William James

PD-US

Philosopher, psychologist, educator, and author William James ranked among the most influential figures of his time. James played a prominent role in the transition from a predominantly European-centered nineteenth century philosophy to a new pragmatic American philosophy. One of his chief contributions lay in his seminal 1907 work, Pragmatism, which featured a controversial chapter on "truth." In response to his critics- most of whom had misunderstood his thesis - James wrote The meaning of Truth, a synthesis of everything he had ever written on the theory of knowledge, including and article on the function of cognition, later polemic and expository contributions and some replies to previous criticism.