balance can be struck between diversity and unifying authority by rule. As for pragmatism, he did not intend it as a philosophy in itself. He thought of "pragma" as providing an attitude that would test philosophies by their consequences. But consequences must have values to be useful to hu man beings, so we are led in a circle back to ideas of worth. What is im mediately practical may have dan gerous longterm consequences, and the "pragmatic" politician who con fuses opportunism with statecraft is no real Jamesian.

The Educational Debacle As an educator Barzun is particu larly concerned with what has hap pened to our schools as a result of what he regards as a perversion of pragmatic or instrumentalist ideas. As a teacher James thought it was 760 THE FREEMAN the pedagogue's job to "make the pu pil ashamed of being scared at frac tions." But the whole business of bringing "the softer pedagogies" into the classroom took a stupid tum with the disciples of John Dewey. "Dew ey's effect on schooling," says Bar zun, "was to dethrone subject matter and replace it by techniques, the main one being aimed at teaching 'problem-solving' regardless of sub ject." On the surface this may ap pear to be a Jamesian idea. But the "adaptation to 'life' is not to be en gineered in the classroom ... con trived situations fool only the teach ers and undermine their authority by silly make-believe." Barzun doesn't even blame John Dewey for our educational debacle.

Dewey's ideas, he says, "were ex ploited by ignorant and irresponsi ble people-veritable Smerdi akovs-and impressed upon children, parents, and teachers alike. Any thing less 'pragmatic' than the inef fectiveness of public schooling would be hard to imagine." The permis sive, "relaxed," "at-your-own-pace" needs of instruction have paradoxi cally resulted in a notably tense at mosphere. "James," says Barzun, "had no reason to imagine that schools would turn into places where death by violence, the drug habit, rape, and teenage pregnancy would count as educational problems." It is often said that William James was the "psychologist who wrote like a novelist," whereas his brother Henry was the "novelist who wrote like a psychologist." Whatever may be the truth of this cliche of criti cism, it is certainly true that Wil liam James's prose is utterly unlike that of the usual professional in any of the social sciences. Barzun re marks on James's "sinewy, lucid, vernacular prose, full of its own va rieties to match the varying subjects ... " Many of James's best effects have passed into the common speech.

We all know of the distinction be tween "tough-minded" and "tender minded" people, but how many would be aware that the phrases were first used by James? "The moral equivalent of war," a Jamesian elaboration, has been used by more than one politician, the most recent being Jimmy Carter, whotriv ialized it by applying it to lowering the thermostats in a time of oil shortage. James spoke of the stream of consciousness before novelists built literary careers out of it. It was Pierre Janet who coined the word subcon scious, but it was James who pro vided the inspiration for it. J ames loved concreteness. If our pedagogues had followed him stylis tic ally , we would have been spared most of our "life adjustment" teach ers college rot. t!l Index THE FREEMAN-Volume 33, January-December 1983 Prepared by BETTINA BIEN GREAVES of the Foundation staff NOTE: In page references, the number preceding the colon designates the month, those following refer to pages.