mh23. James's pragmatism eschewed hard-core determinism. But another major force opposed to the machine paradigm, the idealism of Hegel and Bradley, James rejected in favor of the element of randomness as an alternative something that breaks up the ironclad hand of fate.
Something "call it fate, chance, freedom, spontaneity, the devil, what you will" [1] was opposed by most philosophers, James said. Yet chance suited his conception of a pluralistic cosmos.
Curiously, James's ideas were partly confirmed by the successes of quantum physics in which it turned out that, contrary to Einstein, "God" indeed does play dice.
1. The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James (Longmans Green 1897).
Something "call it fate, chance, freedom, spontaneity, the devil, what you will" [1] was opposed by most philosophers, James said. Yet chance suited his conception of a pluralistic cosmos.
Curiously, James's ideas were partly confirmed by the successes of quantum physics in which it turned out that, contrary to Einstein, "God" indeed does play dice.
1. The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James (Longmans Green 1897).
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