Nonfiction work

By: William James

Date: 1907

Source: James, William. Pragmatism. New York: Longmans, Green, 1907. Reprinted in James, William. Pragmatism and Four Essays from The Meaning of Truth. New York: World, 1955, 79–80.

About the Author: William James (1842–1910) was born in New York City and received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1869. A polymath interested in science, philosophy, psychology, and religion, he taught philosophy and psychology at Harvard University and was a founder of Pragmatism, a philosophical movement that influenced intellectuals at the turn of the century.

Introduction

During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries natural history (what we now call biology) and theology were closely intertwined. Their relationship rested on the Design Argument: the premise that organisms are too intricate in their...