Abstract
In “Does Consciousness exist?”, a brief article initially published independently in 1904, and then later reprinted as the first of the Essays in Radical Empiricism, James comes to the startling conclusion that consciousness does not exist. Many of his critics have interpreted this statement as a proof of the fact that James’s psychology may best be described as a form of behaviorism which ultimately reduces all conscious activity to cerebral disturbances. Indeed, this view seems to be reinforced by James’s contention in The Principles of Psychology that “… our entire feeling of spiritual activity, or what commonly passes by that name, is really a feeling of bodily activities whose exact nature is by most men overlooked.” 1
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1974 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stevens, R. (1974). The Structure of the Self: A Theory of Personal Identity. In: James and Husserl: The Foundations of Meaning. Phaenomenologica, vol 60. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2058-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2058-9_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-2060-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-2058-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive