I'm Christopher Leiden, this is open source American conversation with global attitude we call it

This time it's all about William James, thinker and writer known widely in the 19th century as the

adorable genius who invented American pragmatism. He was a brain scientist, a student of war

and religion, a philosopher who can feel like a very lively presence in the shadows of our condition

whatever we call it in the 2020s. Philosopher John Cag is our guest to enlist William James

in a sort of quest for insight and healing in a divided nation today. John Cag, I've read three

books that you've written in the last 10 years about William James including sick souls, healthy

minds how William James can save your life from Princeton University press. You bring up a live

John Cag and I'm wondering how did he come into your life? Chris first thanks for having me it's

always a pleasure. William James, so when I think about William James I think about him as this sort

of adorable genius but also a very intelligent and very compassionate uncle and I think about him

that way because I was 16 when I started reading his essays and reading the principles of psychology

directed by professor by the name of Doug Anderson he came up to me and said,

Cag you seem a little disturbed maybe you want to go read some William James and I was a sort of

disturbed teenager I had what William James diagnosed as a sort of sick soul and I gravitated

toward James because he spoke to these existential issues that I was thinking about whether life is

worth living what makes life meaningful the real flesh and blood of philosophy in ways that a lot

of other philosophers particularly from the 18th century or 17th century had not and James

is the founder of American pragmatism but also the founder of empirical psychology in the United

States and when these two fields psychology and philosophy teamed up they seem fairly compelling to

me as a young man working my way through college but as I really read through James I came to understand

that he unlike any other philosopher that I'd ever come across spoke to my particular time

...