(Successor site to CoPhilosophy, 2011-2020) A collaborative search for wisdom, at Middle Tennessee State University and beyond... "The pluralistic form takes for me a stronger hold on reality than any other philosophy I know of, being essentially a social philosophy, a philosophy of 'co'"-William James
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
Sick Souls, Healthy minds by John Kaag
I AM HAVING TECH ISSUES WITH COMPUTER SO I CAN ONLY SEND THE LINKS TO IMAGES. MY APOLOGIES.
below is the link to a picture of William James
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/books/review/sick-souls-healthy-minds-william-james-john-kaag.html
“Take the happiest man, the one most envied by the world, and in nine cases out of ten his inmost consciousness is one of failure.
—William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902 (Kaag)
William James wrestled a lot with his mental health and struggled to find some sort of meaning that could help him go on. William’s discontentment with life was not for lack of success. He even got a medical degree in New England but this did not fulfill him. He had trouble finding where he belonged, he didn’t exactly fit in any boxes society had for him. He was “part poet, part biologist, part artist, part mystic. He was pulled in too many directions, like a man on the rack, and therefore, for a time, couldn’t move, forward or otherwise.” The more unique a man is, often the more lonely he can become. I relate to this as well for I am a very unique individual and it can often feel deeply lonely.
below is a link to a youtube summmary of Williams James
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XH0qf2crD9Y
William James struggled between the argument of free will and predestination He wondered if he had any say in his own destiny at all or if his destiny was laid out for him and there was nothing he could do to change it. Free will and predestination is something that has been argued years and years. I personally believe it is a mix of the two in a mystery only God understands.
below is a link where someone talks about what the Bible says about free will and pre destination.
https://www.gotquestions.org/predestination-vs-free-will.html
The book states, “Meaninglessness was the problem, James’s problem, and it drove him to the edge of suicide. In the late 1860s, he used a red crayon to sketch a portrait in a notebook: a young man sitting alone, shoulders hunched, head down. Over the figure James wrote, ‘HERE I AND SORROW SIT.’ But if you look closely, very closely, you will see a faint line that makes all the difference. Read it again: the ‘N’ might actually be an ‘M.’ It says, “HERE I AM.” This was a self-portrait. (Kaag)
Loneliness and meaninglessness are a bad combination for mental health. Nihilism is a dangerous road to tread on. I know if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ i would not be alive today.
James is often remembered as someone who battled their mental health issues without the help of doctors. He looked for his medication in philosophy where he committed himself to searching for reasons to embrace life and and embrace it the fullest.
below is a link to an article about William James and the problem of evil
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3143883/
I myself take medication and it helps me I think, I’m still not too sure how I feel about it but I’m thankful for a family that supports me financially and medically.
James’s cynical perspective is for the people that are on the brink of eternity and can’t seem to find a rhyme or reason in this life. The author himself mentions that when he was thirty he was divorced while also having to watch his father who was an alcoholic die.
The author claims that Williams philosophy saved his life and not to coware back from experiencing life but to embrace it. The author explains how this philosophy might not work for every person and that it doesn’t work for him 100% of the time. But that it has at least helped him enough for him to write about.
below is a youtube link about the philosophy of William James
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7pc_eQ99kTI
The book writes “James wrote for our age: one that eschews tradition and superstition but desperately craves existential meaning; one that is defined by affluence but also depression and acute anxiety; one that valorizes icons who ultimately decide that the life is one that really ought to be cut prematurely. To such a culture, James gently, persistently urges, “Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”
To me without faith in God there is no meaning to this life. God is the only true meaning. I believe when I suffer God uses for my good even when it is hard and I can grow out of it into a more mature Christian and person in general.
In the prologoue it is mentioned that the author is taking a ride on his bike and passes by William James Hall. But he noticed that there was yellow police tape surrounding the building. The author goes on to talk about how large the structure is and that it was even built by the designer of the World Trade Center. He explains that the fifteenth floor of the building is 170 feet from the ground. He says this because in February 6th, 2014 a former student of Harvard named Steven Rose committed suicide by jumping off the building. He was 29 years old. The book also mentions that, “more than forty thousand people” (Kaag) had also killed themselves that year.
The author was so impacted by the dark event that he decided to write a book discussing lifes value and the pursuit of meaning. This book is known as “Sick Souls, Healthy Minds”
below is a youtube link of a book review of sick souls and healthy minds
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hk0iMi6KJjw&pp=ygUcc2ljayBzb3VscyBhbmQgaGVhbHRoeSBtaW5kcw%3D%3D
below is the link to the image of "Williams James Hall"
https://chsi.harvard.edu/william-james-hall
below is a link of britannicas encyclopedia of William James
https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-James
I believe it suffering that leads people to seek out truth. For when life is easy and happy no one seems to really care what is true or not true as much. It seems that when life is most difficult is when we as humans start asking the most questions. So even when life is hard, since suffering is inevitable, I say choose to embrace it and use it for growth. I myself tend to have cowardice tendencies for when life gets hard like really hard…deep down I just wanna runaway but I choose to trust God and trust that He has a plan even when it is difficult and I believe that I will come out whatever hard season I am dealing with a better and stronger person because of it. So keep on hoping, keep on believing, keep on fighting, keep on persevering, keep on dreaming, and choose to finish the fight and run your race that has been set out before you. I choose to believe and trust that He will give me the strength to run my race, that is what I believe.
(104) Harvard Campus: William James Hall - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDa3CHNeu9Q&ab_channel=FolkloreApp
Kaag, John. (2020). Sick Souls, Healthy Minds. Princeton and Oxford. Princeton University Press.
Folklore App. “Harvard Campus: William James Hall. Youtube uploaded by Folklore App, 5 May 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDa3CHNeu9Q&ab_channel=FolkloreApp
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I apologize for the format it was organized on my phone but when I uploaded it to the computer it became compact like this I am not sure how to fix it.
ReplyDeleteBut here's the best I got for right now !
Thank you !
-Joseph
I should have 2 links to websites with images and then 6 other informative links. Like I said it was more organized on my mobile device but when it uploaded it came out this way.
ReplyDelete-Joseph
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