On a Certain Blindness in William James
E hundredth anniversary of the birth of William James has doubtI less occasioned a considerable rereading of his writings. Some of us have been stimulated by the centenary to study his output as a whole in the perspective of the century of which he was so characteristic an American expression and to the cultural enrichment of which he made so notable a contribution. For myself, this has been a rewarding experience. I did not need to be introduced to the subtle and chivalrous quality of his mind, to the revolutionary character of his philosophic exploit, or to the honesty and solidity of his scholarship; and I had long admired his valiant battle for an interpretation of life satisfying to both intellectual and aspirational needs. Yet it seemed good to be reconvinced that L. P. Jacks was quite right when, over thirty years ago, he called James "a thinker of the first rank .... with a clear vision ahead of him, a rich and varied philosophical experience behind him, and with a great human purpose in his heart."2 Nevertheless, the rereading was in my case haunted by a vague sense of something lacking; by a feeling-for it was no more than a feeling at first 'that something important was being overlooked in James's unusually successful attempt to envisage ongoing life in its concrete fulness. Gradually it became clear what