Word: pureed
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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James does not denigrate any of the three aspects--all are considered indispensable to human life. He would most likely endorse psychoanalysis as a method of "consciousness-expansion," but he would never construe the elimination of either principles or pure experience as the aim of such self-examination. Pure experience without principles is blind. Principles without pure experience are empty. Reason of course, should mediate between the two, modifying each...
...philosophy as "existence precedes essence." Though this is a crude rendition, it has come to be the popular slogan for the movement. James would surely agree with Sartre's slogan, but a glance at the triadic table indicates that he goes beyond existentialism. Existence precedes essence, indeed, yet being (pure experience) precedes existence...
James's notion of pure experience and its priority bears an important relationship to many other movements and systems besides existentialism. The elimination of the self-other split suggests various Oriental philosophies. In conjunction with James's discussion of mystical states, in fact, radical empiricism provides a good model for describing satori, the goal of Zen Buddhists. Partakers of mescaline, psilocybin, and other psychedelic drugs would do well to consult James. His trinitarian scheme reserves a prime position for pre-rational, "transcendental" experiences, yet he refrains from casting away either principles or reason...
...mystical moods. . .? The notion is thoroughly characteristic of the mystical level, and the Aufgabe of making it articulate was surely set to Hegel's intellect by mystical feeling." The bizarre consequences of the Hegelian system when applied to brute Anglo-American "facts" tend to vanish in the realm of pure sensation. Hegel really "makes sense" in this pre-rational area; his work appears expressly designed for dealing with pure experience...
...society where not knowing what to do or believe seems a much graver problem than not knowing how to do it, the triadic model has further importance. For James the test of a belief is its consequences for action and the test of an action, its consequences for pure experience. He starts with pure, experienced values and proceeds from there...